Alongside their S5 NAS, Minisforum’s other major Core Ultra Series 3 showing at this year’s Computex trade show was their MS-03 small form factor PC. The successor to their popular MS-01, the MS-03 sees Minisforum building off of the success of the MS-01 by keeping the overall form factor but modernizing it with Intel’s latest SoCs.
The forthcoming release of the MS-03 comes as the original MS-01 is getting a bit long in the tooth, being based on Intel’s 13th Gen Core (Raptor Lake) platform. The company essentially took a gap year by opting not to release a direct successor to it based on Intel’s Core Ultra Series 2 (Arrow Lake) platform – instead releasing the much larger and more capable MS-02 Ultra – so the MS-01 is more than due for an upgrade to incorporate multiple generations of new technologies.
Minisforum MS-03
As with the S5 NAS, the MS-03 was making its first international appearance at Computex after first being introduced at a local Chinese event earlier in the year. As well, Minisforum is now providing more technical information about the mini-PC, including detailed I/O and PCIe specs.
At its heart, the MS-03 is based around Intel’s Core Ultra Series 3 (Panther Lake) H-series mobile processors. The laptop processors make for great chips for use in mini-PCs, thanks to their low power consumption as well as their highly integrated feature sets that include everything up to a Wi-Fi 7 MAC and Thunderbolt 4 connectivity. Though it is notable here that Minisforum opted against using the X7/X9 SKUs – which feature Intel’s most powerful iGPU configuration – as those parts offer fewer PCIe lanes than the regular H-series chips. Despite its small size, Minisforum is big on PCIe expandability with the MS-01, and they are again on the MS-03.
Externally, the design of the MS-03’s chassis is practically identical to the MS-01. Minisforum has not moved a port, a button, or a vent hole, it is all exactly as Minisforum originally designed the chassis in 2024. On the front side, this means the system sports a single 10Gbps USB-A port as well as two 480Mbps (USB 2) USB-A ports for basic peripherals.
On the rear of the system, we can see that the MS-01’s distinctive combination of Ethernet ports and PCIe expansion has returned. The company has once again opted to build four networking ports into the mini workstation, outfitting it with two 10GbE SFP+ ports and two 2.5GbE RJ45 jacks, which was the same networking configuration used on the MS-01. Meanwhile, the cutout for installing a low-profile PCIe card remains as well.
Altogether, there are four USB ports along the back of the system. Though not Thunderbolt-certified, the two USB-C ports are wired to the Thunderbolt 4 controllers on Panther Lake and provide full 40Gbps USB4 connectivity. Meanwhile, a pair of USB-A ports provides another set of 10Gbps connections. Between the two is a lone HDMI 2.1 port, which is hooked up to the Intel Graphics iGPU that is part of the Panther Lake SoC. As well, the system continues to be powered via an external 19V power brick, which attaches to the system via a DC barrel connector.
Unfortunately, the company did not have any MS-03s cracked open while we were touring their booth, so we did not get a chance to see inside the upcoming machine. But Minisforum has confirmed that they have made some rather substantial changes to the internals of the design since the MS-01 – and not only because of the switch to the Panther Lake platform.
Besides the new SoC’s far more powerful CPU and GPU cores, this also marks the first time that Minisforum has been able to offer an NPU in this specific form factor, and you can imagine the company is eager to pitch the AI capabilities that it brings. The upgrade also brings with it support for faster DDR5 memory (now up to DDR5-7200), and Panther Lake’s partner Wi-Fi adapter is the new BE211, which brings the MS-03 up to Wi-Fi 7 plus Bluetooth 6 capabilities.
The company has also reworked how they are allocating PCIe lanes within the system. Whereas the MS-01 could only offer PCIe Gen4 bandwidth to one of its M.2 slots, on the MS-03, all three slots get at least Gen4 speeds, with the two faster slots getting PCIe Gen5 x4 connections. The trade-off for this, however, is that Minisforum has taken away PCIe lanes from the PCIe x16 slot; whereas the MS-01 used a PCIe Gen4 x8 electrical connection, on the MS-03, this is a PCIe Gen5 x4 electrical connection. The net impact is that bandwidth for the PCIe slot is staying the same on a generational basis, affording more bandwidth for NVMe storage.
Finally, Minisforum is tuning the TDP of the design as well. While the MS-01 ran with a steady-state TDP of 60 Watts, the MS-03 will be set to 70 Watts. Which given the lack of significant changes to the chassis, it will be interesting to see what impact this has on thermals and noise.
Final Words
Following the popularity of the original MS-01 mini-PC, MS-A2 and the MS-02 Ultra, it is easy to see why Minisforum is so eager to keep the system design around while upgrading the internals. The first system made for a great small form factor PC for both desktop and homelab use, and Minisforum is preparing to deliver an update on it that allows it to do all of those things while offering a nearly half-decade improvement in the underlying processor architecture.
Still, the company’s adherence to the original MS-01 could prove a little too strict. Though we are probably too early for 25GbE for the SFP ports, the use of 2.5GbE for the RJ45 jacks is a surprise when proper 10GBASE-T 10GbE has come down so much in the last year. The limited high-speed USB connectivity on the front of the system also remains a rather unique design element in 2026, when most other systems at least offer multiple high-speed USB-A ports (if not a USB-C port) here.
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves here. Everyone will get the chance to check out the MS-03 for themselves when Minisforum begins shipping it later this month. At present, pricing has not been announced.
