Minisforum teases MS-S1 Max mini PC powered by AMD's Ryzen AI Max+ 395 APU with dual USB4 V2 connectors

We have seen quite a few designs featuring the top-of-the-line Strix Halo Ryzen AI Max+ 395 APU from AMD presented by mini PC makers in the past few months, and it looks like availability is still limited, as very few companies are actually selling such models right now. Minisforum is usually among the first to tease high-end models, but this time around, the company withheld most of the  Strix Halo model specs for a longer time. Nevertheless, this may have been worth the delay, since the MS-S1 Max model that has just been teased on the Chinese site appears to be superior to anything we have seen thus far, especially in terms of APU power and port selection.

As far as APU power goes, Minisforum is pushing the AMD AI Max+ 395 APU to its limits, allowing for a maximum of 160 W TDP, whereas the other mini PC makers like GMKtec configure the TDP limits to 120 W or at most 140 W. The additional wattage could help boost the performance of the NPU and the Radeon 8060S iGPU. To keep everything working properly, Minisforum is including a dual-fan cooling solution with 6 heat pipes.

Advertised as a mini AI workstation, the MS-S1 Max is also equipped with a PCIe X16 slot that allows users to connect a faster dedicated GPU if needed. Moreover, the port selection includes two USB4 V2 connectors that are supposed to be as fast as the new Thunderbolt 5 standard. Now, data transfers might still be limited to 64 Gbps because bandwidth goes through a PCIe 4.0 X4 connection, but display signals for DP 2.1 resolutions could still take advantage of the full 80 Gbps bandwidth.

According to Videocardz, the wired networking side integrates 2x 10 GbE NICs and, besides the 2x USB4 V2 connectors, the port selection on the front panel comes with the headphone jack and a USB 2.0 connector.

Maximum amount of RAM is not specified, yet Minisforum should offer 64 GB, 96 GB and 128 GB soldered options. It remains to be seen what LPDDR5X speeds will be featured. Full specs are expected to drop in a few days, and this could reveal Wi-Fi 7 wireless connectivity, as well. Price for the 128 GB RAM version may exceed $3,000.