Minisforum releases N5 NAS with unusual AMD Ryzen APU starting at under $550
Minisforum has now released the N5 globally, which it has launched alongside the more powerful N5 Pro. As their names suggest, the N5 features a less powerful APU than its Pro counterpart. Currently, the N5 can only be configured with what Minisforum describes as the AMD Ryzen 7 255.
Also offered inside the Minisforum AI X1 (curr. $377.90 on Amazon), the Ryzen 7 255 does not return any results on AMD's global website. Instead, AMD lists it on its Chinese website as the Ryzen 7 H 255 with 8 Zen 4 CPU cores that run between 3.8 GHz and 4.9 GHz. Falling with the Ryzen 200 and Hawk Point series, the Ryzen 7 255 has a 45 W default Thermal Design Power (TDP) that can be configured by manufacturers between 35 W and 54 W.
Seemingly, the Ryzen 7 255 misses out on the 16 TOPS NPU that AMD includes with the Ryzen 7 260. In that sense, it looks like the Ryzen 7 255 is a rebadged Ryzen 7 8745HS, itself a lower wattage version of the Ryzen 7 8745H that AMD only offers in China. As a result, the Ryzen 7 255 will likely perform significantly worse in AI tasks. Likewise, 100 MHz downclocks will likely yield slight performance drops in CPU and GPU tasks compared to the Ryzen 7 260.
Elsewhere, the Minisforum N5 features the same core components as the company's more powerful N5 Pro variant. For instance, the N5 offers dual DDR5 SO-DIMM slots for up to 96 GB of 5,600 MT/s RAM. An important distinction to note is that the N5 does not support ECC RAM like its Pro counterpart.
Other I/O appears unchanged though, such as 5 Gbps and 10 Gbps LAN connections, a PCIe x16 (PCIe 4.0 x4) slot and OCuLink connectivity. Moreover, the N5 can run Linux, MinisCloud OS or Windows 11 Pro. Currently, the Minisforum N5 starts at $553 when applying the coupon code NAS30 at checkout without any RAM but with 64 GB of storage . Alternatively, Minisforum offers a variant with 16 GB of pre-installed RAM for a $48 surcharge. Please see Minisforum's website for more details.
