Minisforum MS-A2 Mini PC Packs A Ryzen 9 9955HX And Dual 10GbE LAN For $799
Minisforum is having a sale on its MS-A2, a tiny system with some big hardware options, not the least of which AMD's Ryzen 9 9955HX Fire Range processor that was part of an onslaught of chip releases at last year's CES event. It also wields some impressive wired connectivity options for ultra-high-speed data transfers.
Starting with the Fire Range chip, the Ryzen 9 9955HX is based on AMD's latest-generation Zen 5 architecture with a 16-core/32-thread design. It has a 2.5GHz base clock, up to a 5.4GHz boost clock, 16MB of L2 cache and 64MB of L3 cache (for 80MB of total cache), and onboard Radeon 610M graphics with two cores clocked at up to 2.2GHz. It lacks an onboard NPU and doesn't have any 3D V-Cache like the Ryzen 9 9955HX3D, but is otherwise a stout slice of modern silicon.
For RAM and storage, the MS-A2 features dual SO-DIMM slots supporting up to 96GB of DDR5-5600 memory and three M.2 PCIe 4.0 slots, as well as U.2 NVMe/M.2 22110 support to handle up to 15TB of enterprise SSD storage per drive (and 23TB total) with RAID 0 and RAID 1 options.
Also notable is a built-in PCIe x16 slot to install a discrete graphics card, though given the size of the system and max 70W power draw, your options here are limited. It should also be mentioned that even though it's a x16 slot, it's limited to PCIe 4.0 x8. That said, it can be split into two PCIe 4.0 x4 for graphics cards or network cards.
Minisforum pitches the MS-A2 as a mini workstation rather than strictly a mini PC. Part of that is likely predicated on the connectivity options, and specially as it relates to LAN options. It features dual 10Gbps SFP+ ports and dual 2.5Gbps RJ45 ports that can be aggregate for speedy data throughput. You also get Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 for wireless connectivity.
Other I/O options include a 3.5mm combo audio jack, two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports, and a USB 2.0 port on the front. Around back, you'll find the aforementioned LAN ports, plus two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C ports (supporting Alt DP2.0), two USB 3.2 Type-A ports (one is Gen 2 and one is Gen 1), and a single HDMI 2.1 output.
The Minisforum MS-A2 is not new, but it is on sale for $799.99 at Amazon in barebones form, which is $200 off the company's MSRP (Amazon has the regular price listed for lower). Note that you'll need to add your own RAM, storage, and operating system.
