Minisforum has introduced two new mini PCs, the M2 Pro and the MS-03, both powered by Intel's Panther Lake architecture.
The company focused on practical upgrades like built-in power supplies and faster networking, aiming to make these compact systems a strong alternative to traditional desktop towers.
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Minisforum M2 Pro: Mainstream Powerhouse
The M2 Pro features a metal chassis with an internal power supply, eliminating the need for an external adapter.
It runs on an Intel Panther Lake-H processor with integrated Xe3 graphics, offering a 50% graphics performance boost over the previous generation.
An OCuLink port allows connection to an external GPU for additional graphical power.
For AI tasks, the M2 Pro combines CPU, NPU5, and GPU to deliver up to 180 TOPS of total compute.
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This enables local AI model execution, such as DeepSeek-R1, without relying on cloud servers. A physical Copilot button and built-in microphone array support voice commands.
The system supports up to 128GB of LPDDR5X RAM and three M. 2 PCIe 4.0 slots.
Connectivity includes three USB-A ports, three USB4 ports, a 10G and a 2.5G LAN jack, one HDMI, one DisplayPort, an SD card slot, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a security cable slot.
The chassis can be VESA-mounted behind a monitor.
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Minisforum MS-03: Workstation-Class Performance
Scheduled for late June, the MS-03 succeeds the popular MS-01 with a 70W TDP and significant I/O upgrades.
It features dual PCIe 5.0 SSD slots, DDR5 RAM support up to 7200MHz, and WiFi 7.
Ports include one 10G LAN, one 2.5G LAN, two SFP+ ports, five USB-A ports, two USB-C ports, an HDMI 2.1 port with FRL, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.
One trade-off: the PCIe expansion slot has been reduced from x8 to x4 due to Panther Lake-H CPU lane limitations.
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While sufficient for most network or capture cards, users planning to install a low-profile graphics card may see reduced performance.
