MinisForum MS-01 - Owners Thread

[LostCorpse]

cost and upgradability.
2x8gb mean you cant upgrade to 2x 16gbs with out spending the extra money and replaceing both modules of the 8gb.

 

[TechMinerUK]

cost and upgradability.
2x8gb mean you cant upgrade to 2x 16gbs with out spending the extra money and replaceing both modules of the 8gb.

This, the performance decrease of not running in dual channel is outweighed by the ability to upgrade further down the line

 

[skyeci100]

Ok so I think if I get 1 x16gb for now as that's available then can always add another 16gb of the same type later on if needed. How much perfotm is lost do you think running one module rather than 2 . Thanks

 

[TechMinerUK]

Ok so I think if I get 1 x16gb for now as that's available then can always add another 16gb of the same type later on if needed. How much perfotm is lost do you think running one module rather than 2 . Thanks

Not enough performance to worry about, the only difference is that you will be running in single rank rather than dual rank.

I'll be honest, I'm not massively aware of the full technical implications but in benchmarks dual rank often has better performance however as someone who has used dual and single rank DDR5 setups the difference certainly wasn't noticeable by me

 

[skyeci100]

Not enough performance to worry about, the only difference is that you will be running in single rank rather than dual rank.

I'll be honest, I'm not massively aware of the full technical implications but in benchmarks dual rank often has better performance however as someone who has used dual and single rank DDR5 setups the difference certainly wasn't noticeable by me

Out of interest did you get hit with import tax etc? Just had a bill of fedex

 

[TechMinerUK]

Out of interest did you get hit with import tax etc? Just had a bill of fedex

I didn't I ordered the two mentioned in the post and another that has arrived this week, neither needed import tax paying.

Have you ordered them under a corporate account?

 

[skyeci100]

I didn't I ordered the two mentioned in the post and another that has arrived this week, neither needed import tax paying.

Have you ordered them under a corporate account?

Trust my luck. Nope. Direct from the miniforum UK site. £101 bill

 

[TechMinerUK]

Trust my luck. Nope. Direct from the miniforum UK site. £101 bill

Good grief!!

I'd be getting in touch with their support team as that is insane, also it goes against their shipping policy which advises shipping tax, customs duty and VAT are all included in their price.

If you've been charged it sounds like FedEx or Minisforum have messed up the paper work, either way I wouldn't pay it until they sort it

 

[skyeci100]

I paid it to release it. Emailed miniforum a copy of the invoice but on holiday till 14th.. nightmare

 

[skyeci100]

Good grief!!

I'd be getting in touch with their support team as that is insane, also it goes against their shipping policy which advises shipping tax, customs duty and VAT are all included in their price.

If you've been charged it sounds like FedEx or Minisforum have messed up the paper work, either way I wouldn't pay it until they sort it

I finally made contact with miniforum, they have agreed to refund the customs cost. My unit arrived today so starting to have a look round. It really is tiny... one question if you don't mind. There are 2 small black elastic bands separately packed.. any idea what these are for?


Thanks

 

[TechMinerUK]

I finally made contact with miniforum, they have agreed to refund the customs cost. My unit arrived today so starting to have a look round. It really is tiny... one question if you don't mind. There are 2 small black elastic bands separately packed.. any idea what these are for?


Thanks

Glad to hear that the customs issue has been sorted!

I will be honest, mine had the black bands as well and I do not know what they are for, potentially cable management however there isn't anywhere logical they would end up inside the unit so I wouldn't worry too much about them

 

[skyeci100]

Glad to hear that the customs issue has been sorted!

I will be honest, mine had the black bands as well and I do not know what they are for, potentially cable management however there isn't anywhere logical they would end up inside the unit so I wouldn't worry too much about them

So sorry just one final question for now.... is it OK to use the heatsink and the nvme fan unit or is it a case of one or the other ?

 

[TechMinerUK]

So sorry just one final question for now.... is it OK to use the heatsink and the nvme fan unit or is it a case of one or the other ?

No worries and generally I have just used the NVME fan unit without the heatsink as the drives I'm using don't really need a heatsink but it should fit from what I have seen so far

 

[skyeci100]

No worries and generally I have just used the NVME fan unit without the heatsink as the drives I'm using don't really need a heatsink but it should fit from what I have seen so far

Seems to be going well. Have one nvme with my ubuntu build and another with my pfsense build. Core temps between 27 at the lowest and the highest seen is 34. Hopefully that's all OK? My 10gtek sfp to rj45 adapters worked 1st time which is great.

 

[TechMinerUK]

Seems to be going well. Have one nvme with my ubuntu build and another with my pfsense build. Core temps between 27 at the lowest and the highest seen is 34. Hopefully that's all OK? My 10gtek sfp to rj45 adapters worked 1st time which is great.

Those temps are great!

I'd keep an eye on the SFP to RJ45 adapters however as they get quite hot and can pull a decent chunk of power from the unit. I've put a 120 fan in front of my units due to adding in an additional X710-DA2 cards so I'd deffo recommend some auxiliary cooling if you are running 10G copper

 

[skyeci100]

Cheers. I'll keep an eye on it. I'm only using one sfp to rj45 at the mo. It's fairly warm but I can still grasp it without burning my fingers lol... when you say you have added a fan in front of your units a picture would be helpful to understand how that looks ..

 

[TechMinerUK]

Cheers. I'll keep an eye on it. I'm only using one sfp to rj45 at the mo. It's fairly warm but I can still grasp it without burning my fingers lol... when you say you have added a fan in front of your units a picture would be helpful to understand how that looks ..

I'll grab a picture later today but it's not super elegant, I just stacked my MS-01s on top of eachother and plonked a fan infront of them with a USB adapter to power it. It's simple but it works

 

[TechMinerUK]

I'll grab a picture later today but it's not super elegant, I just stacked my MS-01s on top of eachother and plonked a fan infront of them with a USB adapter to power it. It's simple but it works

Well, better late than never but here is the "It ain't pretty but it works" approach to cooling my MS-01 cluster

With this fashioned setup, each NUC having both SFP ports populated and an additional X710-DA2 installed with both SFPs populated and running 12 VMs it doesn't go above 55c

I don't think it's "required" as it wasn't getting dangerously hot or unpleasent to touch but it makes me feel better that there is some passive air-flow over the PCI-e cards

(Ignore the dust on the fan filter, I vaccuum it once a week and it seems to pull in every molecule that has passed through the room )

 

[skyeci100]

Looking good. Thanks for the pic. I notice my sfp to rj45 module is now super hot.... I'm contemplating fitting a fan to the top cover (modding that too) and trying a pci dual 10gb rj45 card instead as my isp hand over is 10gb rj45 and my lan is 10gb rj45. The card has a large heatsink but I assume I would want the fan to extract away from the card?

Still no duty refund yet after the comms advising it would be refunded....

 

[TechMinerUK]

Looking good. Thanks for the pic. I notice my sfp to rj45 module is now super hot.... I'm contemplating fitting a fan to the top cover (modding that too) and trying a pci dual 10gb rj45 card instead as my isp hand over is 10gb rj45 and my lan is 10gb rj45. The card has a large heatsink but I assume I would want the fan to extract away from the card?

Still no duty refund yet after the comms advising it would be refunded....

You can either go down the route of having the fan blow onto the card or having it pull away, either should work but I prefer it blowing directly onto the card

The RJ45 10G card will likely get as hot but as you mentioned, with a fan the heatsink should dispell the heat significantly better. Its one of the drawbacks of 10G copper is it does get frustratingly hot.

Another option could be going down the fibre route and getting a media converter to sit between the MS-01 and the ISP modem, that's what I'll be doing when we get our 1G+ ISP installed (and when I get a new router)