Minisforum MS-02 Ultra surfaces ahead of formal debut with three PCIe expansion slots – NotebookCheck.net News
The Minisforum MS-02 Ultra will be fully showcased at Japan Autumn IT Week 2025. Ahead of the formal debut, the mini PC has surfaced on r/MiniPCs, and the core specs of the Intel Arrow Lake system have been revealed.
Minisforum is getting ready to launch a new Arrow Lake HX mini PC, the MS-02 Ultra. It will be fully showcased at Japan Autumn IT Week 2025, which is set to start from October 22, 2025. Ahead of the formal reveal, the Intel system has surfaced on r/MiniPCs, and all of its core specs have been revealed.
As the official-looking poster shared on the subreddit confirms, the system will feature the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX, a top-end CPU from the Arrow Lake HX series. It features a 24-core configuration and comes with the 4-core Intel Arc iGPU.
While that’s not a very capable iGPU, the good part is that the Minisforum MS-A2 Ultra features three PCIe expansion slots, which are as follows:
- 1x PCIe 4.0 x4
- 1x PCIe 4.0 x16
- 1x PCIe 5.0 x16
Among the three, users can install a discrete GPU in the PCIe 5.0 x16 or the PCIe 4.0 x16 slot, but it’s worth noting that the chassis may not allow installation of a beefy full-sized desktop GPU. Another thing that’s worth mentioning is that the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX has support for 24 PCIe lanes. That means the x16 slots may not be capable of offering the performance that they are rated for when all of them are populated.
Nonetheless, the CPU of the Minisforum MS-A2 Ultra can be equipped with up to 256 GB of DDR5 RAM through the four SODIMM slots. As for the storage, there are four M.2 slots that can hold up to 16 TB of PCIe 4.0 x4 SSDs in total (2 TB Samsung 990 Evo Plus curr. $139.99 on Amazon). Regarding the ports, the mini PC has the following:
- 2x 80 Gbps USB4 v2
- 3x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A
- 1x 40 Gbps USB4
- 1x HDMI 2.1
- 1x 3.5 mm audio
- 1x 2.5 Gigabit LAN
- 1x 25 Gigabit SFP+
- 1x 10 Gigabit Ethernet
Other highlights include a 350 W built-in PSU, an upgrade-friendly design, WiFi 7, and Bluetooth 5.4. Minisforum has yet to reveal the pricing and availability details of the MS-A2 Ultra SFF PC.
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Abid Ahsan Shanto – Senior Tech Writer – 2130 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2023
Abid’s journey as a technophile began when he first assembled his PC. Since then, his insatiable curiosity has driven him to delve into every aspect of this rapidly evolving technological landscape. And as a tech reporter, he prioritizes transparency, accuracy, and unbiasedness.
Abid Ahsan Shanto, 2025-10-19 (Update: 2025-10-19)
