Minisforum’s M2 Pro Packs Three SSDs and 10GbE Into a 1.81-Liter PC

The M2 Pro is the rare mini PC that makes me think about storage and networking before processor speed. Minisforum has fitted three M.2 SSD slots, 10-gigabit Ethernet, 2.5-gigabit Ethernet, and three 40Gbps USB4 ports into a 1.81-liter chassis. That is a useful mix for a developer desk, a compact editing station, or a home lab where a normal tower is simply taking up too much room.

It is not cheap, and it is not fully upgradeable. Still, this is more interesting than another tiny office box with one drive bay and a pile of dongles hanging off the back.

Three internal drives change the job this PC can do

Most mini PCs give you one or two M.2 sockets. The M2 Pro has three M.2 2280 slots. Two run over PCIe 4.0 x4, while the third uses PCIe 4.0 x1. Minisforum rates total NVMe capacity at up to 24TB.

I would not treat those slots as identical. The x1 connection is much slower than x4, so I would put the operating system and active project files on the two faster drives. The third slot makes more sense for an archive, media library, backups, or a scratch volume that does not need maximum sequential speed.

A practical layout could be a 2TB Windows drive, a 4TB project drive, and an 8TB local archive. That gives a video editor or photographer plenty of internal space without turning the desk into a cable nest. Notebookcheck’s test unit shipped with a 1TB YMTC SSD, and the system includes active SSD cooling plus passive heatsinks for the empty slots.

The network ports are workstation-grade

The back panel includes both 10GbE and 2.5GbE. That matters if the PC will sit beside a fast NAS. A 10GbE link has a theoretical ceiling of 1.25GB/s before protocol overhead, so it can move large video files or virtual-machine images far faster than ordinary gigabit Ethernet.

Three USB4 ports add another route for fast storage, docks, displays, or an external GPU enclosure. Each supports up to 40Gbps, and the display setup can drive as many as four screens through HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 1.4, and USB4. Wi-Fi 7 is included for desks that cannot reach wired networking.

There are compromises on the edges. Notebookcheck counted only three USB-A ports, and its full-size SD reader managed roughly 23MB/s in sequential testing. That card reader is fine for documents. I would use a separate USB reader for regular photo or video ingest.

Panther Lake supplies the CPU and graphics

Inside is Intel’s Core Ultra X7 358H, a 16-core, 16-thread Panther Lake chip that can boost to 4.8GHz. The default power profile allows a 65-watt short burst before settling at 45 watts under a sustained load. Graphics come from an integrated Arc B390 with 12 Xe3 cores.

That combination should be comfortable with office work, software builds, 4K media, and lighter creative workloads. It can also handle games if expectations are sensible. This is still integrated graphics. Recent demanding titles will often need 1080p, reduced detail settings, and upscaling. Anyone buying primarily for high-refresh AAA gaming should price a larger system with a discrete GPU before committing.

The fixed memory is another important limit. The only listed configuration pairs 32GB of LPDDR5X-7467 with a 1TB SSD, and the RAM is soldered to the board. Thirty-two gigabytes is enough for a lot of work, but it cannot be expanded later. A developer running several heavy virtual machines, or an editor working with unusually large projects, needs to decide whether that ceiling will still be comfortable in three years.

The internal power supply is convenient, but access takes work

The case measures 195 by 195 by 47.5mm and weighs about 1.37kg. Minisforum also puts the power supply inside the chassis, so the machine uses a normal power cable instead of a bulky external brick. Built-in stereo speakers, dual microphones, a fingerprint reader, and an included VESA mount round out the design.

I like the cleaner cable setup, but packing the power supply above the storage has a maintenance cost. Reaching the SSD area requires removing the bottom cover and then the power-supply and speaker assembly. It is serviceable, just not the quick two-screw upgrade found on simpler mini PCs.

The cooling result is encouraging. Notebookcheck measured an average of 33dB(A) under load and a 34.4dB(A) maximum, while exterior temperatures stayed below 40 degrees Celsius during extended testing. The processor itself reached 86 degrees Celsius in a sustained Cinebench loop. That CPU temperature is warm, but the system held stable performance rather than repeatedly slowing down.

The price decides whether the compact design makes sense

The tested 32GB/1TB model was listed at $1,439 in the US, while Minisforum’s European store showed €1,519 at the time of writing. That is firmly workstation money. A conventional small-form-factor desktop can offer socketed memory, easier repairs, and a discrete GPU for a similar budget.

The M2 Pro earns its place when size, low noise, multi-drive storage, and fast networking all matter at once. I can see it working well behind a monitor in a small studio, on a home-lab shelf connected to a 10GbE switch, or as a compact build machine with separate system, project, and archive drives.

If I only needed web browsing and office apps, I would buy a much cheaper mini PC. If I needed maximum gaming performance, I would build a desktop. The M2 Pro sits between those jobs, and its unusually dense storage and I/O are the reason to consider it.

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