Fitting genuine gaming muscle into a tiny desktop usually means dealing with noisy external enclosures or settling for integrated graphics. The Minisforum MS-02 Ultra takes a different route, giving buyers an internal PCIe 5.0 x16 slot inside a 4.8-litre enclosure.
Hardware YouTuber ETA Prime tested the setup by installing a low-profile AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB graphics card directly into the chassis, as reported by Notebookcheck. The combination transformed the enterprise-styled workstation into a capable machine for compact mini PC gaming, running modern releases at 1440p without choking on heat.
Frame Rates at 1440p
The configuration paired the low-profile Radeon card with an Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX processor. In native rendering runs without upscaling, the setup managed more than 80 frames per second in Forza Horizon 6 at 1440p on Extreme settings. It recorded an identical 80-plus fps mark in Doom: The Dark Ages at 1440p using the Ultra graphics preset.
More demanding games leaned on AMD's upscaling tech to stay responsive. Crimson Desert averaged over 60 fps at 1440p on Ultra settings when paired with FSR 4.1 in Quality mode. In Cyberpunk 2077, enabling FSR Frame Generation pushed the 1440p Ultra run past 130 fps.
Thermal performance held up despite the crammed internal quarters. During ETA Prime's testing, the graphics card reached a peak temperature of 69 degrees Celsius and averaged roughly 61 degrees. The Core Ultra 9 processor peaked at 78 degrees, settling at an average of 63 degrees under load.
Configurations and Pricing
Minisforum sells the MS-02 Ultra as a barebones system, meaning buyers must supply their own DDR5 RAM, storage drives, and operating system.
In the US, the entry-level barebones model with an Intel Core Ultra 5 235HX costs $599. The higher-tier variant tested by ETA Prime, packing the Core Ultra 9 285HX, sells for $1,159. Those figures do not cover the cost of the discrete graphics card, memory modules, or solid-state storage.
For builders looking at a clean mini PC build that skips external power bricks for graphic docks, the chassis offers an uncommon balance between desktop PCIe flexibility and small-footprint computing.
CDFiled by The Computing Desk
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