This is a new series looking at the Minisforum MS-02 Ultra 285HX Mini Workstation running Linux. In this series, I’ll put this machine through its paces from a Linux perspective, comparing it with other systems, including desktops, to show how it really stacks up.
The Minisforum MS-02 Ultra is very different from a conventional mini PC. It’s a compact workstation and mini-server-class machine built around the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX processor. The model I’m testing offers far more expansion than a typical mini PC, including PCIe expansion, four M.2 NVMe slots, an internal 350 W power supply, 10GbE and 2.5GbE networking, and dual 25GbE.
For this article in the series, I’m looking at the power consumption of the Minisforum MS-02 Ultra 285HX.
I’ll compare it with seven mini PCs and two desktop machines: the Bosgame M7 Core Ultra 9 285H (“Core Ultra 9 285H”), Bosgame M4 Plus Ryzen 9 7940HS (“Ryzen 9 7940HS”), Minisforum UM890 Pro with Ryzen 9 8945HS (“Ryzen 9 8945HS”), Minisforum AI X1 Pro with AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 (“Ryzen AI 9 HX 370”), ASRock Industrial NUC BOX-255H with an Intel Core Ultra 7 255H processor (“Core Ultra 7 255H”), Intel NUC i7-1360P (“i7-1360P”), DreamQuest Intel N100 (“N100”), and desktop machines with i5-10400 and i5-12400F processors.
It’s worth stressing from the outset that the MS-02 Ultra 285HX isn’t trying to be the lowest-power machine in this group. It’s a compact workstation with far more expansion, networking, storage, and upgrade potential than the mini PCs. The power figures therefore need to be judged in that context.
Let’s start with idle power consumption.
The chart makes the Minisforum MS-02 Ultra look power hungry at idle, but the raw figure needs context.
At face value, the MS-02 Ultra draws:
27.8W with the screens off.
30.1W with the screens on.
That places it well above the mainstream mini PCs, including the Core Ultra 9 285H, Ryzen 9 8945HS, Ryzen 9 7940HS, Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, and N100 systems. It’s also much higher than the low-power iGPU machines, where idle draw sits mostly between 5.8W and 13.5W.
But the MS-02 Ultra isn’t being measured as a simple mini PC. These idle figures include the 25GbE network card, which by itself accounts for roughly 10W. Adjusting for that, the MS-02 Ultra’s approximate idle draw would be closer to:
17.8W with screens off.
20.1W with screens on.
That changes the interpretation quite a lot. It’s still not in the same efficiency class as the Ryzen 9 7940HS, Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, N100, or Core Ultra 9 285H mini PCs, but it no longer looks excessive for a compact workstation-class system with a much richer platform: PCIe expansion, high-speed networking, multiple NVMe options, and a far more server/workstation-oriented design.
It’s also reasonable to exclude the power consumption of the 25GbE network card from the comparison. None of the other machines offer that level of network capability, and even without the 25GbE card, the MS-02 Ultra still has both 2.5GbE and 10GbE Ethernet available.
The i5-12400F desktop is the clear outlier. Its 37.3W screens-off and 48.2W screens-on results are heavily influenced by the dedicated graphics card. That makes it a useful real-world comparison, but not a clean CPU/platform efficiency comparison. The large jump when screens are enabled also reflects the GPU/display side of the system rather than just the processor.
The MS-02 Ultra’s screen-on increase is modest: 30.1W vs 27.8W, a rise of only 2.3W. That’s reasonable and far better than the i5-12400F system, which jumps by 10.9W. In other words, the MS-02 Ultra’s higher idle draw is not mainly caused by display output. It’s the platform itself, especially the 25GbE card, that explains most of the difference.
Overall, the MS-02 Ultra shouldn’t be judged against ultra-low-power mini PCs on idle consumption alone. It’s clearly less efficient at idle than the best compact iGPU systems, but once the 25GbE card is accounted for, its figures are much more defensible. The trade-off is obvious: you’re paying a higher idle power cost for a far more expandable and workstation-like machine.
Notes about the chart:
- The chart measures the power consumption of each system, not just the CPU.
- The i5-12400F machine uses a dedicated graphics card, whereas the other machines all have onboard graphics. Power consumption at idle is much higher with a dedicated graphics card, in this case an NVIDIA ASUS RTX 3060 Ti.
- The Bosgame M7, Bosgame M4 Plus, Minisforum AI X1 Pro, Minisforum MS-02 Ultra, i5-12400F, and i5-10400 machines offer BIOS power management options. These options are enabled.
- The Power Saver CPU governor is used.
- The machines are running Ubuntu.
Next page: Page 2 – Power Consumption With Light Usage
Pages in this article:
Page 1 – Power Consumption With System Idle
Page 2 – Power Consumption With Light Usage
Page 3 – Power Consumption With CPU Stressed
Page 4 – Electricity Costs
Complete list of articles in this series:
| Minisforum MS-02 Ultra 285HX | |
|---|---|
| Introduction | Introduction to the series and interrogation of the machine |
| Benchmarks | Benchmarking the Minisforum MS-02 Ultra 285HX Mini Workstation |
| Power | Testing and comparing the power consumption |
| More articles will be published next week | |