[Pre Order] Minisforum N5 AI NAS US$480.30 (~A$733.09) Shipped @ Minisforum US

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MINISFORUM

• 

  iMagoo on 05/07/2025 - 21:37

  +10

  Incredibly important to note that the AMD Ryzen™ 7 255 has no NPUs, making it not really an AI model, despite it being called the "Minisforum N5 AI": https://www.reddit.com/r/MiniPCs/comments/1l69o4d/comment/mw…

  • 

    Draco on 05/07/2025 - 21:44

    Also non pro can't do 96 Gb of memory according to site.

    • 

      bboT on 05/07/2025 - 23:56

      +1

      It can. Just not ECC memory.

  • 

    Commodore64 on 05/07/2025 - 21:57

    Good luck fighting to get ROCM working with torch or anything on Radeon. And then you upgrade drivers and have to do it again.

    Maybe if it was Ryzen AI Max 395+

    • 

      Draco on 06/07/2025 - 08:36

      I am running ROCM on a number of things now and not as much of an issue as it once was, it's not as efficient as cuda for sure however.

• 

  aragornelessar on 05/07/2025 - 21:49

  Table says N5 Pro starts at $899 USD RRP but link seems to show $1299? What am I missing?

  • 

    bboT on 05/07/2025 - 23:57

    +1

    You're right, the RRP column was showing current (discounted) price, not RRP. Fixed.

• 

  poppingtags on 05/07/2025 - 21:58

  +5

  Probably worth waiting for the Aoostar WTR Max to hit Aliexpress, with coupons and cashback it will be likely be less than the US$699 RRP

• 

  tellhimhesdreaming on 05/07/2025 - 22:27

  +9

  Fyi Minisforum sucks to deal with directly if you have any issues. Took 5 months for a refund and I still didn't get refunded everything I paid.
  Buy through Amazon if possible to make sure it works within 30 days and return easily if required.

  • 

    Big L on 06/07/2025 - 01:19

    +1

    Spot on. I probably wouldn't buy another product from minisforum, but if I had to it'd be via Amazon.

  • 

    24601 on 06/07/2025 - 10:41

    I had to return mine through Amazon. Their support will ask you to perform the standard "reset your PC", "update yor drivers", "it's the other addon components such as RAM or SSD's fault" tricks, then when I proved it's their motherboard's fault, they sudently stopped all communications with me. Wasted 3 weeks of my time

• 

  bdl on 05/07/2025 - 23:16

  NAI5

• 

  wisc on 12/08/2025 - 09:49

  now available.for pre order again with 180 off, it told me to use coupon code NAS80 for another 20 % off, that didn't work, neither did N5PRO30 (30% off), the NAS30 did though, only an extra 30 bux off) - I also didnt get any extra coupon codes even though i signed up for there spam.

  with the RAM:
  1,759.66 United States Dollar equals 2,700.52 Australian Dollar, which is a bit of a slap in the face considering the Aoostar price. (which has the extra HDD slots, extra 10g ports, but weaker CPU, (although it looks like the AI 9 HX PRO 370 uses big small anyways) and the PCIE slot, I do like the n5 pro has AI capabilities, (50+30TOPS npu+gpu) but a semi decent graphics card should be able to do this as well.

  I was planning on getting this over the aoostar if there wasn't too much of a price difference, but that 2700 (with RAM) is a decent amount more… (700 odd for the ram - so an extra 1,000 for the n5 pro?) -
  directly from the site with no ram, 1,703.74 Australian Dollar with worry free insurance, but not shipped.

  yep, the aoostar is 6-700 dollars cheaper, thats A LOT of AI credits- years worth, If the 30% off worked, Id probably take the plunge as it would be about 1200 bare bones.

  non pro version:690.68US - 1,059.98 Australian Dollar.

  aoostar from amazon:
  https://www.amazon.com.au/AOOSTAR-WTR-MAX-Desktop-Computers/…

  1139. GST may need to be added if amazon not adding it.

  comparing the non pro cpu to the aoostar:
  "The 8845HS generally outperforms the 255, especially in multi-threaded workloads, though the single-core performance can be comparable."
  so not worth it for the n5 non pro over the aoostar.

  6-700 is a lot for less hdd no 10g internet, faster CPU and PCI.e.

  considering they still need to be filled with HDDs, and RAM, its a pretty massive investment. minimum of about 3K

  i dont need it right away, but they are sexy!
  i think without competition, this would be good, with the Aoostar being cheaper, minisforum needs to do better.

  i didnt think this warranted its own post.

  • 

    aragornelessar on 12/08/2025 - 17:37

    +1

    Good summary. I had looked at the N5 Pro too before pre-ordering my Aoostar Max. The extra $500USD cost at the time wasn't worth the CPU difference to me and also less bays.

    Also read of some dodgy customer service/warranty for the minisforum too, and with aoostar service an unknown, it didn't help swing it any, so ended up rolling the dice with the cheaper (but still decent) kit

  • 

    wisc on 12/08/2025 - 20:37

    on the up side, shipping is free.

    yeah support/drivers on the minisforum is a bit of a worry.

    I think the issue with the n5 pro is that many people will be using virtual machines, and you don't know if a VM will run on a big or little CPU so even though it has 12 cores not all of them are full power… still, 24 threads is very nice (even with some being little). and my E3 1270 v2 runs everything i need it to, so im sure even the little core should be fine, as it should be at least as powerful as one of the E3 cores.

    passmark single thread processor is performance seems negligible according to google, but with 50% more cores, thats going to be massive with virtualization!

    half TDP is very nice too, will save around 5 bux a month i rekon, over a year, 60 bux, over 5 - 300 bux, so over the life of the unit, the cheaper power will probably pay for the more efficient CPU… (if the cpu uses around 25-30% less)

    yeah, same price id go the n5 pro, even with the less drive bays and missing the 2x 10gb ports. (I think it has to be the same price to be competitive) - people who are loaded may choose the n5 just for the improved CPU/pcie as well though.

    with that said, I think minisform has missed the boat in regards to stealing the market, if they would have released when they were going to (months ago), i think they would have had virtually 100% of the available prebuilt market share, (dont get me wrong, people will still buy qnap, synology or terramaster because of the brand name and support - but these people would probably never have gone one of these lesser known NAS brands - so remove the people who buy these regardless)

    now they might be lucky to get 40%, just need a sale on the unit or the drives to bite the bullet… and to find some reasonable ram. 96 gb of ecc 5600 sodim seems to be pretty rare and crazy priced.

    annoying the webpage lists:
    Special Offer
    Limited Time Deal
    Use the discount code to get 20% off

    not valid with other discount codes

    NAS80 Copy

    however it wont apply! stupid thing!

    • 

      paracaps on 12/08/2025 - 21:25

      +1

      I emailed them regarding the 20% off coupon (NAS80) that is on display on there site, but they advised that it's no longer valid.

• 

  paracaps on 12/08/2025 - 23:02

  +1

  I just placed an order with "60NAS" and that worked (25% off)
  Paid a total of $981.00 USD / $1660 AUD for the N5 Pro with 48GB ECC

  • 

    wisc on 13/08/2025 - 07:24

    +1

    Argh. I literally just bought the aoostar last night before you posted this.. probably would have paid a couple hundred more for the n5 pro.

    25% off the 1700 of the bare bones should be around 1280, so almost 300 more than I paid. (edit/update: from the site: 1,170.38 Australian Dollar, or 1,834.24 with the RAM… )
    I think the 300 almost brings them back to equal footing. (given the n5 pro's additional cpu cores, and PCIE, still, 2 less NICs, (which i could deal with) and 1 less drive bay, again not a big deal for me. they can be made up with the PCIE card regardless.) - (edit/update: would have been worth it, but the import duty on could be a pain as well.)

    Will be interesting to see if you get hit with import duty.
    Nice find.

    • 

      paracaps on 13/08/2025 - 08:54

      Hopefully I won't get hit with import duty fees as I did have to pay $98.10 usd in tax which took the total to $1079.10 usd.

      I've sent them an email requesting confirmation as I'll probably cancel my order if I'm still required to pay Tax/Duty on the package.

      • 

        wisc on 13/08/2025 - 11:02

        +1

        My understanding
        Over 1k AUD, you pay tax to gov on import, under 1k tax, they (sellers)take tax and pay government if they sell over a certain amount.

        With that said, there is no way for the government to chase them up.

        Most would just pocket it as profit.

        Id argue it and tell them it's not their tax to collect.

  • 

    Osiris on 13/08/2025 - 12:20

    +1

    Thanks for sharing that code but damn it, they killed the discount as I went through the check out. FFFF what a waste of a morning trying to pick which one.

    Rubbing salt in the wound that they advertise 20% off that doesn't work either.

    • 

      paracaps on 13/08/2025 - 13:22

      You're right, it looks like they have disabled the code which is a bummer.

• 

  paracaps on 13/08/2025 - 13:40

  +2

  I recieved confirmation that I won't be charged additional tax as I've paid it with the initial order.