Mini PC maker MINISFORUM is branching out into the network-attached storage space. The upcoming MINISFORUM N5 Pro is a NAS with support for up to five hard drives plus three PCIe NVMe SSDs.

But what really makes it stand out are some of the computer’s other features like an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX PRO 370 Strix Point processor, support for up to 96GB of RAM, a 10 GbE LAN port, and support for internal and external PCIe 4.0 x4 connections thanks to an internal PCIe x16 slot and an OCuLink port for external connections.

MINISFORUM hasn’t yet revealed how much the system will cost or when you’ll be able to buy it, but the company is showing off the N5 Pro at CES, where NASCompares got an early look at the hardware.

For the most part a NAS is really just a computer with support for large amounts of storage, decent networking capabilities, and software that’s optimized to let you use the computer as a network file server (among other things).

In recent years a handful of companies including Synology, QNAP, Asustor, and TerraMaster have come to dominate the consumer NAS space by selling purpose-built systems that come with custom Linux-based operating systems. Most tend to combine the specs of a low-cost, low-power mini PC with extra storage and networking capabilities.

But recently we’ve seen a handful of companies (like  take aim at the NAS space with higher-performance hardware that ships without an operating system, allowing users to install their own software such as TrueNAS, OpenMediaVault, or Unraid.

The MINISFORUM N5 Pro is one of the most powerful and versatile to date, with a 12-core, 24-thread processor, two SODIMM slots for up to 96GB of DDR5-5600 ECC memory, and support for plenty of storage, thanks to:

• 5 x 3.5″ SATA 3.0 drive bays
• 1 x M.2280/22110 PCIe Gen 4×2 slot
• 1 x M.2280/22110 PCIe Gen 4×1 slot
• 1 x M.2 2230/2280 PCIe Gen 4×1 slot

You can also use M.2 to U.2 adapters with the M.2 22110 slots if you’d like to use two U.2 drives.

There’s also the aforementioned PCIe x16 slot for an internal PCIe Gen 4×4 expansion card and an OCuLink port for external PCIe Gen 4×4 hardware with support for data transfer speeds up to 64 Gbps.

The system has two high-speed LAN ports, and plenty of other I/O:

• 1 x 10 GbE LAN
• 1 x 5 GbE LAN
• 2 x USB4 (40 Gbps w/DisplayPort Alt Mode)
• 3 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type- A (10 Gbps)
• 1 x USB 2.0 Type-A (480 Mbps)
• 1 x HDMI 2.0
• 1 x 3.5mm audio
• 1 x DC power input (19V/12.63A)

There’s a semi-transparent cover on the front of the computer that’s held in place with magnets, making it easy to remove without any tools when you want to access the drive bays. And one of the most surprising things about the computer is that the motherboard is on a removable module that makes it easy to pop out from the body of the computer when you want to add memory, storage, or PCIe accessories.