Minisforum M2 Slim: A $399 Wildcat Lake Mini PC With USB4
Minisforum has quietly added the Elite Mini M2 Slim to its US store: Intel’s entry-level Core 3 304 in a 0.47-liter box, with USB4 and two 2.5GbE ports, from $399. It joins a wave of budget Wildcat Lake mini PCs.
In short
The M2 Slim is the M2 Air in a black case, with no barebone option. It pairs a five-core Core 3 304 with USB4, Wi-Fi 6E and triple 4K output. Independent tests of the same chip show low idle power but a fan you will hear under load. A good fit for office work and streaming; not for gaming or local AI.
What Minisforum launched
A 112 × 112 × 37 mm mini PC with a Core 3 304, one PCIe 4.0 SSD slot, USB4, two 2.5GbE ports and Windows 11, shipping in early to mid-November.
The Core 3 304 combines one performance core with four low-power cores and runs at up to 28W in Balanced mode. Notebookcheck sums up the M2 Air relationship: “the only notable difference is the chassis.” Minisforum’s page lists DDR5 SO-DIMM support up to 64GB in one place and onboard LPDDR5x in another, so treat the memory as not upgradeable until that is cleared up.
| Memory / SSD | Store price | Listed regular price | Shipping |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8GB / 256GB | $399 | $499 | Mid-November |
| 12GB / 256GB | $423 | $529 | Early November |
| 16GB / 512GB | $503 | $629 | Early November |
How fast is the Core 3 304?
Quick for everyday tasks and frugal at idle, but loud under sustained load in the one full review so far.
CNX Software tested the same chip in ACEMAGIC’s Kron Mini K5: 1,729 single-core and 5,027 multi-core in Cinebench R23, 3.7 to 4.3W at idle, about 30 to 33W under sustained load and 46 to 47 dBA from the fan during that run. Liliputing notes Wildcat Lake beats the Alder Lake-N and Twin Lake chips found in many cheap mini PCs, since those have no performance cores. Its 15 TOPS NPU falls short of the 40 TOPS Copilot+ requirement.
What it means for buyers
Buy it for a quiet desk, a home office or a media PC; skip it if you need 32GB of memory, a strong GPU or Thunderbolt-class expansion beyond one USB4 port.
My own daily machine is a GMKtec K8 Plus with a Ryzen 7 8845HS. For web development and Excel it is more than I need, and its fan is clearly audible in performance mode. That is why this class interests me, but the M2 Slim’s blower fan is untested and the same chip reached 46 dBA in another case: if noise matters, plan on its 15W Silent mode. The $399 is a launch price on Minisforum’s own store and units ship in November, so there is no rush to pre-order before Black Friday. Compare it with an N150 box using our N150 vs N100 vs N97 guide. If you want more cores, the step-up Core 5 320 is covered in our ACEMAGIC K5 review. More picks are in best mini PCs under $500 and on our verified deals page.
Sources
- Minisforum, Elite Mini M2 Slim-304 store page (specifications, prices, shipping; read Oct 26, 2026)
- Notebookcheck, Affordable Minisforum mini PC launches with familiar specs but with new chassis (Oct 21, 2026)
- CNX Software, ACEMAGIC Kron Mini K5 review, Part 2: Core 3 304 tested (Sep 6, 2026)
- Liliputing, MINIX introduces a budget mini PC with Intel Wildcat Lake inside (Jun 15, 2026)