M2 Elite Mini Air-304 mini PC with Intel Wildcat Lake processor

Minisforum first showed off the M2 Elite Mini Air-304 at Computex in June alongside other compact PCs. It's a more affordable version of the Elite Mini M2 that was shown at the same time, but the manufacturer didn't reveal the final price or exact release date at the time. Now, this affordable device has finally arrived on the global market.

The computer is powered by the entry-level Intel Core 3 304 processor from the Wildcat Lake family. This chip contains five processor cores and allows for processing five threads simultaneously, and the integrated Intel Graphics solution takes care of graphics tasks. In terms of working memory, there is one SO-DIMM slot for a DDR5-6400 module with a maximum capacity of up to 64 GB. For data storage, there is an M.2 2280 PCIe Gen 4 slot that accepts SSD drives up to 2 TB in size.

Despite the very modest dimensions of the case, the set of connectors is surprisingly rich. The connectivity story includes two 2.5 gigabit network connectors and two HDMI outputs. There is also a modern USB4 interface that supports power delivery, which means that you can fully power the device with a suitable USB-C charger. Wireless communication is provided by Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.4 technologies, which makes the computer very useful as a lightweight network device or a multimedia hub for playing content in 4K resolution.

The basic version without built-in RAM and SSD costs around 228 euros. While it is a good entry point into the latest Intel platform, buying such an incomplete configuration does not make the most sense unless you already have extra memory modules. Given the current high prices of DDR5 memory, subsequently purchasing the component would significantly increase the cost of the entire project.

The manufacturer also offers a pre-equipped version with 16 GB of RAM and a 500 GB SSD for around €484. The first shipments are expected to arrive in early September.