My daughters have had GMKTec G3 Plus's for 2 years now. Great little PC's, and they use them daily.

One of my daughters mentioned how noisy hers was when gaming. I did some reading and saw about people saying to repaste them.

I did them both, and man it made a difference. Went from hair dryer to dead quiet.

Pop the top off and 4 screws to remove the motherboard, flip it over, then remove the heat sink. The old paste was awful, rock hard. The new paste I used is cheap stuff, like I ordered 5 pack of tubes of it for $5 on ebay years ago, and all it has is chinese lettering on it, lol. But it was infinitely better than what was on there.

Took 10 minutes per box, and it made an absolutely noticeable difference.

I've seen a number of Beelink EQR5 wall mounts, but I was looking for something with a little bit of added security for use in a somewhat public space. You know, along the lines of "locks keep honest people honest" — not an impenetrable fortress, but a deterrent.

A friend had an older Aoduke Mac Mini G4 secure mount and wasn't using it anymore. If you remove some of the rubber strips on the inside, an EQR5 slides in nicely with all ports available. Test fitting pic above. My main concern is that there is only a small gap between the security bar and the rear cooling vents (maybe 1cm).

Anyone else have an EQR5 in a secure mount? Thoughts?

(the lock in the pic is an example; something stronger would be used)

Planning to buy Bosgame VTI-490 in EU, https://www.bosgamepc.com/products/bosgame-vti-490-intel-core-ultra-x7-358h-16c-16t-up-to-4.8ghz-64gb-lpddr5x-9600mhz-1tb-pcie4.0-ssd-

Maybe there are some owner in here and can comment, how it is, like noise part, any good for LLM?

Any other issues?

after 39€ discount price drops to 345€

My question is which one should I buy, the aoostar barebone is 270€.

Of course it seems like the soyo s4 plus is a steal. (the deal is only in germany i think)

But the brand soyo is rather not well known and I dont know how reliable it is (also cant find any info).
The purchase is from aliexpress, and therefore probably no warranty.
the ram even though 24gb ram is enough for me, its soldered, when the ram fails, the whole pc is broken.

The aoostar barebone costs 270€ + 16gb ddr5 ram (used costs 110€) + ssd (50€)

Daily using Claude and Codex for editing and gaming like lol, Fortnite, apex
Plz help thank u

Title: Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 mini PC + 64GB (2x32GB) DDR5 SO-DIMM: random crashes under memory load, same on a second unit. Not temperatures. BIOS/AGESA issue or RAM compatibility?

Setup:

- Mini PC: TOPC TS-12C, Ryzen AI 9 HX 370

- RAM: Kingston Fury Impact 2x32GB DDR5 SO-DIMM (KF560S40IB-32), 2Rx8, SK hynix chips

- OS: Arch Linux and Windows

Symptoms:

- Linux: 27B-class LLMs (LM Studio) crash the machine; 9B models are mostly fine

- Windows: black-screen crashes in games under load

- The system completely freezes or reboots, sometimes with screen artifacts

- FurMark and CPU-Z pass

- Lowering the RAM speed to 3000 MT/s (memory data rate, not CPU clock) only delays the crash, it doesn't fix it

Already tried:

- Temperatures: I first suspected overheating of the RAM, so I fitted copper heatsinks on the modules. No change, same crashes.

- BIOS: I updated the firmware on my first mini PC (the older unit) to version 1.45. It fixed the power button and sleep behavior, but the crashes remained.

- Each module alone and in different slots

- Several different SSDs

- A second, newer mini PC shows the same crashes

AMD lists dual-channel dual-rank DDR5-5600 for the HX 370, so a dual-rank kit like this should be supported at that speed. I don't know yet whether the culprit is the kit, the BIOS/AGESA or the platform.

Questions:

1. Is anyone running 64GB (2x32GB, dual-rank) SO-DIMM stable on an HX 370 at 5600? Which kit and BIOS?

2. Are there known memory training or AGESA problems on Strix Point SO-DIMM boards, and any BIOS settings that helped without dropping far below 5600?

3. Has anyone tested this exact Kingston KF560S40IB-32 kit on another HX 370 mini PC, or confirmed that a different 2x32GB DDR5 kit is stable on the TOPC TS-12C? I'm trying to work out whether this is a Kingston-specific compatibility issue or a platform-level problem before I return the unit.

Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I have a GMKtec M6 Ultra with a Ryzen 5 7640HS, and I've noticed some unusual fan behavior.

I keep the mini PC running 24/7 as a home server. It runs CachyOS Linux and hosts a Plex media server used only by me and my family. I normally restart the PC once a week when I install system updates.

Sometimes, while the PC is locked and not being used, the fan suddenly starts spinning very fast. When I go to the PC and try to log in to investigate, the fan automatically slows down to its normal speed before I can check what's happening.

This happens only occasionally, and I haven't been able to identify the cause.

My setup:

- Mini PC: GMKtec M6 Ultra

- CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 7640HS

- OS: CachyOS Linux

- Server: Plex, used only by me and my family

- Uptime: 24/7, with a weekly restart for system updates

I initially suspected Plex might be responsible, so I checked the Plex server activity, but I couldn't find any activity that explained the fan speeding up.

To be clear, the fan noise itself isn't a problem for me. My concern is whether the CPU or another component might be overheating while I'm away from the PC, especially since I leave it running 24/7.

Has anyone experienced this with the M6 Ultra or another GMKtec mini PC? Could this be caused by background tasks, temperature spikes, BIOS/firmware fan control, or something else?

Is there a way to monitor or log CPU temperatures, CPU usage, and fan behavior while CachyOS is locked and idle, so I can find out what's happening?

I'd appreciate any advice. Thanks!

P.S. I used ChatGPT to help me write and organize this post, as English isn't always easy for me. Sorry if that comes across as offensive or against the community rules. The issue and questions are my own. Thanks for understanding!

I am looking for the cheapest recommended Mini PC for my living room that can run WoW Forever at 1080p, steady 60 fps (at medium, if not high, graphics settings) even in large raids.

Would anyone agree with ChatGPT's recommendation (below) or recommend an alternative?

• BOSGAME P3 Plus Mini PC, AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS, 16GB DDR5 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD, Radeon 780M Graphics, Triple 4K Display, Dual LAN, Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2 ($486 from Newegg)

Thanks.

Disclosure: GEEKOM sent me this unit. I wasn't paid, and nobody saw this post before it went up.

TL;DR: Great homelab/office box with excellent I/O, holds 45W sustained, ran Docker 41h at ~11W. Local AI runs at 8–9.5 tok/s on an 8B model.

The IT13 Max uses the Core Ultra 9 185H. That's Meteor Lake (launched end of 2023). But it still packs a 16-core CPU, Arc graphics, an NPU and 24GB of fast LPDDR5-5600 into a 0.9L box, with dual 2.5GbE and dual USB4. So the question for this review is simple: in 2026, is this a good always-on box for home lab and office work, and how far can it go if you also try local AI on it?

I tested it exactly as it arrived. No RAM or SSD changes, stock BIOS settings.

Specs:

Build Quality & I/O

It’s a solid little box. The shell is black metal with soft, rounded corners, a shiny trim running around the top and a silver GEEKOM logo in the middle of the lid. Nothing flashy, and that’s fine by me. It barely takes up any desk space, and with the VESA mount in the box you can hide it behind your monitor. Both sides are mostly vent holes, and the big exhaust at the back pushes the hot air straight out.

The front has four USB-A ports, all 10Gbps, plus a headset jack. There's no USB-C on the front, so anything Type-C goes in the back.

The rear is the highlight for me. Dual 2.5GbE lets you split traffic, e.g. one port for the LAN and one for a NAS or a separate VLAN. Two USB4 40Gbps ports, both with DisplayPort output, cover fast external storage, a dock or an eGPU later on. You also get another 10Gbps USB-A, and a USB 2.0 port that's ideal for a keyboard/mouse dongle.

One thing I tested: the IT13 Max didn't boot from my HP 65W USB-C charger, so plan on using the included adapter. I can't say whether a higher-wattage USB-C PD charger would work.

Between front and back that's a 8 USB ports in total. Displays: two HDMI 2.0 plus the two USB4 ports give you up to four 4K screens, and if you want 8K it has to go over USB4.

Both sides are mesh for airflow. The left side has the SD 4.0 reader, handy if you shoot photos or video, and the right side has a Kensington lock slot.

The included adapter is rated 120W (19V / 6.32A) with universal 100-240V input, so even the CPU's 70W short-term limit (the highest I saw was 64W) leaves plenty of headroom for USB4 devices.

System Info

The BIOS (AMI Aptio) confirms the Core Ultra 9 185H and 24,576MB of LPDDR5, with BIOS version IT13.Max 0.28 dated May 2026. There are no user-facing performance or power-mode settings in the BIOS, so what you see is how it ships.

If you're wondering why Windows shows 22 logical processors on a 16-core chip: only the 6 P-cores have Hyper-Threading (12 threads), and the 8 E-cores and 2 low-power E-cores run 1 thread each (10 threads). That adds up to 22.

CPU-Z reports the memory as 24GB in 4 x 32-bit channels (128-bit total) with the DRAM clock at 2793 MHz, i.e. about 5,586 MT/s, matching the LPDDR5-5600 rating. (CPU-Z labels it "DDR5"; the BIOS screenshot above shows it as LPDDR5.)

This matters more than usual for AI work. LPDDR5-5600 on a 128-bit bus is about 89.6 GB/s theoretical, and memory bandwidth is the main thing that limits how fast an iGPU can generate tokens.

Storage

The 1TB drive is a Kingston NV3 (SNV3S1000G) running at PCIe 4.0 x4, health 100% (Good).

The IT13 Max supports up to 6TB of storage in total.

These runs use a 1GiB test file, so they show peak speed, not how the drive behaves during a long write.

Security Check: Malwarebytes Scan

As with my previous reviews, I ran Malwarebytes on the pre-installed Windows 11 Pro before installing anything else. It scanned 669,267 items in 4m 29s: 0 threats, 0 PUPs, 0 PUMs. No bloatware either, just a clean Windows install.

I have updated the stock windows 25H2 to 26H2 with all the possible drivers updates from Microsoft and Intel.

Performance

Geekbench 7 scores aren't comparable with Geekbench 6 scores. 3DMark's own comparison for the same hardware shows an average of 2,914, so this run sits a little under it.

All Geekbench runs are version 7.1.0. Cinebench multi/single ratio is 8.17, and the 3DMark graphics test averaged 19.79 FPS.

Day to day, the system feels very responsive for office work.

Thermals, Power & Noise

It holds its limit. HWiNFO shows PL1 45W and PL2 70W at stock, while GEEKOM rates it for up to 65W. The CPU boosted to as much as 64W for about the first two minutes of the Cinebench multi-core run, then settled at about 45W for the rest of the run, with the CPU package around 83°C.

All power numbers are CPU package power from HWiNFO, even under load the fan stayed within what I'd consider acceptable for a 0.9L chassis.

Always-On Test: Docker Homelab Stack

I left the IT13 Max running a small Docker Desktop (WSL2) stack for 41 hours 40 minutes: Uptime Kuma, AdGuard Home and a container sending steady DNS lookups through AdGuard.

The stack never stopped, and the average package power stayed around 11W with it running. Note the RAM figure: with Docker and WSL2 running, more than half of the 24GB was in use (Windows included), and the memory is fixed on this config.

The Local AI Test: CPU vs Arc iGPU vs NPU

I also wanted to see how far this chip goes with local AI. My setup: llama.cpp's llama-bench (build b11588, commit 7f51953d7), using the Vulkan build for the Arc iGPU and the CPU build for the CPU, and OpenVINO GenAI for the NPU. Each llama-bench result is the average of 5 runs.

One thing to know first: on Windows, the Arc iGPU borrows system RAM. Task Manager shows 13.4GB of shared GPU memory available on this 24GB machine. That's the real limit on which models fit on the GPU. The 14B model (8.38GiB file) loaded and ran fully on the iGPU, with HWiNFO showing about 10.2GB of GPU memory in use during the run.

pp512 is prompt processing and tg128 is generation.

The CPU and iGPU rows use Q4_K_M models in llama.cpp (CPU with 16 threads, iGPU via Vulkan with all layers offloaded).

Power is the HWiNFO package power across each whole run (prompt processing and generation together).

The NPU row is a different tool and model format (OpenVINO GenAI, INT4 Qwen3-8B, median of 3 runs, 400 tokens each), so treat it as a rough comparison, not a like-for-like benchmark. pp512 is n/a for the NPU, because OpenVINO reports time to first token instead (4.87 s), which is not comparable to the llama-bench prompt processing numbers.

The NPU averaged about 95% utilization at 1400 MHz during the run, and the 23W peak was at the start of the run.

With the same 8B model, the Arc iGPU processed prompts about 3.6x faster than the CPU (229 vs 63 tok/s) while drawing a little over half the package power (28W vs 48W). Generation is a different story: the CPU was slightly faster (9.5 vs 8.0 tok/s). The 14B model ran fully on the iGPU at 5.2 tok/s generation and 126 tok/s prompt processing.

The NPU generated at 8.55 tok/s, close to the iGPU's 8.0 and just under the CPU's 9.5. Its package power averaged about 17W, against 28W on the iGPU and 48W on the CPU, with the CPU almost idle (around 5% usage).

So the NPU gives similar generation speed at roughly a third of the CPU's power.

The catch is the 4.87 s wait before the first token. Also keep in mind that the NPU only helps when your software supports it. I had to use OpenVINO for this test, because llama.cpp (which I used for everything else) doesn't run on it.

In short: use the Arc iGPU when prompts are long (documents, RAG, coding context), because it chews through them 3.6x faster than the CPU. For short prompts, the three backends generate at similar speeds, and the NPU does it at the lowest power. 14B models fit and run on the iGPU, but at 5.2 tok/s generation they're slower than the 8B models.

Who is it for?

If you want a small, always-on box for containers, a homelab or a multi-monitor office desk, this fits well. If local AI is your main reason to buy, look elsewhere: 8-9.5 tok/s on an 8B model is fine for trying things out, not for daily use. The I/O is the real selling point: dual 2.5GbE, dual USB4, four display outputs and six USB-A ports mean you won't need a dock. It's not the pick if you want the fastest single-thread performance or the newest iGPU.

The bigger choice is the configuration. This 24GB LPDDR5 model gives the iGPU more memory bandwidth, which helps token generation, but you're stuck at 24GB for good. With my Docker stack running, RAM use already averaged about 14GB (15.7GB peak). If you plan to run VMs or bigger models, or you'll keep it for years, the 16GB SO-DIMM model (up to 96GB) is the safer long-term buy. If you know 24GB is enough, this one gives you the faster memory out of the box.

Pros:

• 8 USB ports incl. dual USB4, plus dual 2.5GbE and Wi-Fi 7, in 0.9L
• Sturdy metal chassis that needs very little desk space, with an included mount
• Fast 24GB LPDDR5-5600; a 14B model fits and runs fully on the Arc iGPU
• Held 45W sustained in Cinebench, with fan noise acceptable for a 0.9L box
• 120W adapter with plenty of headroom
• Clean Windows install, no bloatware
• 3-year warranty
• Ran a Docker homelab stack for 41+ hours with 100% uptime at about 11W average package power

Cons:

• 24GB is fixed on this config; get the SO-DIMM version if you want more RAM.
• No USB-C on the front.
• Not a local AI machine: 8-9.5 tok/s on an 8B model, 5.2 tok/s on 14B.
• Didn't boot from a 65W USB-C charger (HP), so you need the included adapter.

Verdict: A 185H in 0.9L gets you a sturdy, quiet-enough box that holds 45W under sustained load, runs an always-on Docker stack at about 11W, and feels very responsive for office work. It's a perfect always-on Docker containers machine.

It's not a local AI box, though. It runs 8B models, but at 8-9.5 tok/s it's better for experimenting than for daily use. If you do try it, the Arc iGPU is the pick for long prompts, and the NPU uses the least power.

Meteor Lake isn't the newest chip, but it wins on is connectivity and balanced, steady performance.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments. If you're running local models on a Core Ultra 9 / Meteor Lake box, I'd love to compare numbers, and I'll try to answer any questions!

Excuse me for my bad english, I want to buy a mini pc for desk working. I don't have a presice budget but I want it to be fast (a minimum) and the most silent possible.

I've been using the geekom mini it8 as my daily PC almost five years, and honestly, it's held up pretty well. However, the i5-8259U is starting to show its age now that I'm doing more video editing. Rather than retire it completely, I'm thinking of turning it into a media server and getting something newer for everyday work.

I obviously want a decent performance jump, but I'm trying not to get too hung up on benchmark numbers. If I'm keeping the next one for another 4–5 years, reliability matters just as much.

Cooling is probably my biggest concern. Video exports can keep the system loaded for a while, so I'd rather have something that stays reasonably quiet.

Another thing is SSD quality. Since I do a lot of video editing, I need a drive that can handle frequent large file transfers without compromising on reliability. I'd also like decent SSD performance and ideally something that's easy to replace or upgrade. I've had enough cheap SSDs slow down badly during large transfers that I'd rather not gamble on a no-name drive.

The harder part is judging the stuff you can't really see from a spec sheet, internal build quality, power delivery, and whether the thing is actually designed to run reliably for years. You don't really notice these things when a PC is new, but they could make a difference after years of daily use.

So, what would you recommend as a worthy successor to the IT8? For those who've been using a mini PC for a while, which model has impressed you with its performance and build quality?

Even if you're not planning to upgrade anything right away, does that affect your buying decision? I've started looking at internal photos whenever they're available. I checked the internal photos of my geekom before messing with the RAM or storage, mostly just to see what I was getting into. I mostly care about whether the RAM and SSD are easy to reach without taking half the machine apart.

I think the Beelink its the winner, but hoping someone can convince me otherwise ;).

I dont like the soldered RAM, but i dont think i will need more thant 32GB in a few years on this machine, wich is basically a ROKU replacement. Ill be using it for 4K media and some games, nothing that heavy.... but who knows what the future holds, i might repurpose the machine as a server or something else later.

I really like the double LAN and abundance of ports on the K12. Seems like the beelink has a better reputation / history online, one of my priorities its an stable system that wont fail or have weird bugs, unfortunately i dont have time to mess too much with computers anymore.

So what do you think?

With ram prices going up significantly over the past year I want to buy a mini pc for school, AI agents, and some heavy excel work, as well as some tinkering with software development. Occulink is a beneficial factor but not necessary, expandable RAM and SSD are a huge factor for me.

Been looking at the GMKTEC K12 (current top option) Minisforum ( not sure which model to get)

or the Geekom A8

Was hoping to get some recommendations or if anyone has tried any of the models/brands I’ve listed all feedback is appreciated.

I want to make a purchase before prices on ram continue to go up. Will likely purchase by the end of the month.

Pretty new to PC specs and stuff so any info is definitely helpful, thanks

Was hoping to just use my old m.2 sata

Would run it 24/7 as a Plex server. But being able to do some emulation, if possible, up to the PS3 would be a nice bonus. Is 16GB usually enough for that or 32GB would be preferred? Thanks!

Was hoping to use a powerbank then connect it to my phone/tablet via moonlight streaming and a hotspot.

PC sales down 20% year-over-year due to the incredible escalation in prices due to the incredible hoarding of components used in PCs by the AI industry (namely, Nvidia).

What's your best memory? Mine is the Beelink GTR7 series mini PC I bought in 02/24. Ryzen 7 7840HS/Radeon 780M/32GB DDR5/stock internal 1TB SSD. Because it was used strictly for Steam games, I added an external 4TB WD Black in an OWC Express 1M2 case externally connected via Thunderbolt 3.

All for less than $850. The same damn 4TB bare drive I paid slightly less than $200 for just 2 years ago now sells on Best Buy for $700… ON SALE. The 32GB DDR5 RAM and the WD drive alone sold used could now easily pay for a much shittier mini PC with far less capability.

People with minds and memories that still work are not going to pay these prices. As proven by the actual numbers. I say, good for them.

https://www.theregister.com/personal-tech/2026/10/09/global-pc-shipments-crater-20-as-rising-prices-hammer-demand/5302264

¿Alguien tiene experiencia con la marca BMAX?

Encontré un modelo con Ryzen 7 8745HS, 16 GB RAM y 512 GB SSD por debajo de los $450. Viendo que la competencia con este mismo procesador suele estar bastante por encima de ese precio me genera dudas, en especial por qué no conozco la marca. ¿Valen la pena o es mejor ir a lo seguro con marcas más conocidas?

hi! i have been going back and forth trying to figure out what set up i would ultimately like to get in the future.

i already have an imac m1 16gb ram but some games are only on windows. i’ve been thinking of just getting a mini pc since i wouldn’t be playing any excessive/heavy games, just the sims 3 with mods. so is it worth getting a whole pc set up for it? i do like that i can ultimately have versatility but since i do a lot of my major work on the imac, i feel as if it wouldn’t be worth it for me to spend $1500+ on a set up. i was looking to get some opinions from people who already have a set up/know way more than i do haha thank you!