10:46 Man, you were only 2 ribbon connectors away from that board sliding right out! (Pretty simple, but an older version only required the bottom to be removed, then the whole interior slid out as 1 unit, which was nice.) BTW I'm loving mine; stuck it on the back of a wall-mounted monitor.
Bloody nora, these things get smaller every time, and yet its thermal trace is much smaller than I'd have thought. Shame it's being throttled, as it seems a capable little machine. My daughter loved the smily spoon, she collects all that sort of stuff. My lovely K6 has developed a rattling fan, goes quiet after it gets fully to speed. Chatting with them for a replacement. Great fun vid as always Tim, thank you...
@@Mclaneinc even though they use cheaper nvme sometimes, they genuinely seem to be concerned about quality - or at least the guy I chat to does 😂. If they get too many callbacks due to fans they'll need to switch their provider.
I think it's fine to cut a bit of corners. I count 16 different and distinct offerings from them. Some with WIFI 6. You can spend a lot more with them on a different model. This one was built to hit a price point. They would be found wanting if there was competition in this size for around the same price that offered better features. Right now, there really isn't anything. This thing would be more than sufficient for most people most of the time. I'm using a laptop hooked up to a 65 inch Sony. Video consumption for the most part. Something like this could easily take its place.
Thanks for a great review, i picked this up as something to bring back and forth from college and was concerned I didnt get a powerful enough machine, i realize now i just need to tweak the bios and windows settings a little and I can get close to what i was expecting
10:34 Can you verify the N97 G5 can accept a proper NVMe M.2 drive in a short follow-up video about NVMe-compatible "upgrades" like using a more common 2230 drive using a 2230 to 2242 adapter (Thingiverse has one) and the newer wifi card, please? Excellent video!
That sir, is a good idea 🙂 But I'm definitely not going to be faffing around with a 3d printer. Spent days trying to fix that stupid thing 😭. They have adapters for cheap on Ali / Amazon though.
I received the G5 yesterday, but the version without SSD (I got it for 117€ on AliExpress, with coupons). I found a 256GB Samsung PM991a (NVMe 2242 PCIE3) on Amazon for 20€ and it is recognized in BIOS (I will install the OS this weekend).
At 12W, the n97 is just as fast as i7-8550U-a mobile processor that can be found in most of the sub-$1000 laptops in 2018. Back in the days, some CAD professionals I know used slower and older i7s in their expensive laptops. Looking at the N97 today, you're getting a decent processor. I don't mind of the naming schemes. I look at actual benchmarks.
If it plays Fortnite and Rocket League decently well, then this is a great 1st PC for someone high school aged. Perfect for assignments and some gaming too. Just bought one off Amazon after seeing this video. Thanks for sharing!!
@@gamerdan2310 tbh the Ryzen machines will always be one step ahead of intel when it comes to gaming with these, but for the price and the size!? This is exceptional 👍
@@WiseAcres-i4d It might be able to, but as always for any 3D style gaming we'd suggest looking towards the Ryzen mini pc alternatives. The 5700U (with Vega GPU) is a good jump from these Intel chips, and then you have the same step up again when looking at the 680M, 780M (and later) Radeon onboard GPUs found in the 6800H, 7735HS, 7840HS, and 8845HS systems.
Not too bad. I would have thought that they could and should offer a modular options menu, where you could choose an NVME, WiFi6, or even a barebones option. Th N97 certainly does offer a little more than the N100, whilst offering great value. I don't consider a con being that is cannot play AAA games because realistically, I doubt that many would expect it. If I buy a Fiat 500, it isn't a con that it can't match the speed of a Bugatti Veyron. The MicroSD card slot is always welcome (can you boot from it?) and I'm guessing that based upon the lack of open USB port specs that we are looking at 5Gbs, which is a shame because at least one running at 10Gbs would have mitigated the lack of internal storage expansion (not that I would actually expect it from something this size). No HDMI cable and Vesa mount is a double edge sword as many may have an HDMI cable, with the Vesa mount more likely left to rust in the box. But for somebody would wants true out of the box plug and play, this might be important. Again, a modular option could include these for a few pennies extra. We have seen N100 boxes the same size that do have some of the little extra features missing here, so it is not as if it can't be done. I'm fairly sure that I could run the world from something like this too. But somehow it doesn't quite excite me as much as I was hoping for, so will wait and see what others do before considering a purchase.
Definitely. You hit a few nails on the head there, and the modular system is something I keep mentioning to them. I guess packaging everything with only a few SKU's is much easier than having it modular though from a company point of view, but if theyre selling direct from the factory (on their site), I think theres no reason not to pursue a 'custom variant' option. Main reason I put a few of them in was to 'warn' kids on the capabilities. Don't expect call of duty or cyberpunk to run on this. 👍
I bought one to test out for retro gaming, hopefully it will work fine. 💚 I usually keep the defaults settings alone unless absolutely necessary to change it.
It may have an older WiFi/Bluetooth card, but - IT COMES OUT! And you can replace it if you want. That's what I like about mini PC's, you can change out what you want.
This is soooo cool. Put a hashbrown to it and send it to the internets..😂 Too bad no end song review recap. I loved those. Thank you for another awesome review.❤
They'll be back- don't worry ^-^/ We have a lot on at the moment, so there simply wasn't enough time for the 5 extra hours of work needed to get it done this time. BTW there was a song there, if you listen to the BGM in Tony Hawks. No way would any of those songs be allowed, so we made a song that "skated around copyrights" 😎
Really good review. I think my G5 have issues: 1) It throttles too easily - solution is replacing the TIM. 2) The GPU only hits (950 MHz) despite having the identical bios build (date & time) as Pandory's. I'm trying to work out what is the issue as I don't want to update the firmware unless I have to. The bios greyed out the gpu speed above 950MHz.
@@TeamPandory Thanks for getting back to me. It is okay now. I've reset the Bios to its default setting and all is well with 1200MHz spped on graphics. I'm not a gamer but my setting is on balance mode. The windows H2 update had removed the multicore setting which probably explained why my PC sounded noisier than before. It is now noticeably quiet after setting multi-core back in Windows. I also removed the Intel driver alerts as they used far too much CPU power while caught up in a loop after not passing its perquisite checks. Apparently there's a brand string error. Now to change the thermal paste!
@@flatbox1416 Not yet changed the paste. I actually got meaningful improvement by getting rid of Intel's graphic driver installer interface. A major power hog.
I assumed it was as it used a pcie3x4 NVME like the G3, but it's actually around the same scores as the G5 as it used M2 SATA. Thanks for catching that 🖖
But can it run Crysis ? (JK) I have a gaming PC but also a lot of unwatched offline content that I stream from there to my AppleTV. I was looking for a small and reliable Mini-PC to have it for video watching and the occasional remote-work meeting (so I don't have to take out my laptop) leaving the big boy only for gaming affairs. This one picked my interest when I saw it on Amazon and your video have helped me learn more about it. Thank you very much.
I own one, they're excellent, optimized with a few scripts and it's a little beast. I'm typing this comment on it now lol. I'm a retro gamer so I have no desire to play AAA latest and greatest or deal with microcharging to progress in games. The N97 is great as well, better than the N100.,
I see you've used DirectX11. Wasn't DirectX12 available in the emulators? Especially newer Intel iGPU's might perform better with a newer DirectX I think ? It supposed to support DirectX12 anyway?
I did a 'intel n100 vs n97' search and it turns out the iGPU is the same but the N100 one is clocked at 750Mhz instead of 1.2Ghz. But the N100 iGPU can clock down if not needed. Also the N97 itself is clocked a bit higher. (But not enough to make a N97 with DDR4 outperform a N100 with DDR5!) (But I don't know how it works with power limits which can have a big impact on performance also.)
Sure, that shouldn't be an issue. The Intel N100 and N97 chips are extremely good for streaming video content via network, so this shouldn't be any different.
Damn, the DDR5 makes a huge difference. I have a N97 pc, but with 3200 DDR4 - it's about 1.5 times slower, I get constant CPU bottlenecks and ~40 fps vs 60 shown here.
@@TeamPandory Does lowering res help with the CPU/RAM load too? I usually play in 600p/720p, I mostly noticed the GPU load changing. Will check CS2 and Rocket League to your results again tomorrow, maybe it's my Acemagic S1 doing smthn with the clocks.
@@Zysperro I'd keep an eye on power usage, degrees, and speeds. It might be limited by the power setting in your bios, or due to thermal throttling. Lower resolution should help, as you're not needing to push as many pixels to the screen. I usually don't want to go lower than 720p though, unless it's a classic title.
@@TeamPandory Couldn't wait till tomorrow. Yeah, I get ~36 fps on 1080p and ~53 on 720p in Rocket League (Perf settings) with 99% GPU utilization. The temps are fine, CPU and GPU clocks are the same as in the video and stable, no option to change power limit in BIOS, but it is set to 25W. My guess that it is indeed a RAM limitation.
@@Zysperro Are the graphic options all the same? It's on "Performance settings"- basically set both (not only the one) dropdowns to performance on the left in the Rocket League graphic options. Outside that it could very well be the DDR5. We only have the one N97 mini pc, so nothing to compare it to I'm afraid.
Looks a lot like the other tiny N95/100 boxes available from other brands, which would be great if there had been any development. Shame there's no proper USB-C support, or it would be cool
It's... Odd. Both the n95 and n100 don't support 'dual channel' and I can't see this being any different. Saying that, the memory is soldered to the motherboard and appears in hwinfo as 4 sets of 2gb Samsung blocks. 🤔
@@mjust7119 hey there 👋 - I'm unsure as to everything on your end. What games are you trying to run? Which emulator ? What settings? - its impossible to really diagnose from where I'm sat. Maybe you could run a couple of benchmarks ? Check what your geekbench 6 scores are at and compare?
@TeamPandory I don't even know what a benchmark is xD I just turned on the machine, downloaded retroarch and started up Star Fox as a test since its a harder gc game to run. I'll work on that info after work, wasn't expecting that quick of a reply! Lol. I appreciate it though.
@@mjust7119 geekbench is a tool you can download and it will test your GPU and CPU to see how fast your pc is. It's really easy. One button click :-) Oh and it's free.
So, N97 is faster than N100 and N95, N95 is sometimes faster than N100. I appreciate you at least trying to fully open these PCs. IMO any which you can't access the CPU fan for maintenance, is not worth it.
Anyone have a recommended USB-C psu with a longer cord that works with the G5? The one included with the G5 I find it a little short for most desk/shelf placement and is shorter that the one that is included with an Intel NUC.
I'm so frustrated with the GMK website. They don't use the same stats to describe the different models, so it's hard for me to compare them. It's all market-speak and few specifications. And based on the stats that I can see, the prices seem out of wack, making me more confused.
Team Pandory . Can you test ??? the Dell Treasure rgb of Amazon cost only 159 dollars . Intel quad core i5 up to 3.6 ghz 16g memory 512 SSD . Is it a good choice ??? Or not even bother ..they claim it's a very good PC gaming
An Englishman uses any tea or teabag he can get his hands on. The one you're referring to, is a rooibos teabag. Caffeine free. Quite nice in the summer with ice cubes.
@@NyneIX9 😅 Yeah, I guess it is what it is. I'd rather have a bit more behind a game than hack'n'slash, so the Dynasty Warriors franchise never really struck me as a good game either. That was until Dynasty Warriors 4 Empires or Bladestorm anyways, as they both added a bit more strategy and RPG elements to the mix.
@@TeamPandory I feel like some people made Kratos seem more vapid than he really was, but then again I was in high school when the game came out. It was astounding, and I never really saw anyone take Greek mythology as a framework of a vengeance story in a videogame. Kratos was shockingly brutal to me and heartless. He didn't value human life until he lost his family by his own hands under the influence of Ares (I believe). I know David Jaffe worked incredibly hard on this game, nearly losing his marriage over it, and I think it was a very influential game. Of course, today's Kratos is way more enriched as a character, but I think that the older GoW still serves a purpose in history. To each his own. I was just shocked by what you said lol but I take no offense. It's nice to hear a different opinion. P.S. I didn't bother with Dynasty Warriors, either.
@@NyneIX9 don't get me wrong, the visuals are *outstanding*, and there's certainly a lot to it regarding the story and lore... It's just not one for me, and that's fine 🙂 You should've seen the backlash when I said Truxton was garbage ^-^ People lost their minds about that, rather than just seeing it as a differing opinion. ✌
Checking the specs of the G2, they're actually pretty similar in price AND performance. The N97 will benefit with faster memory, lower power usage, and it being new parts, whereas the G2 would probably be able to use a real GPU plugged straight into the motherboard (which would be much better for gaming) New vs used parts is something to think about, as PSU, thermal paste, things like that would need replacing soon enough through wear.
@@TeamPandory In my country I don't see any 'HP G's' for below 200. And always be carefull buying 2nd hand relatively new stuff because : why does the previous owner want to loose it so quickly? Warrant and life expectancy are rarely factored in to 2nd hand prices nowadays so most prices are too high for them in online marketplaces.
@@erikkarsies4851 usually prices are low on small computers like this when businesses upgrade and need to quickly get rid of their current stock. It's perfectly possible to get a bargain, but a lot of wear will be on power supply, hard drive, thermal paste will need flipping - it can be great value if you're knowledgeable though.
@@TeamPandory The older stuff yeah but anything which is only 1~2 years old? Not a chance in our country. Those are way over priced and the still can be something wrong with it. Warranty should count for something. And warranty from a small one person business is dubious also.
@@TeamPandory I found some HP G3s but those have intel 6400T cpu's. Might be more powerfull on the cpu side, but the iGPU is worthless. That makes it very expensive again if you need to buy a lp gpu
Twice more performance to three times the price is not what I would call a budget king Sure the UHD Graphics Alder Lake chip is nice but given the games that were used here that chip is either overkill or underpowered
im doing 3 week road trip, 90% that car camping around Scottish isles. computer i just got as it main job is to transfer vid footage around 70 plus gb a day and images on to a hdd from a card. i got the Dreamquest n150 3.6ghz because it uses 6w and whole computer uses 12v 3a and plus says 30w can easy run on car 12v port but im getting an low power inverter. n150 3.6ghz, 16gb ram and 8gb graphics onboard, and 500gb m.2 it runs light room and Photoshop well it can run from car power and fast data transfer on to portable hdd's for under £200 and 3 year warranty with accidental damage covered its a bargain and a lot power for not a lot cash and way better that 15 year old laptop it replaced as travel computer. even the 2.5k screen good quality £82 off 16 inch for £137 and only uses 30w it runs of a phone cable. its mad now i have a pc running windows 11 and it can do editing and much more in my car for all in inc inverter mouse and keyboard £230, old days you need to get a 3 pin plug wired in but mini computers they do a lot for size and use so little power its crazy and 2.5k screen it has such a great image, highest i rec in due file size but still more than plenty. i went for n150 intel 3.6ghz due to power usage as it intended to need to work in car. one day i sure get an amd one but for now the one just got works great for it size
@@TeamPandory yep I do, my main thing was power it used, 2nd can it use Photoshop and lightroom and it can well. It can play 4k with no issues, but 8k on UA-cam it stutter a bit but even my big gaming pc dose that so for small system it really performs well. And the new n150 it performs better than the n100 but for same power use. I'm just waiting on the inverter to arrive it a 300w two plug and 150w per plug but I only plan using one plug in it and the other 12v port I use for screen and space for phone charger cable too. When it arrives then lots testing, I must make sure it works with no issues in car inc car is good but the port is 12v 180w so I cannot see why not. Last thing I want is middle highlands and issues. Last few days been stress testing it and lots things open it gets warm but it runs great and for it size it brilliant bit kit and I ask why I not got one sooner
@stevekenilworth tbh the n100 and n150 use about the same amount, maybe the n150 a tiny bit more - but with less effort, so temperatures don't ramp up as high under load. We have a review ready soon for the G3 plus, and for your Photoshop use it'd be perfect. For gaming the N97 CPU is better, and then the Ryzen are on a whole different level. Max watts on the N150 was around 26w under load with a game.
@TeamPandory so that's sorta spot on power to run in car even under high load what's great. Just 5 years ago I'd never think I'd have a pc running of the car power ports. Amazing performance for so low power.
![МИНИ ПК SZBOX S1 на Intel N97 который удивил! +СРАВНЕНИЕ N95 vs N97 vs N100 [4K review]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/rLJJ0Ib1qRQ/mqdefault.jpg)
![Intel N150 50% Faster Than The N100? 🔥 [GMKtec G3 Plus Review]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/9moL1Qxbe8o/mqdefault.jpg)
I love the vibe of your videos!
Thank you 🙏 😊👍
Agreed. The way the music comes in at the emulation segment is inspired.
10:46 Man, you were only 2 ribbon connectors away from that board sliding right out! (Pretty simple, but an older version only required the bottom to be removed, then the whole interior slid out as 1 unit, which was nice.)
BTW I'm loving mine; stuck it on the back of a wall-mounted monitor.
Bloody nora, these things get smaller every time, and yet its thermal trace is much smaller than I'd have thought. Shame it's being throttled, as it seems a capable little machine. My daughter loved the smily spoon, she collects all that sort of stuff. My lovely K6 has developed a rattling fan, goes quiet after it gets fully to speed. Chatting with them for a replacement. Great fun vid as always Tim, thank you...
Ruddy fans. If you need any assistance let me know 👍
@@TeamPandory Thanks Tim...It seems slightly off kilter and will just get worse. Had the same with my old desktop, sounded like a nightmare..
@@Mclaneinc even though they use cheaper nvme sometimes, they genuinely seem to be concerned about quality - or at least the guy I chat to does 😂. If they get too many callbacks due to fans they'll need to switch their provider.
I think it's fine to cut a bit of corners. I count 16 different and distinct offerings from them. Some with WIFI 6. You can spend a lot more with them on a different model. This one was built to hit a price point. They would be found wanting if there was competition in this size for around the same price that offered better features. Right now, there really isn't anything. This thing would be more than sufficient for most people most of the time. I'm using a laptop hooked up to a 65 inch Sony. Video consumption for the most part. Something like this could easily take its place.
Yes, at the end of the day it all depends on the end user. If you wanted something for batocera / emulation, who cares about WiFi? 😁
I like the fact that they offer 2.5GbE but it's a bit unfortunate that they apparently sacrificed cooling to make the thing ridiculously small.
Thanks for a great review, i picked this up as something to bring back and forth from college and was concerned I didnt get a powerful enough machine, i realize now i just need to tweak the bios and windows settings a little and I can get close to what i was expecting
What specifically you changed in bios?
10:34 Can you verify the N97 G5 can accept a proper NVMe M.2 drive in a short follow-up video about NVMe-compatible "upgrades" like using a more common 2230 drive using a 2230 to 2242 adapter (Thingiverse has one) and the newer wifi card, please? Excellent video!
That sir, is a good idea 🙂
But I'm definitely not going to be faffing around with a 3d printer. Spent days trying to fix that stupid thing 😭. They have adapters for cheap on Ali / Amazon though.
I received the G5 yesterday, but the version without SSD (I got it for 117€ on AliExpress, with coupons).
I found a 256GB Samsung PM991a (NVMe 2242 PCIE3) on Amazon for 20€ and it is recognized in BIOS (I will install the OS this weekend).
Top review as always! I'd love if you can start including a few Teknoparrot games. 😄
Teknoparrot games usually have geforce as a requirement, so most would probably fall flat on their face. I love a bit of outrun 2 tho 😁
At 12W, the n97 is just as fast as i7-8550U-a mobile processor that can be found in most of the sub-$1000 laptops in 2018.
Back in the days, some CAD professionals I know used slower and older i7s in their expensive laptops. Looking at the N97 today, you're getting a decent processor. I don't mind of the naming schemes. I look at actual benchmarks.
If it plays Fortnite and Rocket League decently well, then this is a great 1st PC for someone high school aged. Perfect for assignments and some gaming too. Just bought one off Amazon after seeing this video. Thanks for sharing!!
@@gamerdan2310 tbh the Ryzen machines will always be one step ahead of intel when it comes to gaming with these, but for the price and the size!? This is exceptional 👍
@TeamPandory do you think it'll run Star Trek Online ?
I need something like that which will play ST:Online.
Any recommendations?
@@WiseAcres-i4d It might be able to, but as always for any 3D style gaming we'd suggest looking towards the Ryzen mini pc alternatives.
The 5700U (with Vega GPU) is a good jump from these Intel chips, and then you have the same step up again when looking at the 680M, 780M (and later) Radeon onboard GPUs found in the 6800H, 7735HS, 7840HS, and 8845HS systems.
@@WiseAcres-i4d Recommendations: ua-cam.com/video/Ot3REgech_c/v-deo.html
This should be still applicable for you for a list of good value mini pcs.
Not too bad. I would have thought that they could and should offer a modular options menu, where you could choose an NVME, WiFi6, or even a barebones option.
Th N97 certainly does offer a little more than the N100, whilst offering great value.
I don't consider a con being that is cannot play AAA games because realistically, I doubt that many would expect it. If I buy a Fiat 500, it isn't a con that it can't match the speed of a Bugatti Veyron.
The MicroSD card slot is always welcome (can you boot from it?) and I'm guessing that based upon the lack of open USB port specs that we are looking at 5Gbs, which is a shame because at least one running at 10Gbs would have mitigated the lack of internal storage expansion (not that I would actually expect it from something this size).
No HDMI cable and Vesa mount is a double edge sword as many may have an HDMI cable, with the Vesa mount more likely left to rust in the box. But for somebody would wants true out of the box plug and play, this might be important. Again, a modular option could include these for a few pennies extra.
We have seen N100 boxes the same size that do have some of the little extra features missing here, so it is not as if it can't be done.
I'm fairly sure that I could run the world from something like this too.
But somehow it doesn't quite excite me as much as I was hoping for, so will wait and see what others do before considering a purchase.
Definitely. You hit a few nails on the head there, and the modular system is something I keep mentioning to them.
I guess packaging everything with only a few SKU's is much easier than having it modular though from a company point of view, but if theyre selling direct from the factory (on their site), I think theres no reason not to pursue a 'custom variant' option.
Main reason I put a few of them in was to 'warn' kids on the capabilities. Don't expect call of duty or cyberpunk to run on this. 👍
Thanks - great review. I've just bought this on the back of the review. Quick question; what's the music that comes in around the 8min mark? Thx
Hey there, thanks 👍
It'll be a recent Chris Huelsbeck track. We put the names and link in description down below 👇
@@TeamPandory Ah fair enough. It sounds like it's right out of a game - proper nostalgic feeling.
@@allseven5177 game music has been his profession. Turrican soundtrack?
The G5 can do HDR. My set up is a Dell U2520D monitor using Amazon HDMI 2.0 cable. You choose the HDR setting in the monitor's menu to activate it.
I bought one to test out for retro gaming, hopefully it will work fine. 💚 I usually keep the defaults settings alone unless absolutely necessary to change it.
Just orderded, For retrogaming through Retrobat so fingers crossed.
howd that go? im about to get it for the same thing for my kid can play ps1 games and more. no where past that though.
2:53 루이보스 티백ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ우리집도 이거 먹어서 반가우면서 하필 루이보스 티백인 게 웃기다😂
Oh my God!!! Only 4K?! How is this even possible. 🙃
It may have an older WiFi/Bluetooth card, but - IT COMES OUT! And you can replace it if you want. That's what I like about mini PC's, you can change out what you want.
This is soooo cool. Put a hashbrown to it and send it to the internets..😂
Too bad no end song review recap. I loved those.
Thank you for another awesome review.❤
They'll be back- don't worry ^-^/
We have a lot on at the moment, so there simply wasn't enough time for the 5 extra hours of work needed to get it done this time.
BTW there was a song there, if you listen to the BGM in Tony Hawks. No way would any of those songs be allowed, so we made a song that "skated around copyrights" 😎
@@TeamPandory whoa!! I thought that song was from the game..cool!!
When they don't even bother to put the intel sticker on straight, you know the build quality...
On mine, there is a Intel Celeron sticker...
what does that mean? I'm a layman on the subject
Got 3 gmktecs (k2,k4,k8) quality has never been an issue on any of them. So a crooked sticker i would remove anyways is irrelevant.
Enabling C power states in the BIOS gives this a bit more performance.
According Robtech review of the G5
Any chance you could run 3dmark (also with the updated bios 1.01, which enables the 1200Mhz GPU)?
İs it enough to run Dota 2 smooth at 1080?
Maybe at LOW 1080p
We have another video that shows 21 games running on this mini PC: ua-cam.com/video/7kp_ANA2vMk/v-deo.htmlfeature=shared
After changing thermal paste device becomes quiet and stop throttling at all, nice micro pc)
Did you try mining performance?
No. It probably wouldn't work well in this application
Really good review. I think my G5 have issues:
1) It throttles too easily - solution is replacing the TIM.
2) The GPU only hits (950 MHz) despite having the identical bios build (date & time) as Pandory's. I'm trying to work out what is the issue as I don't want to update the firmware unless I have to. The bios greyed out the gpu speed above 950MHz.
@@michaelm4407 hey there 👋. What is the bios performance settings set at, and what game are you running when you're seeing 950mhz ?
@@TeamPandory Thanks for getting back to me. It is okay now. I've reset the Bios to its default setting and all is well with 1200MHz spped on graphics.
I'm not a gamer but my setting is on balance mode.
The windows H2 update had removed the multicore setting which probably explained why my PC sounded noisier than before. It is now noticeably quiet after setting multi-core back in Windows.
I also removed the Intel driver alerts as they used far too much CPU power while caught up in a loop after not passing its perquisite checks. Apparently there's a brand string error.
Now to change the thermal paste!
@@michaelm4407 If you have changed the paste, have you seen a meaningful improvement? Ty
@@flatbox1416 Not yet changed the paste. I actually got meaningful improvement by getting rid of Intel's graphic driver installer interface. A major power hog.
@@michaelm4407 that’s quite interesting, thank you for the update.
Why are the SSD stats so much better on the G2 than the G5 ?
I assumed it was as it used a pcie3x4 NVME like the G3, but it's actually around the same scores as the G5 as it used M2 SATA. Thanks for catching that 🖖
Will it run Sims 4 with mods?
But can it run Crysis ? (JK) I have a gaming PC but also a lot of unwatched offline content that I stream from there to my AppleTV. I was looking for a small and reliable Mini-PC to have it for video watching and the occasional remote-work meeting (so I don't have to take out my laptop) leaving the big boy only for gaming affairs. This one picked my interest when I saw it on Amazon and your video have helped me learn more about it. Thank you very much.
Do these work properly with FreeSync monitors?
Good question, I'll check it out tomorrow for you 😸
Can arrow lake lowest range
Core 300u will comes in this micro box mini pc
I bought one for emulation and was wondering if it was powerful enough and you’re running freakin’ Fallout 4. Guess I’ll be fine.
Can I run Linux Mint on this? I need a cheap computer to learn Linux.
Sure, we used Batocera which is a Linux fork and that works great. Mint / Debian / Fedora should work no problem 👍
@ Thank you!
@Level70-x4d no worries 👍
I own one, they're excellent, optimized with a few scripts and it's a little beast. I'm typing this comment on it now lol. I'm a retro gamer so I have no desire to play AAA latest and greatest or deal with microcharging to progress in games. The N97 is great as well, better than the N100.,
I see you've used DirectX11. Wasn't DirectX12 available in the emulators? Especially newer Intel iGPU's might perform better with a newer DirectX I think ? It supposed to support DirectX12 anyway?
Too bad, RAM not upgradable, no USB-C, only WiFi 5 and BT 4.2, it's partially a step back from the previous version
@@hansmikesen6355 not upgradable, but quick ram - but yeah, I get it especially with the WiFi / BT
if it had two USBC video outputs it would be a game changer for me
Is there something that could be done against the thermal throttling?
You can Switch its TDP from 12w to 8w from bios, it will run at 2.4 and 76-77 celcius
Head to the bios, switch to 8W.
so is n97 faster than n100?
Yes, but it's not far off.
I did a 'intel n100 vs n97' search and it turns out the iGPU is the same but the N100 one is clocked at 750Mhz instead of 1.2Ghz. But the N100 iGPU can clock down if not needed. Also the N97 itself is clocked a bit higher. (But not enough to make a N97 with DDR4 outperform a N100 with DDR5!)
(But I don't know how it works with power limits which can have a big impact on performance also.)
Can i use this mini pc for streaming with obs? I don't need it for gaming.
Sure, that shouldn't be an issue. The Intel N100 and N97 chips are extremely good for streaming video content via network, so this shouldn't be any different.
Damn, the DDR5 makes a huge difference. I have a N97 pc, but with 3200 DDR4 - it's about 1.5 times slower, I get constant CPU bottlenecks and ~40 fps vs 60 shown here.
Really? I think shifting down to 720p should help in a lot of cases.
@@TeamPandory Does lowering res help with the CPU/RAM load too? I usually play in 600p/720p, I mostly noticed the GPU load changing. Will check CS2 and Rocket League to your results again tomorrow, maybe it's my Acemagic S1 doing smthn with the clocks.
@@Zysperro I'd keep an eye on power usage, degrees, and speeds. It might be limited by the power setting in your bios, or due to thermal throttling.
Lower resolution should help, as you're not needing to push as many pixels to the screen. I usually don't want to go lower than 720p though, unless it's a classic title.
@@TeamPandory Couldn't wait till tomorrow. Yeah, I get ~36 fps on 1080p and ~53 on 720p in Rocket League (Perf settings) with 99% GPU utilization. The temps are fine, CPU and GPU clocks are the same as in the video and stable, no option to change power limit in BIOS, but it is set to 25W. My guess that it is indeed a RAM limitation.
@@Zysperro Are the graphic options all the same? It's on "Performance settings"- basically set both (not only the one) dropdowns to performance on the left in the Rocket League graphic options. Outside that it could very well be the DDR5.
We only have the one N97 mini pc, so nothing to compare it to I'm afraid.
Any idea if the G5 can run GFN ?
Geforce Now? It should run, but you may want to either use the LAN cable, or update the wifi card inside to wifi 6E
Can you hook a egpu in this?
You could hook up one using the nvme slot, but you wouldn't have any storage
@@TeamPandory how about the wifi slot?
@@Jeprox_Gaming I guess ? Maybe ? 🤔
Could you test how well this mini PC and host a Minecraft Bedrock server? I'm looking a for a mini PC that could support up to 10 players.
Should be okay, but I don't have that many friends who play Minecraft in my circle 😂
Looks a lot like the other tiny N95/100 boxes available from other brands, which would be great if there had been any development. Shame there's no proper USB-C support, or it would be cool
Any one know what the boot menu button is on this little guy ? thanks
For bios? Either Escape or DEL.
@@TeamPandory I was thinking of installing Win 11 Tiny.
F7 takes you into the Select Boot Device Menu with an Option to go into BIOS also.
DDR Single chanal right
It's... Odd. Both the n95 and n100 don't support 'dual channel' and I can't see this being any different.
Saying that, the memory is soldered to the motherboard and appears in hwinfo as 4 sets of 2gb Samsung blocks. 🤔
@@TeamPandory If I understood correctly that doesn't matter for the DDR5 versions?
Just got mine up and running and my gc and ps2 emulation are terrible. I'm a total computer idiot. Is there something I'm missing?
@@mjust7119 hey there 👋 - I'm unsure as to everything on your end. What games are you trying to run? Which emulator ? What settings? - its impossible to really diagnose from where I'm sat.
Maybe you could run a couple of benchmarks ? Check what your geekbench 6 scores are at and compare?
@TeamPandory I don't even know what a benchmark is xD I just turned on the machine, downloaded retroarch and started up Star Fox as a test since its a harder gc game to run.
I'll work on that info after work, wasn't expecting that quick of a reply! Lol. I appreciate it though.
@@mjust7119 AFAIK you want to download dolphin and then use that emulator for Starfox / GC. You may want to try changing video modes too.
@@mjust7119 geekbench is a tool you can download and it will test your GPU and CPU to see how fast your pc is. It's really easy. One button click :-)
Oh and it's free.
@TeamPandory okay so cpu is 966 single and 2644 multiple core, GPU is 5180
Edit: and Vulkan is 5832
So, N97 is faster than N100 and N95, N95 is sometimes faster than N100.
I appreciate you at least trying to fully open these PCs. IMO any which you can't access the CPU fan for maintenance, is not worth it.
Anyone have a recommended USB-C psu with a longer cord that works with the G5? The one included with the G5 I find it a little short for most desk/shelf placement and is shorter that the one that is included with an Intel NUC.
what about n50
N50 has half the cores and half the threads. It's going to run pretty poorly in comparison.
Might something like this to run w11 although I think CPU is not that impessive
Bring that N97 to Kashyyyk and see what happens! RAHHHH
I'm so frustrated with the GMK website. They don't use the same stats to describe the different models, so it's hard for me to compare them. It's all market-speak and few specifications. And based on the stats that I can see, the prices seem out of wack, making me more confused.
We've reviewed most of them, what are you after and we'll be able to point you in the right direction.
I swear you reviewed this several times already lol.
Team Pandory . Can you test ??? the Dell Treasure rgb of Amazon cost only 159 dollars . Intel quad core i5 up to 3.6 ghz 16g memory 512 SSD . Is it a good choice ??? Or not even bother ..they claim it's a very good PC gaming
try dxvk, some (older) games runs much better with that with these low-end socs
How is the battery life for this? I read it’s only operated by a CR2032 battery and would just like to know the longevity of it!
Um, no. the CR2032 is to keep BIOS settings like a regular PC. You need to plug this up to the mains via power adapter.
Perfect for a Plex server
Look great but not a fan of the cooling design
Yeah, we can see this being a nice portable / micro sized setup, but it doesn't need to be *that* small.
Probably for a niche audience.
Would definitely choose a amd pc😂
Does the GMKtec NucBox G5(Intel N97) product support HDCP 2.2 ?
Aside from a clear obsession with teabag (giggity), what Englishman uses those?🤨
That would make Douglas Adams fidgeting in his grave!😵
An Englishman uses any tea or teabag he can get his hands on.
The one you're referring to, is a rooibos teabag. Caffeine free. Quite nice in the summer with ice cubes.
@@TeamPandory I'll have that in mind for the next grocery shopping👌
GoW 2 sucks?!
Yes. And we're not going to pretend otherwise 😂
- nah tbh it's all opinions, people like it, some people don't. And that's fine. 👍
@@TeamPandory I just never heard anyone say that. I had to rewind it three times to make sure I heard it right lol
@@NyneIX9 😅 Yeah, I guess it is what it is.
I'd rather have a bit more behind a game than hack'n'slash, so the Dynasty Warriors franchise never really struck me as a good game either.
That was until Dynasty Warriors 4 Empires or Bladestorm anyways, as they both added a bit more strategy and RPG elements to the mix.
@@TeamPandory I feel like some people made Kratos seem more vapid than he really was, but then again I was in high school when the game came out. It was astounding, and I never really saw anyone take Greek mythology as a framework of a vengeance story in a videogame. Kratos was shockingly brutal to me and heartless. He didn't value human life until he lost his family by his own hands under the influence of Ares (I believe). I know David Jaffe worked incredibly hard on this game, nearly losing his marriage over it, and I think it was a very influential game. Of course, today's Kratos is way more enriched as a character, but I think that the older GoW still serves a purpose in history. To each his own. I was just shocked by what you said lol but I take no offense. It's nice to hear a different opinion.
P.S. I didn't bother with Dynasty Warriors, either.
@@NyneIX9 don't get me wrong, the visuals are *outstanding*, and there's certainly a lot to it regarding the story and lore... It's just not one for me, and that's fine 🙂
You should've seen the backlash when I said Truxton was garbage ^-^ People lost their minds about that, rather than just seeing it as a differing opinion. ✌
n97 1200mhz gpu video 600mhz gpu
Sorry, what?
Hardly beats used HP g2, g4 will destroy this pc. Pricing less the. 90 euro. But the size is so cool!)
Checking the specs of the G2, they're actually pretty similar in price AND performance.
The N97 will benefit with faster memory, lower power usage, and it being new parts, whereas the G2 would probably be able to use a real GPU plugged straight into the motherboard (which would be much better for gaming)
New vs used parts is something to think about, as PSU, thermal paste, things like that would need replacing soon enough through wear.
@@TeamPandory In my country I don't see any 'HP G's' for below 200. And always be carefull buying 2nd hand relatively new stuff because : why does the previous owner want to loose it so quickly? Warrant and life expectancy are rarely factored in to 2nd hand prices nowadays so most prices are too high for them in online marketplaces.
@@erikkarsies4851 usually prices are low on small computers like this when businesses upgrade and need to quickly get rid of their current stock.
It's perfectly possible to get a bargain, but a lot of wear will be on power supply, hard drive, thermal paste will need flipping - it can be great value if you're knowledgeable though.
@@TeamPandory The older stuff yeah but anything which is only 1~2 years old? Not a chance in our country. Those are way over priced and the still can be something wrong with it. Warranty should count for something. And warranty from a small one person business is dubious also.
@@TeamPandory I found some HP G3s but those have intel 6400T cpu's. Might be more powerfull on the cpu side, but the iGPU is worthless. That makes it very expensive again if you need to buy a lp gpu
Speedball 2 game boy game.
3D AAA game lmao
those game demo'ed not even AAA especially on today standard.
Still way more expensive than the Radxa X2L
More expensive, sure, but ...
1. The N97 runs rings around the J4125
2. LPDDR5 > LPDDR4
3. 12GB > 8GB
4. M2 SSD > eMMC
5. Storage 512GB > 32GB max
...etc
If you are buying stuff like that you arent looking at mini PCs like this.
Twice more performance to three times the price is not what I would call a budget king
Sure the UHD Graphics Alder Lake chip is nice but given the games that were used here that chip is either overkill or underpowered
I have X2L (it's good) also the X1 (it's better) but this, this G5 WINS for my Emulation +Win10/11/Ubuntu basic Desktop needs at least.
That J4125 power! That kinda of power is easily bought 2nd hand for even less. That doesn't even top the new Arm SBC's in performance.
Mini pcs are waste of money because of high prices. They are not worth it, buying a cheap laptop makes more sense.
Considering a laptop has a monitor, keyboard, battery, and much more plastic- laptops have statistically been more expensive than mini pcs.
Just buy cheap Lenovo and will be much better and cheaper
I’d like to buy one to use as a media server for Plex or Jellyfin which do you recommend
im doing 3 week road trip, 90% that car camping around Scottish isles. computer i just got as it main job is to transfer vid footage around 70 plus gb a day and images on to a hdd from a card. i got the Dreamquest n150 3.6ghz because it uses 6w and whole computer uses 12v 3a and plus says 30w can easy run on car 12v port but im getting an low power inverter. n150 3.6ghz, 16gb ram and 8gb graphics onboard, and 500gb m.2 it runs light room and Photoshop well it can run from car power and fast data transfer on to portable hdd's for under £200 and 3 year warranty with accidental damage covered its a bargain and a lot power for not a lot cash and way better that 15 year old laptop it replaced as travel computer. even the 2.5k screen good quality £82 off 16 inch for £137 and only uses 30w it runs of a phone cable. its mad now i have a pc running windows 11 and it can do editing and much more in my car for all in inc inverter mouse and keyboard £230, old days you need to get a 3 pin plug wired in but mini computers they do a lot for size and use so little power its crazy and 2.5k screen it has such a great image, highest i rec in due file size but still more than plenty. i went for n150 intel 3.6ghz due to power usage as it intended to need to work in car. one day i sure get an amd one but for now the one just got works great for it size
@@stevekenilworth yep 👍
You get it 😉
@@TeamPandory yep I do, my main thing was power it used, 2nd can it use Photoshop and lightroom and it can well. It can play 4k with no issues, but 8k on UA-cam it stutter a bit but even my big gaming pc dose that so for small system it really performs well. And the new n150 it performs better than the n100 but for same power use. I'm just waiting on the inverter to arrive it a 300w two plug and 150w per plug but I only plan using one plug in it and the other 12v port I use for screen and space for phone charger cable too. When it arrives then lots testing, I must make sure it works with no issues in car inc car is good but the port is 12v 180w so I cannot see why not. Last thing I want is middle highlands and issues. Last few days been stress testing it and lots things open it gets warm but it runs great and for it size it brilliant bit kit and I ask why I not got one sooner
@stevekenilworth tbh the n100 and n150 use about the same amount, maybe the n150 a tiny bit more - but with less effort, so temperatures don't ramp up as high under load.
We have a review ready soon for the G3 plus, and for your Photoshop use it'd be perfect. For gaming the N97 CPU is better, and then the Ryzen are on a whole different level.
Max watts on the N150 was around 26w under load with a game.
@TeamPandory so that's sorta spot on power to run in car even under high load what's great. Just 5 years ago I'd never think I'd have a pc running of the car power ports. Amazing performance for so low power.
Does it support NVME SSD ?
@@ปั๋ม-ฒ1ช yes 👍
@@TeamPandoryI thinkAMD pc is better