Thanks for the video, Team Pandory! I'm going to redirect people to this review if they ask about Batocera, since my review was emulation in Win11. Cheers!
@@KatRollo hey thanks 🙏 - tbh I think retrobat is a really good way to experience emulation, but it's not pick up and play like batocera does. - You still need to get into the software by using the mouse etc.
@TeamPandory Yeah, I've had LaunchBox for a couple years now, so I've been using that in my reddit writeups because it's easy to copy-paste from my main emulation build. 😅
I did not expect to hear a Short Circuit line in a review of a mini PC. Well done. What a good review! It's not a bad system, it's just a shame that Intel made the decisions they made for it.
Nice review and I hit the Like button after I heard the Summary 👍, I really want to consider this as a second mini pc because I can save some money but there are also some nice configuration on some Ryzen Mini PCs if I would just add a little more budget , but I don't know if I would get same TDPs on Ryzen when I want to power it with Solar power station. Thanks again Team Pandory...
@@spartty1856 hey thanks 🙏 Just remember that TDP isn't the whole system power draw, and that both AMD and Intel rate TDP in different ways. That's why we always run the whole power from the wall thing 😁 This solar power station of yours, can you buy them off Amazon as a kit, or are you talking about a few panels that you wired yourself ?
@TeamPandory thanks for the reminder, and yes I have a power station that is already pre built , and another solar setup that I wired myself for our place is prone to typhoons and as a result brownouts too, so I want all my devices to also rely on renewable energy the more power efficient mini pc plus my monitor the better for us here. I like that they are claiming the N150 is a 6W APU, but good to see that you've shown that it is reaching more than 20w on some of your test.
The benchmarks state otherwise, but I think it's a case of it needing a little more watts to function properly. Tbh the n150 feels a bit like an overclocked n100.
Whole point is that the g3 plus often falls into the 99-120$ range, AMD ones have yet to come remotely close especially for the power consumption (Ali coupons, amazon sales, barebones g3 plus was 99$ last week for example)
@@glazedbelmont agreed. The best you can usually get an AMD system for is 150-175 barebones, whilst the n100 systems can come in at 100$ fully featured. That, and like you said: for most usecases its also more power efficient. Id love to see vega graphics decode av1 video half as well as the n100 does
@@TeamPandory If I wanted a tiny box for productivity and nothing else this is a great product. But, your mention of sub $200. Over $200 is right over the horizon. If you buy this and realized you wanted a bit "More", you will hate yourself for buying this. Granted the stuff just on the other side of $200 isn't the greatest either, but dipping to 6 FPS? I've never seen that, other than maybe on an Atom processor. If my budget didn't allow $200+, I'd hit Ebay and something a bit older with a bit more oomph.
Nice review. One small request: would it be possible to include shaders occasionally when measuring emulation performance? It would be interesting to see how these mini PCs hold up when scaling and scan lines are added to the mix. 🖥🕹
Could do, but shaders are too much of a variable. You can have heavy, or lighter ones on the system, and heck, they can slip up the higher ups even if they have a dedicated GPU. If there was a go-to amazing shader that everyone used with little to no variables, we could do it though. If you have a suggestion let me know 👍 Thanks for the comment 🙏
So you live in Japan? Looks like countryside? Seems nice. Living the dream? I'm going to be living in Thailand with my wife once retire. (Just wanted to say that)
@avidwriter2882 living someone's dream I guess 😁 Yeah, been over here the best part of twenty years. Spent more time over here than in my home country. All the best for the life in Thailand- looks beautiful tbh
Did anyone managed to update the BIOS on either one of their Mini PCs? Because last time I checked, they do not provide them..which is rather concerning!
I have it too, I have to make a very short video with it and not like yours, but I found that the cpu is too hot. Even though I change the settings in the bios of the fan, even though I increase the ram, it gets back 5/6 degrees. One should try to change the thermal paste, but I already know that it would not run as cool as the geekom air12lite. (It works between 38 and 47 degrees). Congratulations on the video
What are you expecting exactly regarding temperatures? 50-60 is a fine working idle temperature considering how quiet it is, and this is essentially an overclocked n100. There is no thermal throttling with this unit.
@TeamPandory do you think that will ever add a second channel of RAM to these alder lake chips. Do you know if the beelink ser 5 pro can run PlayStation 3 respectably 🤔
@@fabulaattori the Intel line aren't really pushing the envelope as much as we'd have liked. It'd probably be better going for an i7/i9/Ryzen than look forward to Intel's newer chips in the N series.
@@TeamPandory Well' see. I'm just hoping to get a highly energy-efficient processor that delivers "great performance". Not just the most powerfull one at any expense.
@fabulaattori it's like a powerful car. If you're driving a high spec, it won't need to try hard to go at a normal speed. This applies to the newer Ryzen mini PCs too. Rather than go on the TDP / specs, compare power draw from the wall.
@@fabulaattori Try to find something with amd 5560u. I have a beelink ser5, 7w on idle, max 28W. With custom fan curves it is silent even when fully loaded. It is 2 tiers above intel N series.
Both N100 and N150 are pretty decent CPUs TBH. I guess some boards may support DDR5, but it's only going to improve the FPS in games slightly. It's not going to be the magic silver bullet that fixes the machine, but an external GPU might ;-)
We didn't get one of those, but it'd be pretty much the same as this with DDR5 and smaller. I still think the G5 with the n97 will be a slightly faster choice than the g2 plus with the n150.
Hey, Team Pandory! Hugs from Brazil! I love your work. Thank you thank you thank you! And keep going, please! I have a question: I have a 165hz monitor and wanna make a minimalistic setup with a minipc. I like to play Valorant (please, include this game on your reviews if it's ok for you 🥺). Which GMKTec minipc do you think is better to achieve more than 165fps: M7 (32gb RAM + 512GB SSD without e-GPU), K6 (16GB/512GB) or K8 Plus (16GB/512GB) ? Here in my country, with the taxes, they are almost the same value but I saw that (if i'm not mistaken) K6 and K8 achieve almost equal fps. Help!
Hey, thanks for the comment 🙏 So in order of performance, it'd be M7, K6, K8, then K8 Plus. The M7 and K8 Plus are much better refined though. Big difference in fan noise, temperatures, and both have oculink ports. Pretty sure all can play valorant with high FPS. Toss a coin 😅
![Incredible Performance & Value from $389! [GMKtec NucBox K8 Plus REVIEW]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/OkaSLBVLPp0/mqdefault.jpg)
Man was not expecting the metal song at the end
Roooar! :-)
Thanks for the video, Team Pandory! I'm going to redirect people to this review if they ask about Batocera, since my review was emulation in Win11. Cheers!
@@KatRollo hey thanks 🙏 - tbh I think retrobat is a really good way to experience emulation, but it's not pick up and play like batocera does. - You still need to get into the software by using the mouse etc.
@TeamPandory Yeah, I've had LaunchBox for a couple years now, so I've been using that in my reddit writeups because it's easy to copy-paste from my main emulation build. 😅
thank god for the tea bag size comparison, finally something practical I can compare to!
Glad we could help 😸
I have a small n100 mini pc myself with dual ethernet. Using it for openwrt x86 and it is a beast for that purpose.
I love how you test everything that a consumer will want cuz I'm a fan of emulation Good job great video
I did not expect to hear a Short Circuit line in a review of a mini PC. Well done.
What a good review!
It's not a bad system, it's just a shame that Intel made the decisions they made for it.
Definitely! It's a good budget computer, but Johnny 5 expected a little more 😁
I am not sure why you don't have more subscribers. Anyways great job.
@@TheSektor13 hey there, very kind of you to say that ❤️ Thanks! 🙏
Don't know really... um ... Sharing is caring? 😂
love this review, thank you! 🔥
Glad you enjoyed it!
Nice review and I hit the Like button after I heard the Summary 👍, I really want to consider this as a second mini pc because I can save some money but there are also some nice configuration on some Ryzen Mini PCs if I would just add a little more budget , but I don't know if I would get same TDPs on Ryzen when I want to power it with Solar power station. Thanks again Team Pandory...
@@spartty1856 hey thanks 🙏
Just remember that TDP isn't the whole system power draw, and that both AMD and Intel rate TDP in different ways.
That's why we always run the whole power from the wall thing 😁
This solar power station of yours, can you buy them off Amazon as a kit, or are you talking about a few panels that you wired yourself ?
@TeamPandory thanks for the reminder, and yes I have a power station that is already pre built , and another solar setup that I wired myself for our place is prone to typhoons and as a result brownouts too, so I want all my devices to also rely on renewable energy the more power efficient mini pc plus my monitor the better for us here. I like that they are claiming the N150 is a 6W APU, but good to see that you've shown that it is reaching more than 20w on some of your test.
Love the song! :D
Thanks 👍😊
I've seen people comparing the N150 to the N100 and most people conclude that the N150 actually performs worse in most cases somehow. Any thoughts?
The benchmarks state otherwise, but I think it's a case of it needing a little more watts to function properly.
Tbh the n150 feels a bit like an overclocked n100.
I think it's also something to do with ddr4 vs. ddr5 on these models. Ddr5 seems to give that little extra for your money.
@@fabulaattori This processor supposedly supports DDR5 but no one makes one with DDR5.
@@dlewis9760 I've seen few models with soldered DDR5.
@@fabulaattori Really? Were the results a bit better?
The AMD mini PCs are a way better buy considering the iGPUs are generally way better than what intel has to offer.
Very true, but still I've yet to see AMD move down into the budget sub $200 price range.
Thanks for the comment :-)
Whole point is that the g3 plus often falls into the 99-120$ range, AMD ones have yet to come remotely close especially for the power consumption (Ali coupons, amazon sales, barebones g3 plus was 99$ last week for example)
@@glazedbelmont agreed. The best you can usually get an AMD system for is 150-175 barebones, whilst the n100 systems can come in at 100$ fully featured.
That, and like you said: for most usecases its also more power efficient. Id love to see vega graphics decode av1 video half as well as the n100 does
@@TeamPandory If I wanted a tiny box for productivity and nothing else this is a great product. But, your mention of sub $200. Over $200 is right over the horizon. If you buy this and realized you wanted a bit "More", you will hate yourself for buying this. Granted the stuff just on the other side of $200 isn't the greatest either, but dipping to 6 FPS? I've never seen that, other than maybe on an Atom processor.
If my budget didn't allow $200+, I'd hit Ebay and something a bit older with a bit more oomph.
There's 115usd barebone or 160usd 8gb 256gb variant with r5 2500u but i don't know if genmachine brand is good
Nice review.
One small request: would it be possible to include shaders occasionally when measuring emulation performance? It would be interesting to see how these mini PCs hold up when scaling and scan lines are added to the mix. 🖥🕹
Could do, but shaders are too much of a variable. You can have heavy, or lighter ones on the system, and heck, they can slip up the higher ups even if they have a dedicated GPU.
If there was a go-to amazing shader that everyone used with little to no variables, we could do it though. If you have a suggestion let me know 👍
Thanks for the comment 🙏
@@TeamPandory I'm hearing the series from Retro Crisis are pretty exceptional... might be worth a shot.
@@SavedByZero They look excellent! Will give them a whirl when I can 🙂 Thanks!
Looks good may get one for a Proxmox box.
Good plan 🤠
I got the short circuit 2 reference 😂
I'm down to rewatch those movies...Wonder if my kids will enjoy them 😜
@TeamPandory my kids are 21 and 25, and they love that movie. I made sure to show them the classics when they were young
@kyles3335 you star 😁👍
So you live in Japan? Looks like countryside? Seems nice. Living the dream? I'm going to be living in Thailand with my wife once retire. (Just wanted to say that)
@avidwriter2882 living someone's dream I guess 😁
Yeah, been over here the best part of twenty years. Spent more time over here than in my home country.
All the best for the life in Thailand- looks beautiful tbh
What I find it more funny this cheap and low power CPU is more reliable than any Intel CPU release now 😂.
Did anyone managed to update the BIOS on either one of their Mini PCs? Because last time I checked, they do not provide them..which is rather concerning!
I have it too, I have to make a very short video with it and not like yours, but I found that the cpu is too hot. Even though I change the settings in the bios of the fan, even though I increase the ram, it gets back 5/6 degrees. One should try to change the thermal paste, but I already know that it would not run as cool as the geekom air12lite. (It works between 38 and 47 degrees). Congratulations on the video
What are you expecting exactly regarding temperatures?
50-60 is a fine working idle temperature considering how quiet it is, and this is essentially an overclocked n100.
There is no thermal throttling with this unit.
When are they going to take these alder lake chips and a second channel of RAM I guess that's too much like right
@@alceearsberry4150 unsure if intel have that in their spec. You can get the ddr5 version though.
@TeamPandory do you think that will ever add a second channel of RAM to these alder lake chips. Do you know if the beelink ser 5 pro can run PlayStation 3 respectably 🤔
Do you got a working discount key to enter?
Not this time I'm afraid. Let me ask them for you, I might get lucky 😂
Which HDMI slot did you use?
I tried using both, but not together. Settled on the one away from the audio port, so I could easily use that when needed.
@@TeamPandory Thanks.
How well can this run ps2 emulation at 2-3x upscaled resolution? What’s the maximum upscale it can reach on most ps2 games without lag?
I'll give it a test when I can. Bit busy at the moment though :o
They should have put usb-c pd. I fancy running these from powerbanks lol
Yeah, that'd help some battery folk out for sure. Maybe in their next release? 🤔
I hope to see more mini pc:s with ne new N250 and N350 cpu:s.
@@fabulaattori the Intel line aren't really pushing the envelope as much as we'd have liked. It'd probably be better going for an i7/i9/Ryzen than look forward to Intel's newer chips in the N series.
@@TeamPandory Well' see. I'm just hoping to get a highly energy-efficient processor that delivers "great performance". Not just the most powerfull one at any expense.
@fabulaattori it's like a powerful car. If you're driving a high spec, it won't need to try hard to go at a normal speed. This applies to the newer Ryzen mini PCs too.
Rather than go on the TDP / specs, compare power draw from the wall.
@@fabulaattori Try to find something with amd 5560u.
I have a beelink ser5, 7w on idle, max 28W. With custom fan curves it is silent even when fully loaded. It is 2 tiers above intel N series.
n150 is a ok cpu it just sucks that it lacks support for duel channel ram
if it did a lot of games would run great at 720p 30fps
Both N100 and N150 are pretty decent CPUs TBH.
I guess some boards may support DDR5, but it's only going to improve the FPS in games slightly.
It's not going to be the magic silver bullet that fixes the machine, but an external GPU might ;-)
Is this better than the g5 for emulation batocera ps2
@@abhiskarpandey2577 pretty sure the G5 beats it
That music at the end is better than 90% of the shit they play on the radio. Just saying.
Hey there, thanks!
We put an album together if you're needing something in the gym while pumping iron: ua-cam.com/video/OyilOAqUlMo/v-deo.html
@@TeamPandory Yeah, I've already listened. Good stuff. 👍
I'm more the kind who pumps pizzas and Big Macs though. 😆
@Tinfoilist hey, nothing wrong with that 😂
GMKtec G2 PLUS Intel N150 how about this?
We didn't get one of those, but it'd be pretty much the same as this with DDR5 and smaller.
I still think the G5 with the n97 will be a slightly faster choice than the g2 plus with the n150.
@@TeamPandory thank you for your answer.
that mini pc can play dota 2 sir?
Yes, we played it in the video. But League of legends will perform much better.
Hey, Team Pandory! Hugs from Brazil! I love your work. Thank you thank you thank you! And keep going, please! I have a question: I have a 165hz monitor and wanna make a minimalistic setup with a minipc. I like to play Valorant (please, include this game on your reviews if it's ok for you 🥺). Which GMKTec minipc do you think is better to achieve more than 165fps: M7 (32gb RAM + 512GB SSD without e-GPU), K6 (16GB/512GB) or K8 Plus (16GB/512GB) ? Here in my country, with the taxes, they are almost the same value but I saw that (if i'm not mistaken) K6 and K8 achieve almost equal fps. Help!
Hey, thanks for the comment 🙏
So in order of performance, it'd be M7, K6, K8, then K8 Plus.
The M7 and K8 Plus are much better refined though. Big difference in fan noise, temperatures, and both have oculink ports.
Pretty sure all can play valorant with high FPS. Toss a coin 😅
@@TeamPandory Hahahah, right! Thanks!! 🙏🙏