these look great but still top question is reliability, plug-and-playability and Long term customer support. Have read so many horror comments on Reddit about these type of miniPCs companies failing and having part failures a few months into owning them.
[] ... reliability ... I don't know. But I have a Dell optiplex 7040M from 2015 that I use many hours per day (most of the time). So far I have had zero issues in these past 9 years with this mini PC. Of course, this says nothing about the reliability of the RYZEN 9 8945HS Mini PC. It only means that a mini format by itself is not an argument against (or for) reliability. As to support ... it depends. If you want to play the latest greatest computer game, you need to replace your PC just about every year or so. For day to day usage, using ordinary mundane common applications, a 9 year old mini PC (or even older) will still suffice. My 9 year old mini PC is still good enough to watch movies, to do computer programming (mainly Java. But also Php and web page development HTML/CSS. Though I am more of a background programmer and not a web page designer), office software, internet, etc.. I am not a gamer. So to me that is irrelevant. However, my mini PC may reach its end of its life. Because I am still running Windows 10. I don't think it is worth upgrading to Windows 11. Not upgrading (may and eventually will) affect security and firmware support. Nevertheless, I expect my current mini PC to last to at least 2026.
I passed on this model because it only came with one M.2 NVME Gen 4 slot and instead purchased the MinisForum UM790 Pro which instead contains 2 M.2 NVME Gen 4 slots. All other specs are the same between the two systems. The only other difference is the MinisForum comes with Window 11 Home whereas the Geekom A8 comes with Windows 11 Pro and the MinisForum also doesn't include a card reader. I'm very pleased with the MinisForum UM790-Pro and glad I chose it!
Interesting. A MinisForum UM790 Pro 7940HS purchased 9/14/2023 numbers are Geekbench 6: 2438 & 12814 / Fire Strike: 7567, 8148, 28913 & 2864 / Time Spy: 3334, 2960, 11742. I am just reporting on what numbers I obtained for those three tests and I am not comparing anything else regarding the computers. I would have thought the 8945HS would be just a bit 'faster' than the 7940HS rather than the other way around. Maybe it is a build (bios, components, etc.) difference and not the CPUs. Thank you once again for a well produced, informative video!
The difference between the 79xx and the 89xx is the 'Ryzen AI' portion of the chip and nothing else. If you don't care about AI (as in you don't develop using AMD's R-AI suite), then don't bother with the 39 TOPs the newer model is pushing. MS have said themselves the industry standard would be set at 50 TOPs for their future OS launches \ updates \ reskins-of-old-versions-of-Windows-with-even-less-privacy-and-more-ChatGPT. We'll have to upate to something better than what's currently offered.
@@SaarN1337Exactly, unless people explicit needs those features which is propably under 0,1 % of gamers this processor series is kinda a senceless gimmick.
The difference between these 2 APU's you've mentioned is next to notin besides running at slightly lower power on the 89XX for the same performance. It's just a refresh
@@nijadanabtawi5746 Asus ROG zephrus g14 2023 model. all white, rgb back lit keyboard and 165hz gsync screen with 600 nits brightness. That sale was a steal lol
Kinda funny comment about the egpu. Really they're each in their own class. The laptop has a built in 4060 so will definitely outperform the mini however in terms of elegance and minimalism, the mini pc will do the trick. It's basically up to how you want your setup to be. Grats on the laptop! Happy gaming!
I'm waiting/curious to see the RX 880M and eventually the RDNA5 APU's. I have the 780M in my WinMax2 (2023) and really wanna see the next gen version of that.
How does the performance compare between the Ryzen 7 8845HS and the Ryzen 9 8945HS? Currently seeing a whole system through e-bay from Geekom PC Store for $558.72 with the Ryzen 7 8845HS. Now there is also the Beelink GTi14 which has just come out, with intel ARC graphics, with overall better gaming results, but that system is $300 more at $849.
Ya I only play at 1080p and an older title UT2004....so it should be good on a such a machine and maybe I could get rid of my 'sff pc.'...which is still a big heavy box but smaller than a half-tower.
thanks for the video, you state in the video there is a 2tb inside the A8 on the spec sheet for sales it states 1 upgradeable please confirm 1 or 2 I see i=the A8i has a 2TB wanting to buy so eiger for an answer. Thanx G
it will be cool if we could mount this PC into a Thermalright assassin, I mean it should be come ready to mount it ina CPU cooler and the bios should allow us to go free in power consumption, for me will be perfect..
@@Okamine i am going to give you some perspective here, my daily driver is a itx pc, i cant hear its fans, i can hear the psu fan my gaming pc is the same but under load, i cant hear it, at all if i buy this one and while using it to watch videos, or play a game it decides to make annoying noises, i will hate it and will stop using it some of us do not use headphones to browse the web or watch youtube, so it is important the size for me is great, the noise, you keep it
Already bought it, best to replace playstation 5 And using external 4tb ssd for running batocera This thing can emulate ps2, ps3, ps vita, nintendo wii, wiiu, nintendo switch and xbox 360 What a monster from this small package
There is no way an iGPU could perform this well in such a small device. You are comparing a gaming PC with a 65W CPU and 200W+ GPU and big cooling fans to an SOC with a maximum power of 35-54W total (!) and about 1/8th of the cooling capacity. Simply physically not possible.
I am curious. Is there anyone that made a custom case for miniPC like this and made a custom cooler too so the processor can go as fast as it can without limited by thermal.
Only onr M.2 is a deal breaker to me, also, only one USB 4 while UM790 can put two, also the BT is 5.2, what? the other are using 5.3, and I heard from other reviewer that the bottom plate reduce wifi signal receiver
its to bad that you never show games like Borderlands, Halo Master chief collection or Uncharted legacy of thieves collection, specifically Borderlands 3, Uncharted 4 and Halo 4
HDMI 2.0? So it can only drive 4k at 60hz? On a top of the line minipc released in 2024? Wtf is wrong with these people, why do they always cheap out try and save a few dollars and cripple the product? Just make something that is PERFECT
What they should do is turn that mini pc into an Xbox controller then add type C for AR glasses, no need to have a screen or a monitor, just a controller and glasses.
I think there is market for 8 core APUs, but when I think about such portable gaming, I'd rather have maximum 6 smaller 4c cores, but larger iGPU. I don't understand why AMD still making that unbalanced 8 cores APU. I wish AMD produce something like 8649xx with 6 cores and 16CU "790m" iGPU
@@terfy Where did you get that info? Drive is a drive. But if you want reliable written dvd or bluray discs, use 3,5 inch (desktop) drive in external case and connect when you need it. 3,5 inch drives are heavier and more robust (less vibrations during writing and reading media)
@@LuisPerez-5 ETA will play games even on toaster 😁. As every day machine this is very nice. There are less expensive mini pcs, but this seems to have good cooling design, and it is very compact. That is what users paying..
For $300, you can get something decent that's around a Switch. This is decent if you want to do what I do and stream to your phone for mobile play. I plan to wait 4 years and pick up this thing or another one like it for high-end gaming.
Try disabling CSM in the bios, save and go into bios to see if you can allocate more memory to video.
Excellent, I was waiting for this model!
Thank you for this review!
these look great but still top question is reliability, plug-and-playability and Long term customer support. Have read so many horror comments on Reddit about these type of miniPCs companies failing and having part failures a few months into owning them.
[] ... reliability ...
I don't know. But I have a Dell optiplex 7040M from 2015 that I use many hours per day (most of the time). So far I have had zero issues in these past 9 years with this mini PC.
Of course, this says nothing about the reliability of the RYZEN 9 8945HS Mini PC. It only means that a mini format by itself is not an argument against (or for) reliability.
As to support ... it depends.
If you want to play the latest greatest computer game, you need to replace your PC just about every year or so. For day to day usage, using ordinary mundane common applications, a 9 year old mini PC (or even older) will still suffice.
My 9 year old mini PC is still good enough to watch movies, to do computer programming (mainly Java. But also Php and web page development HTML/CSS. Though I am more of a background programmer and not a web page designer), office software, internet, etc..
I am not a gamer. So to me that is irrelevant.
However, my mini PC may reach its end of its life. Because I am still running Windows 10. I don't think it is worth upgrading to Windows 11. Not upgrading (may and eventually will) affect security and firmware support.
Nevertheless, I expect my current mini PC to last to at least 2026.
@@wimahlers Not worth upgrading to W11 indeed. Better to build/buy a new system.
These builders are getting better at making mini pcs. :)
Please test these APU PC's for how long they take until thermal throttling in games starts (caused by ddr5 overheating).
For a $900 Mini PC, not having BT5.3 is odd.
900???? Oh my god
900 is crazy. I just picked up a 7940hs/4060 laptop for $999
🤯
How much!? 😧
@@cheeseswears and for 600 a 4050 with i5 13gen
I passed on this model because it only came with one M.2 NVME Gen 4 slot and instead purchased the MinisForum UM790 Pro which instead contains 2 M.2 NVME Gen 4 slots. All other specs are the same between the two systems. The only other difference is the MinisForum comes with Window 11 Home whereas the Geekom A8 comes with Windows 11 Pro and the MinisForum also doesn't include a card reader. I'm very pleased with the MinisForum UM790-Pro and glad I chose it!
Beelink version also comes with NVME slots as well.
Interesting. A MinisForum UM790 Pro 7940HS purchased 9/14/2023 numbers are Geekbench 6: 2438 & 12814 / Fire Strike: 7567, 8148, 28913 & 2864 / Time Spy: 3334, 2960, 11742. I am just reporting on what numbers I obtained for those three tests and I am not comparing anything else regarding the computers. I would have thought the 8945HS would be just a bit 'faster' than the 7940HS rather than the other way around. Maybe it is a build (bios, components, etc.) difference and not the CPUs. Thank you once again for a well produced, informative video!
The difference between the 79xx and the 89xx is the 'Ryzen AI' portion of the chip and nothing else. If you don't care about AI (as in you don't develop using AMD's R-AI suite), then don't bother with the 39 TOPs the newer model is pushing. MS have said themselves the industry standard would be set at 50 TOPs for their future OS launches \ updates \ reskins-of-old-versions-of-Windows-with-even-less-privacy-and-more-ChatGPT. We'll have to upate to something better than what's currently offered.
@@SaarN1337Exactly, unless people explicit needs those features which is propably under 0,1 % of gamers this processor series is kinda a senceless gimmick.
The difference between these 2 APU's you've mentioned is next to notin besides running at slightly lower power on the 89XX for the same performance.
It's just a refresh
Very nice! And for less than half the price of the same spec Apple M4 Mac Mini
Seems as very nice little machine 😊
I just bought a laptop that has a 7940hs and a 4060 for $1000 on sale. These expensive mini pcs are just not worth it, at least for gaming.
Is that laptop capable of external GPU ?
make and model ?
@@nijadanabtawi5746 Asus ROG zephrus g14 2023 model. all white, rgb back lit keyboard and 165hz gsync screen with 600 nits brightness. That sale was a steal lol
@petrklic7064 it has usb 4.0, so I guess,but it has a discrete card already
Kinda funny comment about the egpu. Really they're each in their own class.
The laptop has a built in 4060 so will definitely outperform the mini however in terms of elegance and minimalism, the mini pc will do the trick.
It's basically up to how you want your setup to be.
Grats on the laptop! Happy gaming!
Thank you very much for all your work. What about the noise level under load?
I wonder too. 120W power supply? How is that tiny box going to dispose of even half of that heat with any bearable noise?
900!! Better love me long time...
Could you please review Beelink ser8? That one with extra ssd slot and a dust filter looks better than Geekom.
Although this pc has some pretty beefy io, i wish it included oculink for egpus. still a good performer though, considering the size
I'm waiting/curious to see the RX 880M and eventually the RDNA5 APU's. I have the 780M in my WinMax2 (2023) and really wanna see the next gen version of that.
How does the performance compare between the Ryzen 7 8845HS and the Ryzen 9 8945HS? Currently seeing a whole system through e-bay from Geekom PC Store for $558.72 with the Ryzen 7 8845HS.
Now there is also the Beelink GTi14 which has just come out, with intel ARC graphics, with overall better gaming results, but that system is $300 more at $849.
Really excited to see if the RDNA 4 APU's can make form factors like this relevant for 1080p gaming at high settings.
Ya I only play at 1080p and an older title UT2004....so it should be good on a such a machine and maybe I could get rid of my 'sff pc.'...which is still a big heavy box but smaller than a half-tower.
👏
AMD Strix Halo
i just got mine today. Just installed something, bout to make it go to work
how is the fan noise under load?
Please, consider adding a basic review of hardware support out of the box on a popular Linux distro
could you review mini pc cooling options to prevent thermal throttling ssd cooler.. cpu cooler
any aio water cooling solutions ..?
thanks for the video, you state in the video there is a 2tb inside the A8 on the spec sheet for sales it states 1 upgradeable please confirm 1 or 2 I see i=the A8i has a 2TB wanting to buy so eiger for an answer. Thanx G
it will be cool if we could mount this PC into a Thermalright assassin, I mean it should be come ready to mount it ina CPU cooler and the bios should allow us to go free in power consumption, for me will be perfect..
Please show ps3 emulation on these mini pc's
Works fine at 1080p
market really is pushing these minipcs hard, the price and fan noise under load will keep pushing away people from them
Couldn’t care less about the fan noise, as long as it performs. I mean for the size theres gonna be drawbacks 🤷♂️
@@Okamine i am going to give you some perspective here, my daily driver is a itx pc, i cant hear its fans, i can hear the psu fan
my gaming pc is the same but under load, i cant hear it, at all
if i buy this one and while using it to watch videos, or play a game it decides to make annoying noises, i will hate it and will stop using it
some of us do not use headphones to browse the web or watch youtube, so it is important
the size for me is great, the noise, you keep it
And those conventional pc's might be bigger and quieter but consume 4x the electricity.
4k video playback is so good these days you need to step up to an 8k display to show the true differences in capabilities.
My laptop with an i7 7700hq and using its intgrated graphics from 8 years ago, runs 4k60 with no skipped frames.. the fans ddont even speed up lol
really like the specs.... but the only 1 SSD card slot is a no-go for me.
Can you please tell me what is the make and model of the portable monitor you use in some of your videos? Thank you I enjoy your videos on mini PCs.
Hi, geekom has also XT, IT series. I have doubt between XT, IT , and A series. I am a stock trader and wanna connect 3 screens. What is your opinion?
Already bought it, best to replace playstation 5
And using external 4tb ssd for running batocera
This thing can emulate ps2, ps3, ps vita, nintendo wii, wiiu, nintendo switch and xbox 360
What a monster from this small package
and booom...to hotttt cpu..booom ...
@@AndraMobil yup it is hot so i come up with external cooler
Its a shame that an iGPU can run a 3 1/2 years old game only at 540p render resolution at the lowest settings. It should do modern games at 1080p low.
There is no way an iGPU could perform this well in such a small device. You are comparing a gaming PC with a 65W CPU and 200W+ GPU and big cooling fans to an SOC with a maximum power of 35-54W total (!) and about 1/8th of the cooling capacity. Simply physically not possible.
Would have been nice to see it compared to a Mac Mini side to side in footprint.
I am curious. Is there anyone that made a custom case for miniPC like this and made a custom cooler too so the processor can go as fast as it can without limited by thermal.
just checked on its price.....and i would rather build a 3.8 Liter SFF with LP RTX4060 for way better performance and only cost little extra.
There is no 3.5 Jack in the back?
Thank you for all your good work. Are you recommending it for video editing of 4K 60fps videos?
Does it handle them smoothly?
Thx for your love of our mini PC, we'll unveil the other three latest mini PCs!
Nice but as many HDMI as usb-c?
I don't understand in 2018 AMD can give i7-8709G a near GTX 1080 performance. Here six years later their own APU still not as fast as Intel + RX Vega.
Too bad one of those ports isn't a DisplayPort. Lots of monitors out there that don't get full refresh rate on HDMI. Nice box though.
@ETA PRIME : can we see some higher end emulation?
Can I use Meta Quest 3 on GEEKOM A7 and GEEKOM A8 ? Thanks.
Only onr M.2 is a deal breaker to me, also, only one USB 4 while UM790 can put two, also the BT is 5.2, what? the other are using 5.3, and I heard from other reviewer that the bottom plate reduce wifi signal receiver
Can't wait until I make time and place and budget and enough need to buy a box like this (that can be given a proper cooler)
Can it connect to Quest 2 for PC VR games?
I wonder how small they will get with ARM processors lol
Does ryzen master not work on the HS series chips?
Hey ETA which mini gaming pc can i get at $200 with USB-C video that can play most of the 2D games on the market and handle some dreamcast emulation?
his recent mini pcs arent dropping at that price
@@YuNherd he reviewed a few at $200 and under. They ran older PC game and modern 2d games fine. I just want one with usb c video
its to bad that you never show games like Borderlands, Halo Master chief collection or Uncharted legacy of thieves collection, specifically Borderlands 3, Uncharted 4 and Halo 4
what kind of keyboard are you using?
HDMI 2.0? So it can only drive 4k at 60hz? On a top of the line minipc released in 2024? Wtf is wrong with these people, why do they always cheap out try and save a few dollars and cripple the product? Just make something that is PERFECT
What they should do is turn that mini pc into an Xbox controller then add type C for AR glasses, no need to have a screen or a monitor, just a controller and glasses.
Is kinda shame they remove, 2nd ssd and hdd port. Or is just amd variant who lack of line lol.
Are there any AMD Mini PC but USB-C powered?
how does Escape from Tarkov run on this mini?
please for the love of games, test these at higher settings and aim for 30 fps
Can the PC be powered by a 120w USB C connection?
Please try Machenike 7940hs!
its unlucky they dont have vga cause i have an older monitor i could use for 2ns
another one with external power brick, i choose mac mini only because of internal power supply
Almost perfect except only one m.2 . I hope you can also review the latest beelink Ser8
how does this compare to the IT13
6600H mini pc are still the value king mini PCs
can this computer use premiere editing?
Accordingly to cpubenchmark, this cpu is a little faster than the Z1 Extreme, so is not that impressive considering the ROG Aally's size.
I think there is market for 8 core APUs, but when I think about such portable gaming, I'd rather have maximum 6 smaller 4c cores, but larger iGPU. I don't understand why AMD still making that unbalanced 8 cores APU. I wish AMD produce something like 8649xx with 6 cores and 16CU "790m" iGPU
is it possible to install faster ram?
4:03 gpu memory 448mb 🤔🤔🤔
Need Starfield benchmarks
A bit behind on the minisforum pc's
What keyboard is that?
no oculink?
Cinebench R 23 ?
What about the noise?
Emulations test please 🥺😁
I like mini pc but at the same time i don't think it will be my daily usage
I just don't get why AMD nerfed their Ryzen 9 8000 CPUs. It should be a 16-core/32-threads CPU not 8-core/16-threads!
Please do steamOS/ChimeraOS review.
Need this with ZEN 5 :):)):)
Ryzen minipc pricing is getting out of hand
if this came with a disc drive slot, just a slim drive, I might be interested.. but sadly.....
Use external 😁
@@tkuzmic1 I want internal drive, they seem more reliable.
@@terfy Where did you get that info? Drive is a drive. But if you want reliable written dvd or bluray discs, use 3,5 inch (desktop) drive in external case and connect when you need it. 3,5 inch drives are heavier and more robust (less vibrations during writing and reading media)
@@tkuzmic1 you're right.. 3.5 is better. I'll look for a pc case with 3.5 slots. I miss the old days, shouldn't have sold my IBM Aptiva case
can you make emulation switch ps3.... ?
Is this currently the most powerful mini PC?
You are overpaying for this Ryzen 9 that you cannot use in its maximum cpabality. Where is Logic in that?
Is this good for PS3 emulation?
can i use this to code?
Where's the timestamps?
4:19 21.37 watt
Impressive cpu,
Uninspiring igpu.
Saved by upscaling.I would avoid this unit.
The games all looked pretty bad, but I would never buy this for gaming so, fair.
Beelink ser8 please
A new day, a new mini pc from China..
Taiwan
No oculink, no party
MiniPC without oculink port = obsolete
Windows 11 AI requires 40 TOPs though.
For 900 you get much better stuff ....
My UM790 is better than this higher ram, USB4 and even has a 4090 connected to it via oculink m.2. I wish it had a dedicated oculink port.
$900 to play everything on low
It's not gaming machine, but for most users powerfull enough to replace "big box" 😃
@tkuzmic1 Did you not see him play games? For most users, $900 is still too much for what they would do with it.
@@LuisPerez-5 ETA will play games even on toaster 😁. As every day machine this is very nice. There are less expensive mini pcs, but this seems to have good cooling design, and it is very compact. That is what users paying..
@tkuzmic1 As an every day machine it's overpriced.
Need a price limit on these. Over $300 and I'm out.
For $300, you can get something decent that's around a Switch. This is decent if you want to do what I do and stream to your phone for mobile play. I plan to wait 4 years and pick up this thing or another one like it for high-end gaming.