Awesome review! Maybe you could start having charts for gaming too for a straight numbers comparison, but THANK YOU for doing the 1440p testing! Also, I think the Reatan systems look to be the same as Minisforum.
I can't believe how expensive this is over one of the Minisforum models with dual m.2 and an active nvme and ram fan. I'm loving my UM790 Pro for a Home Theater PC. Plus the kids can play some lighter games on it. And I can always do Steam Steaming from a desktop.
Really depends on what you consider light gaming too. 😄 the 790pro can easily handle 4 year old AAA titles at decent quality, and a little fsr will put it over the hump, so to speak, for more demanding games. Sure it's no rtx 4080, but then again, the 4080 is bigger and costs more
Great review! We can always count on you to examine and compare the cooling/performance super well! Also, thanks for catching the sleep problem and explaining it. I am surprised Geekom had only the one m.2 ssd port. There are clearly traces and space for a second port even if it couldn't be a full size 2280 drive. The ssd heat spreader feels like a bit of an afterthought where geekom probably wanted to put a 2.5" drive but found out pcie gen 4 drives do need some help staying cool unlike gen 3. Cooling seems like geekom's achilles heel every model.
Whilst this Mini PC and the ones from Minisforum are really great for packing so much in a tiny form factor, I can't wait for the day when they can achieve the same power efficiency as the Apple Silicone Mac Minis until then, I can't justify the difference in power consumption as I run my M2 Mac Mini which also runs a Windows 11 VM 24 x 7
@@synen not a gamer so that doesn't bother me, I mainly bought it for it's power efficiency which no Windows PC that has the same or better performance can match at present...I have owned several Intel NUCs and none came close to the power efficiency of my M2 Mac Mini so kudos to Apple 😊
I was looking forward to this review and really wanted to like the A7, but not without more cooling and at least a second nvme drive. (Yes 2TB is nice but having gotten used to Every Other Mini I've got supporting 2 drives (albeit one SATA), this just doesn't cut it, given the price. I like the nice case, but you'd think that having watched other mini makers add secondary cooling, that makers of expensive units would try that: most people buying low-end minis won't be affected as many of them are using them in low-demand ways, but most people buying the more expensive units would, I think, have issues with this. On the upside (and this feels like damning with faint praise), I found, in the video anyway, the fan noise in high-performance mode to be more pleasant than most minis.)
Do they really need to have 32GB for the R9 only? I think a 16GB 1TB option for the R9 would have been fine also. At the same time give the R7 the 32GB option? I guess it comes down to manufacturing.
Something that bugged me in your review - you mentioned that this CPU does not support hardware decoding of video. This is normally coming from the integrated graphics card. How is 780M different than the Intel iGPUs in that matter? I thought they are on par feature and performance-wise with Intel in this regard. Don't tell me AMD-based machines decode video in software in 2024?
Yeah, sorry. I've changed my wording since then as after doing more research, AMD does have some hardware decoding on the integrated graphics. Compared to Intel's Quicksync option though, it's far worse with much more reliance on the CPU. For example, I tested a 5700U in Adobe Premiere at 4K which regularly spiked the CPU to 100% and caused stutters, while the Intel 1255U I'm testing now with the same benchmark doesn't have a problem.
You very briefly mentioned connecting an external graphics card to this unit. Would you please expand on how to do that, please? Thanks you! Also, what do I do with all my existing 2-3TB SATA drives? I need to connect them; or at the very least transfer the data from them onto a VERY large hard drive. How do I do this? (Me? I'm not gaming at all; but my Photo-specific software is REQUIRING graphics Card memory for AI in order to even run! I do Wedding Photography -- and I handle LOADS & LOADS of data!!) Can this unit work for me; or do I need to upgrade my desktop towers at ~$1500/each x 3?
From my little experience ( so far ) with Linux, you can update the kernal in most cases to get the wifi to work. However yes you might need an ethernet for that update if you can't make a newer boost USB from another PC (I think you can do with with another PC or at the very least if you make a USB with persistence, you can boot it on another PC with working wifi or internet and update the kernal there and it'll save to the USB because of the persistence.)
I just don't understand them. Why, since we are talking about mini desktop computers, don't they just make the cooling a bit better with a bit increase of size? They can make them look better even if they are thiccer by just employing better vibrant colors or other shapes. Going for the Mac Mini look and trying to make them as small as possible serves no one, not even themselves. FFS. PS. In general I do prefer seeing the temps in these benchmarks/games. PS2. No sleep mode sounds so stupid. I hope they fix it.
@@stevenknight95 Yup, thats what I'm doing, and looking for a normal PC. But you know what happens to normal PCs after 5 or 6 years when you decide to get a NEW one? Yup, nas or a server so they don't go waste, so yeah this option is not an option.
i just received the GEEKOM A8 with the 8th gen ryzen 7. So can you do a video on it. For now its running smooth and very fast. Also is there any tweaking we can make it to it from the BIOS?
GEEKOM launched the A7 mini-PC, the most impressive mini-PC available... without warranty support. Oh, it's mentioned on their web pages but it isn't real. At least not in Australia or via the US or China. Warranty = Fail. With a new market segment in mini-PCs & the gaming market open to a new hardware segment, AMD & Intel are hedging more than a bit on all this to jump start their cloud gaming future and expand their chip presence in the IoT. I wonder if AMD & Intel know what GEEKOM are doing to their brands. Maybe our UA-cam reviewers should include warranty when reviewing "exciting" new hardware?
@@Robtech Tried to order direct but that failed so I had to buy it on Amazon. Not that it mattered but somehow it was cheaper on Amazon. Still can't get GEEKOM chatbot to provide a sensible response that doesn't refer to sales.
Contact Amazon live chat. Mention the order, the warranty as stated in the description and they should help facilitate an RMA. Don't take no for an answer.
@@Robtech Cheers. Had contacted both Amazon & GEEKOM today. GEEKOM have come back so I'll feed the final outcome back to you. I'd posted the my same original comment to you on their YT promo video. ;-)
No offense, but gaming benchmark s are outdated and unnecessary. For this sort of money , no one will buy it for gaming when you can buy a gaming console that is far more user friendly and compatible for gaming . And , with cloud gaming like gforce now , you can get rtx flagship performance anyway . You should rather focus on productivity tasks , video content creation , photoshop/lightroom editing and coding . This would be a far more realistic target market and use case for these mini pc's . And compare those products to Apple's latest . Otherwise it's a meh review with really just reading of a spec sheet
You are 100% correct. I’m frankly sick and tired of all youtubers just talking about gaming performance with any machine. The intended purpose of the original mini computer was NOT for gaming. It’s almost impossible to find any content about the best DAW or Video editing machine nowadays. I don’t need some stupid $1700 GPU to play video games. I need to be able to create work. Guess I’ll just stick with my Macs.
Wish we could see Valorant results with higher configs. If we can get such a high FPS with low settings, why not test it with medium or high so we can see the performance?
Hey Rob. Now that I won't even be looking at new Minis for 3 years I almost have no reason to visit this place. But then you're a good bloke and it's fun to see Minis advance, so Hiya and an observation. A Mini PC this price triggers something most Mini's need not panic about: being stolen. Stealing an old school $750 tower takes work, but sticking this Geekom behind a jacket or in a pair of sweats -- lol -- isn't impossible. Hmm...
For anyone not wanting to waste their time or money on Chinese e-waste, perhaps you could compare full size desktop bechmarks to your top perforing mini pc's. Say the Reatan Alloy 9 vs. Intel i5 13 gen processor with a GPU, as a base model. See how it stacks up or not.
Thank you for reviewing our product. Your feedback on GEEKOM products is highly valuable to us!😉
Let me use windows 10
You can by installing it yourself along with the drivers. Not sure if the Windows license will transfer across. Probably not.
Great video! Your mini PC reviews are so much more thorough than ETA Prime’s.
Awesome review! Maybe you could start having charts for gaming too for a straight numbers comparison, but THANK YOU for doing the 1440p testing! Also, I think the Reatan systems look to be the same as Minisforum.
I can't believe how expensive this is over one of the Minisforum models with dual m.2 and an active nvme and ram fan. I'm loving my UM790 Pro for a Home Theater PC. Plus the kids can play some lighter games on it. And I can always do Steam Steaming from a desktop.
Really depends on what you consider light gaming too. 😄 the 790pro can easily handle 4 year old AAA titles at decent quality, and a little fsr will put it over the hump, so to speak, for more demanding games. Sure it's no rtx 4080, but then again, the 4080 is bigger and costs more
Great review! We can always count on you to examine and compare the cooling/performance super well! Also, thanks for catching the sleep problem and explaining it.
I am surprised Geekom had only the one m.2 ssd port. There are clearly traces and space for a second port even if it couldn't be a full size 2280 drive. The ssd heat spreader feels like a bit of an afterthought where geekom probably wanted to put a 2.5" drive but found out pcie gen 4 drives do need some help staying cool unlike gen 3. Cooling seems like geekom's achilles heel every model.
Whilst this Mini PC and the ones from Minisforum are really great for packing so much in a tiny form factor, I can't wait for the day when they can achieve the same power efficiency as the Apple Silicone Mac Minis until then, I can't justify the difference in power consumption as I run my M2 Mac Mini which also runs a Windows 11 VM 24 x 7
Those Macs cant run games for crap.
@@synen not a gamer so that doesn't bother me, I mainly bought it for it's power efficiency which no Windows PC that has the same or better performance can match at present...I have owned several Intel NUCs and none came close to the power efficiency of my M2 Mac Mini so kudos to Apple 😊
Power efficiency is not that important in a desktop, only matters in mobile. @@cmathieu
I was looking forward to this review and really wanted to like the A7, but not without more cooling and at least a second nvme drive. (Yes 2TB is nice but having gotten used to Every Other Mini I've got supporting 2 drives (albeit one SATA), this just doesn't cut it, given the price. I like the nice case, but you'd think that having watched other mini makers add secondary cooling, that makers of expensive units would try that: most people buying low-end minis won't be affected as many of them are using them in low-demand ways, but most people buying the more expensive units would, I think, have issues with this. On the upside (and this feels like damning with faint praise), I found, in the video anyway, the fan noise in high-performance mode to be more pleasant than most minis.)
another great video, thanks. Q: how did you find the cooling? Thank you
Do they really need to have 32GB for the R9 only? I think a 16GB 1TB option for the R9 would have been fine also. At the same time give the R7 the 32GB option? I guess it comes down to manufacturing.
The Ubuntu test really soured the deal for me. What kind of lousy drivers does it have that wifi doesn’t work out of the box on Linux??
Agree! If something doesn't 100% support Linux (and probably FreeBSD soon), I ain't buying it!
Something that bugged me in your review - you mentioned that this CPU does not support hardware decoding of video. This is normally coming from the integrated graphics card. How is 780M different than the Intel iGPUs in that matter? I thought they are on par feature and performance-wise with Intel in this regard. Don't tell me AMD-based machines decode video in software in 2024?
Yeah, sorry. I've changed my wording since then as after doing more research, AMD does have some hardware decoding on the integrated graphics. Compared to Intel's Quicksync option though, it's far worse with much more reliance on the CPU. For example, I tested a 5700U in Adobe Premiere at 4K which regularly spiked the CPU to 100% and caused stutters, while the Intel 1255U I'm testing now with the same benchmark doesn't have a problem.
Fair enough. How does the Ryzen 9 deal with decoding though, have you tried it? It's a completely different architecture.
The Ryzen 9 handles 4K Adobe Premiere projects fine, just not as well as Intel CPUs.
wish there was a barebones unit
Yeah, GEEKOM doesn't offer any barebones unfortunately.
Hi
Do
Ryzen z1 extreme is equal to Ryzen 9 7940hs.
Both have same specs
😮
Z1 Extreme has lower CPU clocks, turbo GPU clock and power limit.
Mine plays ok counterstrike 2 has a terrible mouse cursor stutter. Strange
You very briefly mentioned connecting an external graphics card to this unit. Would you please expand on how to do that, please? Thanks you!
Also, what do I do with all my existing 2-3TB SATA drives? I need to connect them; or at the very least transfer the data from them onto a VERY large hard drive. How do I do this? (Me? I'm not gaming at all; but my Photo-specific software is REQUIRING graphics Card memory for AI in order to even run! I do Wedding Photography -- and I handle LOADS & LOADS of data!!) Can this unit work for me; or do I need to upgrade my desktop towers at ~$1500/each x 3?
It has a USB4 port, so in theory you can easily connect an eGPU.
A really great overview and comparison as usual. It would be interesting to see how it fairs with Apples Mac Mini.
From my little experience ( so far ) with Linux, you can update the kernal in most cases to get the wifi to work. However yes you might need an ethernet for that update if you can't make a newer boost USB from another PC (I think you can do with with another PC or at the very least if you make a USB with persistence, you can boot it on another PC with working wifi or internet and update the kernal there and it'll save to the USB because of the persistence.)
I just don't understand them. Why, since we are talking about mini desktop computers, don't they just make the cooling a bit better with a bit increase of size? They can make them look better even if they are thiccer by just employing better vibrant colors or other shapes.
Going for the Mac Mini look and trying to make them as small as possible serves no one, not even themselves.
FFS.
PS. In general I do prefer seeing the temps in these benchmarks/games.
PS2. No sleep mode sounds so stupid. I hope they fix it.
Agreed, I would rather have a slightly bigger unit with better and quieter cooling, my mini is mounted to the back of the tv anyway.
No intel LAN ? No second nmve ? and 700 USD ? , no I don't think so.
this pc for normal use and gaming, if you want router, server or NAS go look for something else
@@stevenknight95 Yup, thats what I'm doing, and looking for a normal PC. But you know what happens to normal PCs after 5 or 6 years when you decide to get a NEW one? Yup, nas or a server so they don't go waste, so yeah this option is not an option.
i just received the GEEKOM A8 with the 8th gen ryzen 7. So can you do a video on it. For now its running smooth and very fast. Also is there any tweaking we can make it to it from the BIOS?
So it's not as good as the Alloy and still doesn't come with AI functionality that AMD advertises with this chip? Hard pass.
GEEKOM launched the A7 mini-PC, the most impressive mini-PC available... without warranty support. Oh, it's mentioned on their web pages but it isn't real. At least not in Australia or via the US or China. Warranty = Fail. With a new market segment in mini-PCs & the gaming market open to a new hardware segment, AMD & Intel are hedging more than a bit on all this to jump start their cloud gaming future and expand their chip presence in the IoT. I wonder if AMD & Intel know what GEEKOM are doing to their brands. Maybe our UA-cam reviewers should include warranty when reviewing "exciting" new hardware?
Did you buy it on Amazon or the official website?
@@Robtech Tried to order direct but that failed so I had to buy it on Amazon. Not that it mattered but somehow it was cheaper on Amazon. Still can't get GEEKOM chatbot to provide a sensible response that doesn't refer to sales.
Contact Amazon live chat. Mention the order, the warranty as stated in the description and they should help facilitate an RMA. Don't take no for an answer.
@@Robtech Cheers. Had contacted both Amazon & GEEKOM today. GEEKOM have come back so I'll feed the final outcome back to you. I'd posted the my same original comment to you on their YT promo video. ;-)
Okay, good to hear
Um790 pro is better than this
Sic and Gan are gonna make huge changes in the future!
There is no reason to buy intel counterpart.
only reason I see is for IGPU support on video editing software
No offense, but gaming benchmark s are outdated and unnecessary. For this sort of money , no one will buy it for gaming when you can buy a gaming console that is far more user friendly and compatible for gaming . And , with cloud gaming like gforce now , you can get rtx flagship performance anyway . You should rather focus on productivity tasks , video content creation , photoshop/lightroom editing and coding . This would be a far more realistic target market and use case for these mini pc's . And compare those products to Apple's latest . Otherwise it's a meh review with really just reading of a spec sheet
Did you know you can create your own channel?
@@Robtech really !? Oh wow , thanks for the inside tip 🫶
You are 100% correct. I’m frankly sick and tired of all youtubers just talking about gaming performance with any machine. The intended purpose of the original mini computer was NOT for gaming. It’s almost impossible to find any content about the best DAW or Video editing machine nowadays. I don’t need some stupid $1700 GPU to play video games. I need to be able to create work. Guess I’ll just stick with my Macs.
Does it support a 1440p 144Hz monitor?
Hello thank you for the review but I would be grateful if you could compare this in another review with similar products from different manufacturers.
When you remove the base from it, it is you have another plate inside, isn't those 4 screws in that plate for VESA mounting?
Wish we could see Valorant results with higher configs. If we can get such a high FPS with low settings, why not test it with medium or high so we can see the performance?
Arguably the best mini-PC for those that want to use it for work and 1080p PC gaming.
Hey Rob. Now that I won't even be looking at new Minis for 3 years I almost have no reason to visit this place. But then you're a good bloke and it's fun to see Minis advance, so Hiya and an observation. A Mini PC this price triggers something most Mini's need not panic about: being stolen. Stealing an old school $750 tower takes work, but sticking this Geekom behind a jacket or in a pair of sweats -- lol -- isn't impossible. Hmm...
Yep and this one doesn't have a Kensington lock like some others do.
For anyone not wanting to waste their time or money on Chinese e-waste, perhaps you could compare full size desktop bechmarks to your top perforing mini pc's. Say the Reatan Alloy 9 vs. Intel i5 13 gen processor with a GPU, as a base model. See how it stacks up or not.
3:30 Crap design.
Shit ventilation.