Tag: GMKTEC

GMKTec G11 Mini PC Review – A Budget (by 2026 standards) Offering

The landscape for budget mini PCs has shifted recently. Not long ago, a well-equipped unit could be found for under $200, but those options have become increasingly scarce.

My latest Mini PC review takes a look at the GMKTec G11, a machine that attempts to balance affordability with a modern feature set. Powered by an AMD Ryzen Embedded R2514 processor, the unit I tested includes 16GB of RAM and Windows 11 Pro for a fairly reasonable price. For those who prefer to provide their own components, a barebones version is available for about $169 (compensated affiliate links).

The hardware design is functional, offering a variety of connectivity options. On the front, there are three 10Gbps USB 3 ports, including one Type-C port that supports 4K video output at 60Hz. It is worth noting that this port does not support power delivery, so the included external power supply is still required. The back of the device features dual 2.5 gigabit Ethernet ports, which performed to standard in my testing, and two additional HDMI ports that can each deliver 4k 60 independently. For wireless connectivity, the G11 uses a MediaTek Wi-Fi 6E radio. In my environment, it reached speeds of 600Mbps downstream and nearly a gigabit upstream.

Inside the chassis, the G11 shows some improvements over previous entry-level models from this manufacturer. It now features two NVMe slots rather than one running with the older mSATA standard, allowing for dual-drive configurations. The RAM is also user-upgradeable, with two DDR4 slots supporting up to 32GB.

Cooling is handled by an internal fan that remains relatively quiet during standard operations. Users can toggle between three performance modes in the BIOS; switching from the default 20-watt “standard” mode to the 25-watt “performance” mode provides a measurable boost in benchmarks, though it does cause the fan to engage more frequently.

My initial experience with the software was less straightforward. Unlike previous GMKTec machines I have reviewed, which arrived with a clean installation of Windows, this unit included several pre-installed applications. One, called “GMKTec Claw,” appears to be a version of an AI application that requires a login I did not have. Another, titled Herdsman, is apparently a Local AI client that was entirely in Chinese. Given the low-level system access these types of AI tools often require, I would suggest that users consider a fresh installation of Windows or a move to a Linux distribution upon receiving the device.

In terms of daily performance, the G11 handles standard productivity tasks, such as web browsing and office applications, without difficulty. However, I encountered some limitations during specialized testing. While streaming 4K video at 60fps on YouTube, the system dropped a noticeable number of frames, suggesting that the drivers for this specific Ryzen processor may still require optimization. The Browserbench.org Speedometer benchmark placed the R2514 in the same performance bracket as Intel’s N300 and N150 processors, which are common in this price range.

Graphical performance is modest but better than its low-end Intel competitors. During a test of No Man’s Sky at 720p on the lowest settings, frame rates stayed consistently below 30fps. Similarly, PS2 emulation struggled to reach full speed at native resolutions.

For those interested in media serving, the AMD architecture presents some challenges with Plex. While I managed to get some hardware transcoding working in Windows, higher-bitrate 4K HDR files caused the CPU usage to spike and the video to buffer. This is an area where an Intel Mini PC generally maintains an advantage.

But the G11 proved to be a stable platform for Linux. I booted the latest version of Ubuntu and found that the hardware was recognized immediately, including the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth modules. The operating system felt responsive, and for users looking to run Docker containers or a basic home server, this hardware offers a capable foundation. The system draws about 11 to 12 watts at idle and peaks at 48 watts under heavy load, keeping temperatures around 60°C while running sustained heavy workloads.

The G11 represents the current entry point for the mini PC market. While it no longer carries the sub-$200 price tag of years past for a full configuration, it provides a functional set of ports and upgradeable internals that suit basic desktop needs or lightweight server duties.

GMKTec EVO-X1 Mini PC Review

My latest video review is of the new GMKTec EVO-X1. It’s built around AMD’s Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor and is clearly aiming for the higher end of the mini PC market—not just in terms of performance, but price as well. At the time of testing, this unit retailed for about $892. It’s not cheap, but high-performance mini PCs generally don’t come with low price tags.

The unit I looked at came with 32GB of LPDDR5X RAM running at 7500 MHz. That memory is soldered on, which is a limitation of this AMD chipset for the best performance, so it’s not upgradeable. There is a 64GB version available (compensated affiliate link), and I’d recommend picking the one that best suits your needs up front.

Physically, the EVO-X1 is nicely compact and has a clean design with subtle RGB lighting. The lighting is barely noticeable unless you’re in a dark room.

On the storage side, there are two NVMe slots—both PCIe 4.0—which allow for some flexibility. The one I tested came with a 1TB drive, and you can have a maximum of 4TB in each slot for a total of 8TB. Great for dual booting operating systems.

Up front, there’s an OCuLink port which can allow using a desktop GPU or any PCIe card with the right breakout board. There’s also a 40 gigabit USB4 port, which supports Thunderbolt 3 devices, including GPUs. In a previous video, I tested the system running both an OCuLink and Thunderbolt GPU simultaneously, which was an interesting capability for a device this size.

Additionally it has two 10Gbps USB-A ports on the back, two more on the front, HDMI and DisplayPort outputs, and dual 2.5Gb Ethernet ports, both powered by Intel controllers. That said, Wi-Fi performance was not great. It does support Wi-Fi 6, but I saw significantly lower throughput compared to other Wi-Fi 6 devices in the same physical location. Wired Ethernet is definitely the better option here.

Booting into Windows 11 Pro (which comes pre-activated on most GMKtec systems), the system idled at around 8.4 watts of power consumption—pretty efficient. But the fan was active even at idle. Under load, the fan noise ramps up noticeably. Cooling is aggressive, which helps prevent thermal throttling, but it comes at the cost of constant fan noise. If quiet operation is a priority, this may not be the best choice.

Web browsing was smooth, as expected. The system handled 4K 60fps YouTube playback with a handful of dropped frames. Video editing in DaVinci Resolve is doable, especially for simpler tasks like cross dissolves and basic effects. Once I started layering on more intensive effects, some lag was noticeable, but for basic YouTube-style content creation, the performance was quite serviceable.

Since AMD is positioning this processor as an “AI” chip, I ran a local language model using the DeepSeek 8B parameter model. It worked well enough, though it relied solely on the CPU—not the internal GPU or NPU—so performance was a bit slower than on systems with dedicated GPU acceleration. Still, for light AI workloads, it’s passable.

Gaming was a surprisingly solid experience. Cyberpunk 2077 ran at around 55 fps on low settings at 1080p. No Man’s Sky managed to hit 60 fps most of the time, also at 1080p and low settings. These results are particularly impressive considering everything was running on integrated graphics. Advanced retro emulation should also be well within its wheelhouse.

I also gave Linux a spin using the latest version of Ubuntu. Everything worked right out of the box—video, audio, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi. Performance was consistent with what I saw on the Windows side, and with the two NVMe slots, dual-boot setups are easy to configure.

So overall, I walked away impressed with the performance and expandability of the EVO X1, even if the fan noise was hard to ignore. It’s not for everyone, especially given the price, but it has a lot to offer for those who want serious performance in a small form factor—and don’t mind a little whirring in the background.