Fletch
13 de octubre de 2025
Good value/performance. Well put together.
I've been building desktop PC's for our family and friends since the '90s, but when replacing an aging family desktop, I decided to take a hard look at mini PC's. And Prime Days back in July seemed the perfect time. So, after two days of plowing through the offerings on Amazon from Minisforum, GEEKOM, GMKtec, Beelink, and ACEMAGIC, I decided on this GEEKOM A8 with the Ryzen 7 8745HS APU 32gb of storage, and 1TB drive. This PC will be used for web browsing, watching videos, word prcessing, doing taxes, photo editing, and maybe some casual gaming. I'm not looking to play heavy FPS games, CAD work, LLM generation, or intense video editing. In other words, it's a family computer. I have recommended Minisforum mini PC's to friends before and they've been very happy. In this space, as in buying a laptop or desktop, the brand isn't terribly important. You're (mostly) buying an Intel or AMD processor, laptop memory, and m.2 storage first and foremost. And this logic is borne out in the pricing pretty much. Faster processor, more memory, larger storage and the price goes up and vice versus; the pricing between brands with similar specs are very close (as long as you aren't talking "name brand" PCs). There are features outside of the basic components that can add to the price, too. For example the GEEKOM AX8 with the same processor, same 32gb of memory, and same 1TB of storage is roughly $100 more because it has more USB connections, an extra ethernet port, more memory upgrade headroom, and an aluminum case. Bottom line is that value scales with capability across the mini PC's that I shopped. This A8 was the right intersection of performance and price for me. Here was my logic: APU: The Ryzen 7 8745HS is virtually identical to the Ryzen 7 8845HS but without the NPU compute units. Will I miss the NPU capability? I am guessing no because it was only a token amount of AI capability, not even enough to reach Microsoft's threshold for a Co-Pilot PC. The 8745HS has a slightly slower maximum frequency, (4.9 vs 5.1 Ghz) than the 8845HS, but same TDP and same 780M iGPU. And the 8745HS was quite a bit cheaper. 32GB of Ram: This is probably overkill for this type of PC. Not saying I'll never be glad I have 32GB vs 16GB, but I doubt there will be many times over the life of this computer where that extra RAM is needed. If I could have found this same A8 with 16GB for less money, I probably would have bought it. The memory is Micron DDR5 running at 5600MT. 1TB SSD: That's plenty of storage for my case. I could even have lived with 500/512GB. There is no second m.2 slot, so I can't add a drive, but connecting a second external drive or replacing with a larger drive is an option; one I doubt I'll ever need. The SSD is one I've never heard of, a Wodposit WPBSN4M8-1TTP, but seems to work fine. Connectivity: 1xUSB4 Type C, 1xUSB 3.2 Gen 2 Type C, 3xUSB 3.2 Gen 2 Type A, 2xHDMI 2.0, and one 2.5GB LAN are plenty for a PC like this. Both USB-C ports double as display ports, so you can effectively connect four monitors/TV's to this tiny little box. The generic-looking AMI UEFI bios has limited options, but given that this is essentially a notebook computer internally, that's not a big surprise. About the only thing you can adjust performance-wise is the fan profile. Speaking of that, temperatures seem to be pretty notebook-normal. It's not totally chill, but it doesn't run hot, and the fan only comes on occasionally. You will hear the fan when it runs, but only in a quiet room or if it was on a desk right in front of you (just like if this were a notebook computer). If this is a media server PC for your TV/home theater, you won't hear it while watching entertainment. Mini PC's are still something of a novelty. When you talk to someone looking for a new desktop replacement about them, they might look at you sideways. But, for most, they represent a good value, offering much more performance per dollar than either conventional desktops or notebook computers. They also excel as media servers and are a step up from Raspberry Pi's and other SOC computers. As for gaming, ones with a competent IGP like this one can certainly offer some performance and you can play games on them. But, honestly, at the price point of the GEEKOM A8, you'd be better served, IMO, getting a PS5 or an Xbox for gaming. All that out of the way, I am very impressed by the GEEKOM A8. Not only does has it performed flawlessly so far (three months as of this review), it is also exceptionally well balanced and put together. Packaging, instructions, warranty, are all in line with a quality product. There has been one firmware update since I bought it, and that went off without a hitch. Will update this review if anything noteworthy happens Read moreVer másVer menos
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