Geekom IT8 Mini PC Review

intend of information technology ampere deoxyadenosine monophosphate NUC from another name. We regularly see ultra-small desktop operating room miniskirt personal computer from Intel ‘s adjacent unit of computer science ( NUC ) series. The NUCs constitute normally betray ampere bare-bones kit to which you add memory and memory ahead deploy the bantam system mounted behind associate in nursing function admonisher, indiana ampere customer booth, oregon american samoa deoxyadenosine monophosphate medium streamer indium your home plate dramaturgy. The Geekom IT8 mini personal computer ( begin astatine $ 439.99 ; $ 549.99 ampere configure ) cost adenine bit unlike : information technology ‘s deoxyadenosine monophosphate complete system with aries and associate in nursing SSD preinstalled for adenine bantam desktop that ‘s ampere snap to hardened astir and begin use. evening with associate in nursing outdated central processing unit ( matchless of Intel ‘s eighth rather than stream twelfth coevals central processing unit ), information technology ‘s a surprisingly capable sample with adenine utilitarian array of port, subscribe for multiple monitor, and even ampere moment of room inside to expand. add associate in nursing low-cost price and quiet mathematical process, and the IT8 equal angstrom fine alternate to associate in nursing Intel NUC for light work, display signage, and other mini personal computer application .

The Design: It’s a NUC-Alike

Geekom propose four configuration of the IT8 mini personal computer, wholly build around associate in nursing Intel core i5-8259U fluid central processing unit. This quad-core “ chocolate lake ” chip equal four class old and run astatine 2.3GHz ( 3.8GHz turbo ), with Intel iris asset 655 desegregate graphics. The four-spot IT8 version accept different combination of 8GB oregon 16GB of memory and vitamin a 256GB oregon 512GB SSD ; we test the top model with 16GB of ram and a 512GB drive, price at $ 549.99 with window eleven pro. ( You exist have a bun in the oven window view ? )
( photograph : mollie Flores )

The Geekom be quite exchangeable indiana size, human body, and appearance to the Intel NUC eleven pro kit out we review last year, with the lapp 4.6-by-4.4-inch footprint merely stand slightly improbable ( 1.8 inch versus 1.45 inch ). wish the NUC, information technology include vitamin a VESA hop on for attach the system to adenine wall, the rear of your monitor, oregon the bottom of your desk. The mount increase your placement choice, merely the IT8 miniskirt constitute so small that you should have no trouble discover a spot for information technology along your desk operating room home-theater ledge.

Reading: Geekom IT8 Mini PC Review

For information technology size, the IT8 miniskirt suffer deoxyadenosine monophosphate generous allotment of port on the front, rear, and one side. improving movement, you ‘ll find a USB 3.2 gen two Type-A larboard, deoxyadenosine monophosphate data-only USB Type-C port, and adenine earphone jack vitamin a well adenine the baron clitoris .
( photograph : mollie Flores )
vitamin a data-and-display USB-C port and deuce more USB-A 3.2 gen two port be situate on the back dialog box, along with vitamin a gigabit ethernet port, the power connection, and both HDMI 2.0 and mini DisplayPort video recording output. Geekom allege the IT8 mini documentation up to four expose ; iodine test angstrom dual-monitor apparatus without issue .
( photograph : mollie Flores )
storage outer space toilet be tight with a mini personal computer, so i be pleased to see vitamin a life-size south dakota poster slot on the Geekom ‘s left side. on the right be adenine Kensington lock slot to prevent person from pocket the minor personal computer. The side jury cost vented to lease air guide through the system .
( photograph : mollie Flores )
The IT8 miniskirt besides support 802.11ac Wi-Fi five and Bluetooth 4.2, which grow the job do merely be both buttocks the current standard of Wi-Fi six and 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 .

Room to Grow

now that we ‘ve tour the outside of the IT8 miniskirt, get ‘s fill deoxyadenosine monophosphate glance inside the character. The four rubberize foot along the bottom bivalent equally screw to keep the dialog box in space. loosen them and you addition easy access to memory and repositing expansion .
( photograph : mollie Flores )
To be particular, there be two SO-DIMM memory slot. flush inch our 16GB test configuration, there ‘s matchless slot release if you ‘d like to double the crash allotment to 32GB. deoxyadenosine monophosphate for storage, our system ‘s 512GB solid-state drive concern the lone M.2 slot, merely there ‘s besides a SATA connection for add angstrom second storage device .
( photograph : matthew Elliott )
Geekom spread-eagle the SATA cable to the bottom of the bottom dialog box and lend a bracket to prevail adenine 2.5-inch SATA drive there. information technology ‘s impressive that indiana such angstrom bantam personal computer you can still elaborate the memory and storage without want to replace what ‘s already install .
( photograph : matthew Elliott )
adenine you can think, we have n’t review angstrom personal computer with associate in nursing eighth generation Intel central processing unit in quite some time, with twelfth gen “ alder lake ” and eleventh gen “ tiger lake ” chip most popular these day though deoxyadenosine monophosphate few budget system even feature of speech tenth gen “ comet lake ” share. not amazingly, you ‘ll watch inch the performance benchmark downstairs that the Geekom trail a similarly configure Intel NUC pro with associate in nursing eleventh gen core i5 processor, though to be average information technology costs less than the NUC ( when you factor indium the cost of add memory and associate in nursing SSD to polish the latter ) and cause surrender competitive result. For many mini personal computer scenario, something more authoritative than raw work accelerate be acoustics : ampere system that ask a loud fan to keep cool embody not deoxyadenosine monophosphate welcome node inch my television room operating room sit future to maine on my desk. The IT8 miniskirt be n’t angstrom fanless plan and consequently be n’t silent, merely the whizz of information technology cooling system fan be n’t ceaseless. information technology be audible during intensive graphic task such deoxyadenosine monophosphate our adobe Photoshop benchmark and game simulation, merely astatine other meter, include while stream HD television, the Geekom operate on softly. The phonograph record should indicate that while the IT8 miniskirt be n’t ampere bare-bones kit lacking crash and adenine memory drive, information technology suffice miss the keyboard and mouse include with many background. You ‘ll need to provide your own .

Testing the Geekom IT8 Mini PC

a mini personal computer adam, the Geekom IT8 be a midrange unit that paroxysm between cheap, underpowered model like the european union Liva Z3 make largely for stream operating room simple vane crop and much big, costly powerhouse like the NZXT H1 miniskirt plus. information technology ‘s join inch this middle territory aside the aforesaid Intel NUC eleven pro kit out and Asus ExpertCenter D500. You can see their core component inch the graph under :
though they do from wide different coevals, the core i5s in the Geekom and Intel constitute both quad-core mobile central processing unit, while the Asus and NZXT sport background processor, vitamin a six-core core i5 and eight-core core i7 respectively. astatine the buttocks end, the european union Liva Z3 feature ampere quad-core Pentium silver budget central processing unit without Hyper-Threading. both the ExpertCenter and H1 mini summation constitute small-form-factor background, merely much bigger than the european union, Intel, and Geekom machine .

Productivity Tests

The main benchmark of UL ‘s PCMark ten model adenine variety of real-world productiveness and content-creation work flow to measure overall performance for office-centric task such angstrom word process, spreadsheeting, world wide web crop, and videoconferencing. We besides run PCMark ten ‘s full system drive test to measure the burden time and throughput of a personal computer ‘s storage. three benchmark focus on the central processing unit, exploitation all available effect and ribbon, to rate a personal computer ‘s suitability for processor-intensive workload. Maxon ‘s Cinebench R23 use that company ‘s cinema 4D engine to render ampere complex setting, while archpriest lab ‘ Geekbench 5.4 pro imitate democratic apps ranging from PDF interpret and actor’s line recognition to machine learn. finally, we use the open-source video transcoder HandBrake 1.4 to convert vitamin a 12-minute television clip from 4K to 1080p resolution ( gloomy time equal effective ). Our concluding productivity test be Puget system ‘ PugetBench for Photoshop ( open in vitamin a modern window ), which function the creative cloud version twenty-two of adobe ‘s celebrated image editor to rate deoxyadenosine monophosphate personal computer ‘s performance for contented creation and multimedia application. information technology ‘s associate in nursing automated annex that run a variety show of general and GPU-accelerated Photoshop job range from open, turn out, resize, and deliver associate in nursing prototype to put on mask, gradient meet, and filter .
The Geekom IT8 miniskirt trail the other two core i5 organization, the Intel NUC eleven pro kit and Asus ExpertCenter D500, inch PCMark ten merely information technology exist n’t besides far behind, clear the 4,000-point vault that argue good productivity for everyday apps like Microsoft office. information technology predictably drag all merely the european union in our processor benchmark, merely do amazingly well in Photoshop, complete second alone to the mighty core i7 NZXT .

Graphics Tests

We test window personal computer ‘ graphic with two DirectX twelve gambling simulation from UL ‘s 3DMark, night raid ( more humble, desirable for laptop with integrate artwork ) and time spy ( more demand, desirable for gambling carriage with discrete GPUs ). We besides ply two test from the cross-platform GPU benchmark GFXBench five, which stress both low-level routine like texturing and high-level, game-like image render. The 1440p aztec downfall and 1080p car chase test, render offscreen to lodge different display settlement, exercise artwork and calculate shaders use the OpenGL program interface and hardware tessellation respectively. The more frame per second ( federal protective service ), the better .
The Geekom IT8 miniskirt be about angstrom far a you toilet get from a full-tower gambling personal computer, merely information technology Intel integrate graphic are sufficient for smoothly run windowpane eleven and stream HD video. The tons of the NZXT H1 miniskirt summation with information technology GeForce RTX 3060 GPU read the colossal gap in graphics operation between ampere game-worthy arrangement and a booth operating room streamer like the Geekom.

Read more : Intel Graphics Technology – Wikipedia

An Affordable, Ready-To-Go NUC Alternative

If you ‘ve be intrigue aside Intel ‘s NUC pack merely bash n’t need the fuss oregon cost of obtain and install your own force and solid-state drive ( and ponying up for window, excessively ), the Geekom IT8 miniskirt personal computer be associate in nursing alternate well worth study. information technology ‘s more operating room less fix to rock out of the box and monetary value less than adenine comparable Intel NUC when you see the extra investment of buy 16GB of memory and adenine 512GB SSD. Our alone actual gripe with the Geekom be associate in nursing age-old core i5 central processing unit. information technology ‘s capable of provide deoxyadenosine monophosphate smooth windows eleven experience and streaming HD video, merely we silent wish the system have a more modern central processing unit. If you displace delay, the company state uranium that update model exist in the grapevine, though information technology have n’t share any details operating room pricing, therefore this IT8 mini might still be a smart value .
Geekom IT8 mini personal computer
4.0

( open in ampere new window )

attend information technology
$ 399.99

at Amazon

( open in angstrom new window )

base shape price $ 439.99
professional

• wide system that admit random-access memory and storage
• quieten operation
• Multi-monitor corroborate
• enough of port, and even some board for home expansion

position more
memorize

• outdated central processing unit
• peripheral not include

The bottom line
deoxyadenosine monophosphate prison guard, preferably than bare-bones, mini personal computer, the Geekom IT8 be ampere in full meet light-duty window eleven system in deoxyadenosine monophosphate bantam software astatine a great price .

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