GMKtec Mini PC, Intel Twin Lake N150 (Upgraded N100), 16GB DDR4 RAM 512GB PCIe M.2 SSD, Desktop Computer 4K Dual HDMI/USB3.2/WiFi 6/BT5.2/2.5GbE RJ45 for Office, Business

For the first 24 hours, I was really impressed. Really snappy performance, 8 GB of RAM was plenty for simple tasks, and the SSD was capacious at 256 GB, considering the price. The inclusion of Windows Pro made the box almost free! However, after updating to Windows 11 Build 22H3, during the process of applying updates, the computer locked up. After 60 minutes with the computer no longer visible on the network and the keyboard and mouse non-responsive, pulled the power cord. Upon restoring power and turning on the computer, the PC was stuck for hours at the spinning circle during boot. Two more power-cycles and Windows repair interface appeared. Selected Windows Reset, Local Source (wouldn't work with cloud source), Windows began resetting. However, after a restart, computer back to the infinitely spinning circle. :-( If this had proved reliable, I'd have bought a dozen or more as remote monitoring PCs for client networks. But given that I've had good luck with the similarly priced AWOW models, I will not be investing any more money or time in the GMKTek offerings. Update 01-07-2024 ----------------------- Fortunately, GMKTek provides a download for a Windows 11 re-installation ISO. With this and leveraging a fair amount of knowledge of Windows installation options, was able to re-image the SSD. Unfortunately, the product key is invalidated and I had to use a spare Windows 10 product key to re-activate Windows. Unfortunate the GMKTek hasn't worked out the same relationship with Microsoft that Dell has, whereby any Windows 11 ISO used to load Windows onto a Dell OptiPlex results in an automatically activated Windows 11 installation. Bottom line is that after recreating and updating all apsects of the re-installed Windows 11 OS, the PC is back to running normally. I know to steer clear now of some driver updates. The PC has been running for about 36 hours and I'll post an update if that changes in the near future. When this PC works, it represents a great value for the money in terms of hardware specs and a Windows 11 license. However, taking into account the time issue remediation takes and the expertise required, the TCO (total cost of ownership) rises significantly. If I never have to do brain surgery on this device again, I'll still feel the cost was justified based on the performance of this sub-$200 device. P.S. I now make a complete image backup before running/installing ANY updates so I can simply restore the image backup rather than running into yet another Windows 11 re-installation process and the requirement to use/purchase another Windows product key. P.P.S. The WIndows 11 re-installation ISO download was 11 GB and was not a standard Windows 11 installation ISO. This had to be burned to a flash drive (I used a 16 GB USB3 model; I used Rufus to create the bootable UEFI flash drive) and then the GMKTek PC booted with it. Upon boot, I was faced with a terminal window and a couple of choices. The one I chose led to an image/sysprep process that fortunately got the PC bootable once again with Windows 11 Pro. P.P.P.S. Highly recommended --> As soon as you boot the device for the first time, find a tool such as ProduKey by NirSoft and extract and save the Windows 11 product key. Ideally (although I didn't have a chance to test), this key would work if a re-install was ever required. The other option, that I was waiting for until the PC was fully updated, is to create an image backup using any number of tools, including the image backup tool in Windows. Thus, if any of your update processes results in a non-bootable PC, you can simply re-image from the backup and avoid having a non-activated instance of Windows 11. Update 01-12-2024 ----------------------- Vendor reached out proactively and offered some assistance, although I'd resolved the corrupt Windows 11 issue independently. However, that level of customer support is remarkable considering the price of this product and the lack of such support from other vendors with much pricier offerings. Due to this, upgrading the rating to four stars. Update 01-13-2024 ----------------------- Customer support proactively reached out and provided a product key so I could activate Windows 11 and free up my personal product key. GMKtec's proactive reaching out to a customer with issues is almost unparalleled in my experience over 40 years, so despite the issues I encountered, I'm raising my review to five stars. For a product this inexpensive but with excellent performance, providing this level of customer support is laudable.

I got this for my clone hero setup. I occasionally use it for minor computer functions but mostly just clone hero. I should've gotten the one with bigger storage for barely more money but overall this works really well, I was easily able to navigate everything to add the games, and all the songs from the original games with lots of space left. Haven't used it for other games because I'd quickly run out of space. Overall works perfect for clone hero though. Edit: I've now had it for several months. When playing clone hero don't expect crazy high fps. Fps with everything else turned off and settings good is 250-300. That's with no video background also. With a video background it's 150-200 fps. It also randomly slows down and then fast forwards or straight up skips a little. It's usable but a little frustrating when you start to get really good. Id definitely like to have something with more storage and definitely ram because this RAM is showing that just having CH open uses 100% of RAM. Now to the computer aspects. It works totally fine as a normal computer, but gets slow when you start adding other apps. I couldn't use high power computer games and even mobile ones sometimes froze. It also really slowed down opening tabs and stuff and just navigating anything is a little slow. It still works fine but it could definitely use a little more space and processing power. Second edit: I recently started sim racing and was running it on my laptop since I don't have an actual PC, and just for the heck of it I downloaded raceroom on this thing and hooked up my g29 and... It's running pretty much as well as it does on my $1k laptop. I have switched over my setup to this instead because it's easier and runs it basically as well, and basically never crashed, whereas my laptop crashed frequently. This mini PC is way too good for its price. Overall still a good little PC you can use anywhere, and for the price really is remarkable. Yes I have complaints but I will not be reducing my stars because for the price it performs better than I expected. My update is more to let other clone hero players, or people buying this to game, that you probably want a little more than what this has. Although the price is unbeatable if you get it on sale. I got mine for about $120. (After second update this is less true. For most games this does underperform and you'll want something better. But it randomly is really really good at certain games. It runs clone hero AND raceroom better than my main computer. Originally was 4 stars but will now be 5 stars)

I have various Windows 10 devices that are not upgradeable to Windows 11 so I purchased this with the intention of making this my new anchor Windows PC (I'm primarily a Mac user) and I plan on only using it for basic word processing, web browsing, and activities better suited to the Windows world. This is a preliminary rating as I received this device just yesterday. Packaging was professional and set up/personalization straight forward using a USB wireless Logitech Key/Mouse. Bluetooth setup for my Harman Kardon speaker and other bluetooth devices failed (wouldn't recognize anything discoverable) so I next began the lengthy process of Windows updating (actually still happening) and the bluetooth issue resolved itself somewhere along the way. So, beyond the bluetooth issue, this mini PC has been flawless, speedy, quiet, and has gotten only mildly warm during operation. I ran 5 YouTubes videos simultaneously as a test without issues. The system says it is running Windows 11 Pro, it has 475GB of storage (512 was advertised), 16GB memory, and the N150 chip. I'm on Google Fiber and my speed check was something like 400+ down/300+ up from the opposite side of the house from the router. I have NOT yet checked the other ports (USBs/HDMI/LAN). I'm not a computer geek so I can only share my 'user' experience as I compare this with my other devices (Macs/Chromebooks/Windows) and there have been no discernible performance issues. Wrapping up, so far, and comparing price vs. performance, I am happy with my purchase.

Got this for only one day. Price seems to be very good for a decent quality. Unit is around the same size of a NUC13 which I own, but is substantially lower in weight, and of course also in price and performance. With that said, it provides sufficient performance to be used as a TV box. It works fine in my older HD TV, but it seemed to struggle with my 4K monitor running at 60 Hz. At this point I still don’t know if it was a problem of my monitor or the unit itself. Although not specifically mentioned in the product description, unit comes with Windows 11 Pro pre-installed. I’m a Linux person but since Windows is already there, I plan to keep it there for a while. However, I’ve tried running Remote Desktop to a Linux machine to play some videos, but the video and sound got so choppy that it was not workable. The dilemma is that I have some videos in a format that would require me to login to my MS account and perhaps buy or subscribe to some licenses if I were to play these videos in Windows, but I hate doing that, so sooner or later I might just install Linux on this PC. Update: After more use and testing, I’ve come to the conclusion that this PC is under-powered even for 4K videos, but it suffices for lower resolutions. It consistently struggles and stutters while my 6 year old PC with an i5 CPU had no trouble. I have since switched to Linux and upgraded the RAM to 16G, but the conclusion is the same.

This mini-computer, GMKtec NucBox G3, performs well, as expected. On opening the box, the "Lush Green" color of the case is very cool, unique, and beautiful. I ordered the GMKtec NucBox G3 because I needed a dedicated computer to run as a part of my audio system at home. I need it to do the following: (1) Control all of my audio devices, (2) Render a graphical interface to interact with streaming services (tracks, album, and artist info, etc.), (3) Upgrade the digital audio signal by upsampling it to High Resolution audio. The GMKtec NucBox G3 handles all of the above audio equipment and signals efficiently. The music is smooth, with no gaps, and is High Resolution. The GMKtec NucBox G3 I ordered came with Windows 11 Pro. After power up, it ran perfectly. It connected to my wired internet and wired home network. It has WiFi and Bluetooth as well. Using the default Microsoft Edge web browser, I loaded Norton Security. That installation went well. Then I installed an audio platform service (btw, not a streaming service) that performs the above 3 functions. That installation went well. Then I used the Windows Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) app so that I could connect to the GMKtec NucBox G3 without needing to dedicate peripherals to it. However, in the initial setup, I did connect an HDMI monitor, keyboard, and mouse. So, the peripherals were tested and ran well. But for my actual audio use, the GMKtec NucBox G3 can run "headless" (i.e., without peripherals) as I prefer to control it through RDC. The standard 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD is adequate for my current needs. But, if necessary, I can always expand up to 32GB RAM and 2T SSD internally, which I have successfully done previously with the RAM on another GMKtec product. And, of course, I can expand for more storage externally if I want. The GMKtec NucBox G3 meets the basic requirements of the audio platform described above. The GMKtec NucBox G3 low cost is really incredible. I highly recommend this product for home audio needs.

I usually don’t write reviews but feel I had to for this product. Very competitive pricing. Pluged in my wireless USB for my keyboard and mouse and was up and running in 20 min. It does everything I need it to do. Followed the instructions not to connect to the internet until setup was complete. Once that was done seamlessly connected to the internet and updates were downloaded one took quite sometime and installing then took about 1 1/2 hours be patient. Very impressed so far.

I love this NUC. Perfectly quiet, good build quality and easily upgraded to 32GB RAM and 2TB M.s NVME, with 500GB Sata as host OS drive. I replaced the drives & RAM and installed Proxmox on it and and it work great. ery small so fits on a rack shelf with plenty of space for more of them. Easy connectivity with 2.5Gb LAN, bluetooth and WiFi. Home Assistant and other VMs and containers running with no issues. I want another one- but have to sneak the next one past my wife so expense isn't an issue. Love this. Want 2 more for other VMs and containers. LOL

So far this tiny PC is working well. I purchased it as a low cost solution to my 2014/2015 Acer Chromebook that was very outdated. This product was very easy to set up. You just plug it in and attach your monitor, mouse, and keyboard. It is that simple. They recommend not updating it at first if you want to explore its functionality, but I went ahead with all the Windows updates, which took a while and there were a few download failures. After working through the updates, I began loading the software that I need on it. As a note, this product does not come with a bunch of Google products pre-installed, which is a bonus. Microsoft Edge does come with it. It is bare bones for any added software, which I also find refreshing in this era. So far it is humming right along for what I need it for. The cons: there are limited USB ports (4) and two HDMI ports. You may need to invest in a USB hub for the long run if you have multiple external drives or other needs that require USB connectivity. The product does not feel as rugged as I had hoped but it does come with a bracket so you can secure it to a wall or table. After about an hour I could feel the heat pumping out the sides of the PC so I grabbed my other laptop's dual fan USB platform just out of precaution. I would recommend giving it a little boost if you can. For the low investment cost, I am very happy that I purchased this item. I bought the two year protection plan so I know I am going to get at least two years out of it. I find that worth the investment.