The Mac Mini Killer? GEEKOM A7 Review

Does it support a 1440p 144Hz monitor?

another great video, thanks. Q: how did you find the cooling? Thank you

wish there was a barebones unit

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?

Arguably the best mini-PC for those that want to use it for work and 1080p PC gaming.

Um790 pro is better than this

Check out geekom A8

No offense, but gaming benchmark s are outdated and unnecessary.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

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??

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?

Great video! Your mini PC reviews are so much more thorough than ETA Prime’s.

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?

Mine plays ok counterstrike 2 has a terrible mouse cursor stutter. Strange

Thank you for reviewing our product. Your feedback on GEEKOM products is highly valuable to us!😉

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.

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.

A really great overview and comparison as usual. It would be interesting to see how it fairs with Apples Mac Mini.

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

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.

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...

There is no reason to buy intel counterpart.

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 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.)

Sic and Gan are gonna make huge changes in the future!

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.

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.

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.)

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.

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?

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.

U WOULD SELL HITLER

Hi
Do
Ryzen z1 extreme is equal to Ryzen 9 7940hs.
Both have same specs
😮

No intel LAN ? No second nmve ? and 700 USD ? , no I don't think so.