Minisforum, Gmktec, Beelink

roccles · 18 May 2025 at 19:04

Looking to pick up a mini PC for running Linux—mainly for learning and tinkering, not to replace my main gaming rig. Probably something with a Ryzen 7 and 32GB RAM.

Minisforum, GMKtec, and Beelink seem to get the most love on YouTube and Reddit, but I know a lot of those are review units. Just after some real-world feedback—reliability, noise levels, thermals, that sort of thing. Anything worth knowing before I buy?

lsg1r · 18 May 2025 at 20:17

I have a minisforum um560xt, AMD mobile 5600h cpu based, upgraded ram to 64gb from 16gb (which made quite a difference imo) and added a 1tb sata ssd to go with the nvme 512gb - not particuarly noisy imo, huge ass external power brick considering it's size (it's basically half the pc). No less stable/reliable than any other pc I own, no obvious issues with thermals, if anything it likely has more cooling than if it was in a laptop. Only real negative, port positioning maybe and the plastic used is a bit on the cheap side imo.

roccles · 19 May 2025 at 11:18

lsg1r said:
I have a minisforum um560xt, AMD mobile 5600h cpu based, upgraded ram to 64gb from 16gb (which made quite a difference imo) and added a 1tb sata ssd to go with the nvme 512gb - not particuarly noisy imo, huge ass external power brick considering it's size (it's basically half the pc). No less stable/reliable than any other pc I own, no obvious issues with thermals, if anything it likely has more cooling than if it was in a laptop. Only real negative, port positioning maybe and the plastic used is a bit on the cheap side imo.

Thank you that is very useful

oweneades · 19 May 2025 at 11:43

I have played around with a couple of mini PC's from GMkTec and Minisforum (MS-A1) and currently own both a MS-01 and a BD790iX3D MB/CPU combo from MinisForum in my current "Desktop".

The GMKTec system was based around a Ryzen 6950HX and had room for dual M2, up to 96GB DDR5 and also had a OccuLink port on the front. It was a great little system but didn't have all the features I wanted at the time. The A2 had the party piece of a full blown AM5 socket along with 4 x M2 slots. It also had OccuLink which was the achilles heel of the unit as everything else was really nice paired with a 7900 and 32GB DDR5.

My current MS-01 is basically a homelab / server / tinkering build and does the job perfectly.

All units have / had large laptop power bricks and are functionally silent in general use. Can't say I had any specific issues with the units themselves (only the OccuLink problems) but I would recommend buying through a large retailer rather than direct for support reasons (seen mixed reviews for all of the brands when it comes to support).

Rroff · 19 May 2025 at 13:38

Minisforum, Beelink, Trigkey and MeLE have at least some kind of support and reasonable record for security - both being clean of malware and security vulnerabilities. Many of the other mini PC brands, including GMKtec, have either a poor track record or are an unknown in this respect with quite a few shipping with dodgy stuff in Windows or have done in the past or having security vulnerabilities that likely aren't by accident, or just poor software/driver maturity and no updates.

Philtor · 19 May 2025 at 20:04

I have a GMKtec G5 mini and very happy with the build quality.

I did do a clean install out of the box and their support seems to be somewhat lacking, but the machine performs flawlessly.

Oh and it’s the size of a drinks coaster

roccles · 23 May 2025 at 09:39

Cheers guys, ended up picking up a Gmktec M7 as it had a nice offer on it while ordering. Pretty impressed so far, I booted into Windows just to check it was working and then installed Linux over the top.

meandu229 · 23 May 2025 at 09:43

roccles said:
Cheers guys, ended up picking up a Gmktec M7 as it had a nice offer on it while ordering. Pretty impressed so far, I booted into Windows just to check it was working and then installed Linux over the top.

I have heard they cheap out on the nvme drives but since I bought lowest spec one I could I just switched the drive anyway everything else seems great in my g3 mini, very please with it.

roccles · 23 May 2025 at 11:12

meandu229 said:
I have heard they cheap out on the nvme drives but since I bought lowest spec one I could I just switched the drive anyway everything else seems great in my g3 mini, very please with it.

I think will probably end up swapping out the nvme drive and memory fairly soon as its only 512gb and 16GB as potentially going to be running quite a few VMs on there

Fonz-Valo · 26 May 2025 at 09:23

Philtor said:
I have a GMKtec G5 mini and very happy with the build quality.

I did do a clean install out of the box and their support seems to be somewhat lacking, but the machine performs flawlessly.

Oh and it’s the size of a drinks coaster

I just looked that model up and I'm tempted to get one as an emulation device, what do you use yours for?

Philtor · 26 May 2025 at 09:44

Nothing too demanding really. Web browsing and Netflix etc however I believe it is capable of light gaming also (I have the Intel N97 model).

Really pleased with it. Much faster than my old machine it replaced!

Vimes · 1 Sep 2025 at 08:43

Received my Gmktec G3, with 512GB NVME and 16GB memory. Formatted it and installed W11 Pro, all good.
I have got a Terramaster DAS to attach at some point.

Very pleased with how responsive it is, the 8GB /256 version being 63 pounds at the time.

At some point I'll look to populate the M2 SATA port that is spare.

Edit.....

Just ordered KingSpec M.2 SATA SSD SATA3 1TB for around £36, uses 3D Nand, decent price.

Conan257 · 1 Sep 2025 at 09:57

Running a GMK, it's really good and I'm impressed...

But, when the fan goes (mine is in the conservatory), it is a little loud.... Not a huge issue when working, I don't notice it, but just sat there, the wife will notice...

ZXSpectrum · 1 Sep 2025 at 11:25

I purchased a GMKTec N100 for my arcade cab and its been brilliant.. Came with 16gb and a 256Gb SSD for about £65..

I have just managed to get a GMKTec K8 Plus Oculink unit with 16Gb and 256 for £277 delivered to use on my TV with Steam, some emulation and remote access to steam on my main PC for when i cant be bothered sitting at my PC and want to play games. I might even grab a Oculink external unit and bang in a spare GPU i have however for the money its a fantastic deal.

heman · 19 Sep 2025 at 06:52

Beelink SER Pro 5 5600h. Snappy for basic tasks, not really pushed for the fan to be audible.
Its really quiet when doing basic browsing and office tasks.

ZXSpectrum · 25 Sep 2025 at 10:45

Just to update, I purchased the GMKtec K8 Plus and it runs fantastic. I mainly use it for Emulation and plays PS3 stuff with no issues at 2-4x resolution scaling. It plays some older and more simple games without issues and even plays fortnite pretty well.. If i had one critisism it would be that the CPU is a bit whiny under full load. I have already upgraded to 32Gb and 1tb+2Tb (So if anyone purchchases a barebones i can sell my original 16gb and 256Gb). I also use it to stream from my main PC using SteamLink and after a bit of fiddling it works very very well now. I have just received my Minisforum Oculink Dock which i will test what i can get in terms of cheap GPUs to make it more useable for games locally. All in a fantastic bit of kit for the money. I would not hesitate to buy one of the more powerful ones in the future when i spot a deal.

Vimes · 25 Sep 2025 at 11:07

ZXSpectrum said:
Just to update, I purchased the GMKtec K8 Plus and it runs fantastic. I mainly use it for Emulation and plays PS3 stuff with no issues at 2-4x resolution scaling. It plays some older and more simple games without issues and even plays fortnite pretty well.. If i had one critisism it would be that the CPU is a bit whiny under full load. I have already upgraded to 32Gb and 1tb+2Tb (So if anyone purchchases a barebones i can sell my original 16gb and 256Gb). I also use it to stream from my main PC using SteamLink and after a bit of fiddling it works very very well now. I have just received my Minisforum Oculink Dock which i will test what i can get in terms of cheap GPUs to make it more useable for games locally. All in a fantastic bit of kit for the money. I would not hesitate to buy one of the more powerful ones in the future when i spot a deal.

Did you grab your from Ali..?

Sounds like you got a good deal.

For me the GMKtec NUC 100 was bought as a DAS for a media server. It does that well, with Windows 11. Even though the latest build of Windows, build 24h2 . 6584, has caused some issues.
Then I bought another, this time a N150, just for some general light browsing and YT use, for that it works a treat, cheap, cool and low powered, with Windows 11.

At this point I do not really have need for such a powerful NUC as you bought, the K8 read to be amazing in terms of its capabilities. The only noted criticism, that you mention, is the cooling and fan noise.

I noted that GMKtec do have driver packages etc on their website, useful as I formatted and installed W 11 on both of mine.

So far, their support has not been great, although my concern was resolved.

mraerosmith1981 · 25 Sep 2025 at 11:25

Got a Trigkey S5 Ryzen based unit, paid around £200 on an Amazon deal, solid purchase, and has caused me no problems in the 7 or so months that ive had it

ZXSpectrum · 25 Sep 2025 at 11:58

Vimes said:
Did you grab your from Ali..?

Sounds like you got a good deal.

For me the GMKtec NUC 100 was bought as a DAS for a media server. It does that well, with Windows 11. Even though the latest build of Windows, build 24h2 . 6584, has caused some issues.
Then I bought another, this time a N150, just for some general light browsing and YT use, for that it works a treat, cheap, cool and low powered, with Windows 11.

At this point I do not really have need for such a powerful NUC as you bought, the K8 read to be amazing in terms of its capabilities. The only noted criticism, that you mention, is the cooling and fan noise.

I noted that GMKtec do have driver packages etc on their website, useful as I formatted and installed W 11 on both of mine.

So far, their support has not been great, although my concern was resolved.

yes, it was a fantastic deal and i believe i had a couple of codes that stacked and got it down to £277. I think thats currently the price for the barebones.

I did the same, i didnt like the way that it used a dodgy licence server for the OS licencing that, along with any other bloat/spyware that could be installed, was wiped and grabbed a W11 Pro key, although the N100 i managed to grab the key before i reinstalled so didnt need to buy one for that.

The N100 is used in my Arcade Bartop with a specific Arcade image with attract mode that looks fantastic. The K8 Plus is used with my LG 4K C3...

Cyber-Mav · 26 Sep 2025 at 18:11

My kitchen pc still does well, got a Lenovo m720q with 1tb SSD, 32gb ram and k1200 GPU in it which should be upgraded next week.
The kiddo loves it and being small it sits behind the wall mounted TV.
These 1L boxes from hp dell and Lenovo id always recommend they have better build quality than the AliExpress options along with solid bios updates and support