GMKtec K1 Mini Powerhouse Gaming Computer AMD Ryzen 7 6800H (8C/16T, 4.70Ghz), Mini Gaming PC 16GB DDR5+512GB M.2 2280 PCle SSD AMD Radeon 680M, Windows 11 Pro, WiFi 6, BT 5.2, DP, RJ45 2.5G

I bought a K1 for every member of my family so that we could network game together.

Before buying this, I compared it to many other NUCS. Some cost less and had worse GPUs, and some cost more like the Beelink which cost $200 more and had the exact same ‘‎AMD Radeon 680M 12 Core 2200MHz’ GPU. I also checked 3 Youtube reviews and all were positive. Amazon even had it for less than the YouTubers bought it.

Taking advice from another review, I bought ‘Crucial RAM 32GB Kit (2x16GB) DDR5 5600MHz’, and installed that (very easy) in my units and our gaming has been smooth. The unit is amazingly quiet, small, and has all the ports I need (ethernet, USB-A and USB-C).

The company’s customer service has been very responsive with helping me by selling extra power adapters so my family can travel and play together too.

The computer is great for what I need as the components are more than sufficient for the requirements of my job, the processor, RAM, on board graphics, (radon 680M) and storage 500GB is plenty for most work, The Wi-Fi6 is fast and stable enough according to all the tests I had to do before being hired. I just prefer to run everything hardwired for my home network all PCs, consoles, my NAS and server are wired. I only use wireless for 2 TVs I have set-up for watching streaming stuff from the home entertainment a server, and family and friends doing cellphone/tablet stuff. The mini computer is a great little machine runs all the games I want and emulation stuff I added another stick of 16GB RAM giving me 32GB total just because the performance bump was worth it. The main use is for remote work I’m running 2X24 inch curved monitors at 1080p 100Hz for work and a 3rd 32 inch monitor that is color calibrated for some photo editing and minor video editing it rus at 120Hz and I also use it for gaming and emulation with 1X24 inch monitor at the same time it’s a very capable system even if you want to play AAA games and willing to give up some detail.

To sum up it’s great for remote work, good for photo and some light video editing and really good for gaming if you’re not a stickler for running at max settings. Also it’s an excellent system for emulation. Only complaint would be that it should come with either another stick of 16GB RAM or just 2X8GB sticks, only because it runs so much better in dual channel. All things considered it’s a machine that gives good performance for the dollar. I would recommend it if for anyone in need of a good performing computer without the need of a full size case for drive bays and physical media.

Only negatives
It’s not upgradeable other than RAM and SSD. (I did a WD_BLACK sn770 2TB and 2X Critical 16GB DDR5 4800MT)
And it doesn’t have a thunderbolt connection but that’s just nitpicking by me.

Really great specs. Runs fast in-terms of processing and video for web/streaming/editing. Games require some tuning down of all the detail and high-rez textures and the like, but will game for you. Also supports 120Hz refresh rate so that is a plus. Overall a powerful NUC!

Gripes are this thing gets HOT under load and will throttle (the gaming performance suffers). Also, I have been seeing spontaneous reboots caused by heat buildup in the casing. I solved the issue by removing the top cover and putting a 120mm AC controllable fan blowing down into the unit.

One of the heat issues I have read comes from the memory – they are at the top of the casing for easy changeout which is great, but fast DDR5 gets really hot without heatspreaders (I read to add those for better heat dissipation) Taking the cover off and adding the fan did the trick for me – no more throttling (as much anyhow) and no more uncommanded reboots.

Another gripe – the BIOS has very limited settings – GMKtec really needs an update.

Aside from those items, I am impressed with the performance from this little NUC. It out paces some of the tower desktops I built fairly recently.

First, I bought the 16gb with 500gb nvme. I added 16gb of ddr5 4800,and replaced the nvme with a 1tb I had laying around. In retrospect I should have got the barebones version and added my ram and nvme, but that was my fault. The 32gb/1tb is probably the way to go if you don’t want to mess with upgrades. The unit shipped with a single 16gb ddr5/4800mhz module, so adding one to take advantage of dual channel memory is a must since the GPU memory is shared with the CPU so you will need that to be as fast as possible. I added 1 from team for $37, worked fine.

This is a fantastic mini pc, the 6800h is a beast for a 45w cpu. has 2 hdmi and the usbc is display ready so it can drive 3 monitors. Whoever said this was slow simply has it set up wrong. The fan isn’t silent but it’s not too bad and at idle it turns off. For watching movies or listening to music it’s silent with the fans off but with some load it makes some noise but is still pretty quiet. The fan is on the bottom blowing upward, the feet are pretty thin so i think it could be airflow restricted, so it’s turned upside down with the fan facing up, that seems to work best, and is super simple. I may try putting thicker feet on it and run it right side up as the fan pointing toward a surface might reduce observeable noise. I also considered opening up the fan grill holes with a drill but it’s quiet enough so I think it would be a waste of time. The other thing that’s great about this unit is that it’s upgradeable, both ram and nvme are normal sockets, and an m2 slot for wifi would make that upgradeable as well but it already comes with a 2×2 wifi 6 and BT 5.2 so it’s something for the far future.

I find that the passmark scores are a pretty good indicator of performance, and these scores are crazy high for 45w. The GPU is very fast for a IGP being about as fast as a r9-280x.

Using this as a living room HTPC, DJ computer (works great without any audio glitches that I had been fighting with intel icelake), light gaming, couch co-op. It’s not a PS5 or XBox, but it’s 45w, and os agnostic.