GMKtec Mini PC Intel N150 Windows 11 Pro 12GB DDR5 256GB SSD, Dual LAN, 4K Triple Display, Wi-Fi 6, BT 5.2
Collect the $70 off coupon.
GMKtec Mini PC Windows 11 Pro 12th Gen Intel N97 (up to 3.60GHz) 12GB DDR5 512GB SSD
Collect the $60 off coupon.
CamelCamelCamel.
Guy who reviewed it in the YouTube link below, did a full scan and found no viruses etc
Means nothing. These could have a completely different supply chain where the wholesaler, reseller etc. installed shaddy shit.
Always do a fresh install of Windows.
Even for OEMs like Dell and HP that aren’t as likely to have malware it will clear all the bloat they’ve added.
Installing Windows takes like 20 minutes.
agreed. never trust a pre-installed operating system as you have no idea what's on it.
windows 11 keys can be bought for around $20 online, so install the O/S yourself imo.
@gizmomelb: 1) If this has legit Windows 11 instal, the key will be embeded into motherboard, so you won't need to pay anything when reinstalling.
2) Don't pay for those shaddy keys. They're in breach of MS licensing and if your not getting a valid license you might as well pirate and not give money to scumbags key sellers.
@PainToad: neither of my intel n100s had legit keys embedded in bios :) For one machine I built my own 'Tiny 11' and I think it only used something like 20-30GB and the placebo effect was it was slightly faster due to less bloatware installed. In hindsight I could have just installed ubuntu or similar desktop O/S as it's used daily for webmail, www browsing, youtube playback and torrenting / usenet. No gaming.
Thanks. Was just looking for a dual nic to play around with opnsense again.
Was looking for 2.5gbe ports, but for this price can’t pass them up.
Do you think this nic will play nice with opnsense? Looking to upgrade my setup to a mini PC like this
I think opensense is picky with nice, I am not sure if these are Intel nics.
Yeah most likely realtek
Found this on Reddit. I am not in tune with micro / mini PC's but someone posted this;
TDP of n150 is 10W. TDP of n97 is 12W.
n150 has faster CPU.
n97 has faster GPU.
Seeing this, for a Plex server, wouldn't GPU matter more?
I believe CPU is more important for Plex
The GPU/iGPU is best for transcoding, not the CPU.
So n97 > n150 for that use case?
Ahh ok, my mistake
Also curious, limited by storage I guess also?
The N97 takes a TF card, a 2 TB internal add on,and a 4 TB external HDD or two.
copy pasting what I posted above:
I've got a dedicated Intel N5095 CPU NAS (slower than both of these mini PCs) and I use jellyfin and intel iGPU hardware transcoding (maximum 1080p is all I've tried.. I do have 4K content but I watch it direct on a 4K screen, so no need to transcode) - anyways, the CPU/iGPU content happily transcodes 3-4 1080p streams to different devices without breaking a sweat.
Nice. Been looking for a cheap nuc for work. Will clean install windows of course.
whats the best way to install a windows on this machines? do you need to put a usb to force install? sorry noob question
yes, that's the standard way. create the bootable installation on another pc, then boot the mini pc from usb and install windows or linux.
Would these be any good as a torrent box with a usb hd or not enough memory?
Plenty of memory.
Most seed boxes are 2-4gb
Thank you for the reply.
mines been in use for usenet and torrenting for the past year and it has 12GB RAM (intel n100). I did replace the 512GB nvme with a 1TB NVME for more local storage though.
Thank you for sharing! Bought the first one.
Can the harddisk be upgraded on the n150?
256GB feel abit less these days.
Thanks for sharing OP.
It takes an m.2 2242 , expandable to 2tb
I have bought 3 of the Intel N97 version over the last 4 months.
2 for work, one 4 months ago as a place holder for a new person - i'm not IT but we are a small company ~8 in the office and all other PC's aren't win 11 capabale and will all be upgraded before Sep/October with external IT and it just works.
My parents need a new Win box too - email and solitare job because their 2017 7th gen intel PC won't run Win 11 either.
It comes with Win 11 pro, it's box is the size of an oversized mobile phone box (when they had chargers) - I could set it up and post it to them (different states) and having Win 11 pro, I can remote into it to see issues.
Again, im not IT, just cromulent growing up with computers.
I can recommend the smaller Intel N97 as a PC, just not against the N150.
Would this be fine for plugging into a TV to watch movies on?
what concern? the intel gpus have hardware decoding for just about every main CODEC including AV1. I use an intel n100 running LIBREELEC (a cut down linux o/s which boots direct into the KODI media player) and it plays everything fine, even really high bitrate 4K UHD blurays on a native 4K OLED screen.
The main caveats with using a mini pc for media playback
1 - buy an air mouse ($20-30) as the mini PC does not support HDMI CEC control (uness you build/buy a dongle to allow the tv remote control to also control the mini PC).
2 - you cannot play Dolby Vision files (no licence), but it will auto convert DV to HDR10
Was not my concern, just what was in the comment. I have no opinion on the matter.
I use a similar one with the N97 CPU. Works perfect on Stremio and VLC with 4k movies
Bought as I've been planning to build an OPNSense setup for a while now.
Would this thing work good for decoding Stremio/Netflix 4K video?
N97 for Stremio yes. Haven't tried Netflix
Sounds good, thanks!
N97 takes micro SD card.
N150 does not have micro SD/SD
Which one is quieter?
Any difference for watching Kayo?
The N150 is quieter as it consumes less power, which means that it runs cooler, resulting in a lower fan speed = quieter.
Thanks
Are you sure?
why would you need micro SD slot? just so you can transfer photos from your camera into this mini PC?
to use it as storage, or boot into a different O/S, the sd slot is just storage the same as usb, sata or m2 slot.
wow interesting never thought of just using the micro SD as a storage for the mini PC :)
Got a N150 thanks
I saw the ram is onboard. Does this have a ram slot to add more ram in the future?
no, RAM is soldered.
No. LPDDR 5 soldered on-board, no expansion for the RAM.
12gb is close to the max. CPU only supports 16gb anyways.
Not sure why they don't just max it. It isn't upgradeable and they're already 75% of the way there! ahaha
Because these use 4x 24Gbit chips, and 32Gbit chips do not exist^1. So you'd need to use 8x 16Gbit chips to get 16GByte RAM.
View it as a free upgrade from 8GByte in the same footprint, and it makes more sense.
^1 Maybe one day, but for now the memory manufacturers haven't quite figured out how to make yet density economical
They'll do 32GB just fine without stability issues. It really feels like a mistake on Intel's part for saying 16GB.
Thanks OP im thinking of the emulation potential looks to be cheaper than buying a pre built system off say Aliexpress wonder what the performance is like?
In the video review linked above, he suggested the gmkTEC G5 might be better. That is also on special on Amazon with a $60 off voucher, at $179 delivered after voucher:
https://www.amazon.com.au/GMKtec-Computer-Business-Nucbox-G5…
Same reviewer has the G5 review here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-JK0-oR1M0
Advantages to me seem to be speed including emulation ok, reviews say plex is ok, plus USB-C powered (and SD slot if that's important).
From my understanding, N97 has lower clock speed, but 4 (rather than 2) cores compared to N150.
The N150 has 4 cores.
Thanks for the correction :)
Why did you link this here?
Because it is a review of the $149.99 model.
Deciding on which one of these to run Home Assistant and Pihole (for now) via Proxmox. Or maybe just grab a used Dell Wyse or something…
Have bought one of each for now, will send either or both back if I choose another option.
Couldn't decide whether to read the comments or just order. Saw the votes and number of comments so just ordered. N97 for basic web browsing and docs etc (for parents). Hope I made the right call. Thanks
for retro gaming, are the n150 and n97 on par?
cant decide between the 2. = (
n97 technically has a 'better' GPU so may make the difference with emulating something to 60fps. I know my n100 handles emulation quite happily most of the time - gamecube and ps2 upscaled to 1080p can handle the majority of games at 60fps.
ok so ill either install
* home assistant
* frigate
* compreface
* doubletake
* grafana
* influx db
ooorr
itll become desk thin client
ooorr
travel nas (with a glinet beryl) and ssd upgrade
I am looking to replace my old ASUS laptop I am using to run PLEX. I have a lot of 1080p content and have slowly started moving to x265 encoded files. I have found that the ASUS will not play any media if it has subtitles in the ASS format. Will this be able to handle the x265 and those particular subtitles? Also, would 4K struggle?
I don't steam outside of the house so it is all local network streaming.
Thanks in advance.
cutting and pasting for the second time:
I've got a dedicated Intel N5095 CPU NAS (slower than both of these mini PCs) and I use jellyfin and intel iGPU hardware transcoding (maximum 1080p is all I've tried.. I do have 4K content but I watch it direct on a 4K screen, so no need to transcode) - anyways, the CPU/iGPU content happily transcodes 3-4 1080p streams to different devices without breaking a sweat.
addendum: all my content is in x265 and I embed subtitles and keep the native audio formats, some subtitles may have been in ASS format, no idea. 4K direct to the native 4K has no issues even with UHD 4K bluray content (no transcoding).
Thanks for the reply, appreciate the addendum as well :)
Thanks OP,
Got the n105 for HTPC duties after I have bit of a play with Linux. Great price and I might retrofit a larger capacity 2230 SSD I have laying around in it.
Now I can forget about a raspberry pi 5 hunting.
I can't find the nic details, is this Intel or Realtek? Planning to run it as dedicated router with opnsense as routers are in this price range are trash/e-waste.
as routers are in this price range are trash/e-waste.
Ubiquiti EdgeRouter X is $99 and is great.
Looks great, but there s no wifi :( , adding a decent gigabit wifi ap will make the total $200+, and there is no way to repurpose these in the future when we get multi gigabit connections.
@CodeXD: My reply was to above Ubiquiti EdgeRouter X recommendation.
Realtek NIC makes both of gmktec mini PCs not suitable for any router usage. It should probably work but not the best.
Realtek
Hard Drive Rotational Speed 7200 RPM . Bonus.
Got the N150 thank you. Been watching this for awhile as I want to setup a firewall/router using OPNSense. If anyone planning to setup OPNSense make sure you choose the N150 as it have dual ethernet making life easier to setup one for WAN and one for LAN. With one eth port you will need a managed switch to use VLAN making things slightly complicated.
N150 one has a single ethernet port. I see the confusion. The description says dual lan and triple display. It has a single lan port and supports two displays.
It's changed now that it's out of stock, but when it was in stock the title (copied from my order history) was "GMKtec Desktop Mini PC Intel N150 Windows 11 Pro 12GB DDR5 256GB SSD Dual LAN, Mini Computer 4K Triple Display, WiFi6, BT5.2, Energy Efficient".
The images also showed dual lan ports on the device.
Correct. It was this one. Also has USB C…
https://www.gmktec.com/products/intel-12th-twin-lake-n150-mi…
@boxall: hmm I wonder if it will support usb C power - my CHUWI n100 mini PC does, even though it's not listed as an option.
Great price. I got one of these a few weeks ago and it's an impressive little device
These are usally $299 and then they have $60 off coupon bringing it to $239 and sometimes they drop the price to $239 with no coupon.
I wonder if this is one of those mistakes where they drop the price and forget to take the coupon off.
Tempted to get another :D
Do it. DO IT. DOOOO IIIITTTT!!!!
lol buy now, think later.
It’s a great price.
if i want to run multiple things on this, say home assistant and a home server, is it better to use some kind of hypervisor and run VMs or containers?
NO USB C on N150 model?
Also Like the N97 is powered from USB C.
Coupon all gone?
the last one i got was n100, has usb-c power connector but doesn’t use usb-c charger, seems it needs 12v and doesn’t negotiate , and the power supply provided was 12v with a usb-c connector, had to buy a barrel to sub-c as didn’t want to use travel adapater for the power supply provided, not sure if this batch takes std usb-c charger power.
N150 with code is OOS (only 16GB + 1TB left)
seems coupon code for both expired
Yeah, I was wondering if it was worth grabbing the N150 version. I already have the N97 one.
Decision made for me now
Isn't the N97 better anyway? Lower power use and slightly better performance?
Yeah I think it is, was just trying to confirm.
I don't really need another N97 one, I don't really have a use for the one I already have. I bought it to play around with :)
can i play the latest COD MW games with this mini pic?
Ozbargain way…N97 ordered. No use case.
The Ozbargain way I hope…..you used 3.3% - 3.5% cash back and 10% off Amazon Giftcards from the past deals to get the N97 for $156.00.
Forgot the cash back (think it was 0% anyway)…and the giftcards (but I have credit I will use for something else).
Isn't this under electronics? Which is 3.3 - 3.5%.
Do you have to format these like the other ones that have the dodgy stuff on them?