New products tested by our experts
GMKtec NucBox K3 Pro
MINI PC | £544 from GMKtec www.snipca.com/48392
No mint chip
Following hot on the heels of the GMKtec NucBox K2 (www.snipca.com/48223), which we reviewed in Issue 672, the NucBox K3 Pro sounds like it ought to be something of a step up. And it is, if you only consider price. The K2 itself has gone up to $579 (around £464) from £390 since we published our review (for the 32GB RAM/1TB SSD model). However, the K3 Pro is even more expensive at $679 (around £544), and that’s with less (24GB) RAM and a 1TB SSD.
We’re quoting prices in US dollars because that’s the currency the PC is sold in – direct from GMKtec’s website. Before you do, check how much your payment card charges you for foreign-currency transactions, to ensure that you avoid any nasty surprises.
It looks the same as the K2 because it comes in the same case with standard mini PC dimensions (45x105x105mm – HxWxD). This also means that the K3 Pro has the same selection of ports, including one USB-C, three USB 3.0, one USB 2.0, two HDMI and one Ethernet port.
The key difference between the two models is the processor. Where the K2 was built around an AMD Ryzen 7 7735HS, the K3 Pro has an Intel Core i7-12650H chip – a 12th-generation unit that doesn’t add a great deal to performance levels when compared with the cheaper AMD processor.
This was demonstrated in our benchmark tests, in which the processor is pushed to its limits. The i7 processor in the K3 Pro ran 15 per cent faster in single-core tests, but was no better in multi-core performance.
In Windows tests the K3 Pro was 13 per cent slower, and in graphical tests, which show its prowess when gaming or editing videos and images, the built-in graphics hardware of the K2 chip was streets ahead.
Put the K3 Pro up against our current favourite mini PC, the Geekom Mini IT 13 (£699 from www.snipca. com/47789) and it falls even further behind, with the Mini IT 13 benefitting from a significantly more powerful processor.
Its i9-13900H chip is current generation, has more cores and ensures better performance across the board than either GMKtec model. Also, you can buy it in pounds stirling, which saves you any currency-conversion costs.
Reviewed in isolation, this mini PC would probably have fared better, because there’s not much wrong with it and it’s unlikely to disappoint anyone looking for a decent mini PC to do a good job running Windows 11. However, with such
