Ready, set up, go
MINI PC | £514 from GMKtec www.snipca.com/49349
This powerful mini PC is housed in a surprisingly small case. It runs Windows 11 Pro powered by an an AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS processor, which has built-in Radeon 780M graphics – a chip we last saw in the impressive Minisforum UM790 Pro mini PC, reviewed in Issue 667 (page 22).
We were certainly impressed with the performance of the UM790 Pro, but we felt its price tag at the time (£829) was a little high for what you got. Look on the Minisforum website (www.snipca. com/49350) now and it’s available for a more attractive £639 (32GB RAM/1TB SSD). However, the GMKtec NucBox K4 is even cheaper, with its 32GB RAM/1TB SSD option costing only £515.
That said, the UM790 Pro performed slightly better in our benchmark tests, but the difference is only around six per cent, so are there any other compromises in a machine that costs significantly less?
It’s perhaps more instructive to compare it with our current favourite mini PC, the Minisforum UM780XTX (£729 from www.snipca.com/48917, reviewed in Issue 676 – see page 32).
While this costs over £200 more, it comes with double the RAM (64GB). And while its processor – AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS – is less powerful, it’s still fairly impressive. Intel i9 chips typically have more cores than their i7 counterparts, but the same isn’t true for AMD chips, and both the NucBox K4 and the UM790 Pro have the same number of cores (eight) and use the same Radeon 780M built-in graphics.
The Ryzen 9 processor is designed to run a little faster, however, and that was confirmed in our processor tests, where it was four-per-cent quicker. In games tests, meanwhile, the UM780XTX’s extra RAM gave it a slight edge, running around three-per-cent faster.
The NucBox K4 has a sleek, compact chassis, measuring just 43x123x112mm (HxWxD) and weighing a mere 422g. It feels robust and well constructed, but looks inconspicuous and understated. The inclusion of a VESA mount option is a great touch and enables you to attach it behind compatible monitors or TVs, saving even more desk space.
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