GMKtec Mini PC Intel N150 Windows 11 Pro 12GB DDR5 256GB SSD, Dual LAN, 4K Triple Display, Wi-Fi 6, BT 5.2(amazon.com.au)
Collect the $70 off coupon.
GMKtec Mini PC Windows 11 Pro 12th Gen Intel N97 (up to 3.60GHz) 12GB DDR5 512GB SSD(amazon.com.au)
Collect the $60 off coupon.
CamelCamelCamel.
are any of these good to run CAD software?
No. Really want a dedicated GPU for CAD work
Ozbargained. Close deal.
Code removed for the N97 now. I bet it was one of those mistakes where they drop the price and forget to remove the code. This one lasted a lot longer than the usual ones.
Was thinking of buying one but struggled to come up with a use case for it. Have the GL.inet Flint 2 and it's adequate for now.
Woke up at 4 am. Saw deal. Ordered one. Go up. Watched some reviews. Thought WTF am I going to use this for (currently Flint 2 as a basic "NAS" , HA on a Pi, 4 Chromebooks). 4:30 cancelled order 😂
🤣 $149.99 saved!
Anyone have a screenshot of the N150 12Gb 256gb with the $70 coupon they can share ? Thanks!
When I initially compared:
N150
Newer and potentially better CPU
Dual LAN (found out later)
$30 Cheaper
N97 - better iGPU
Smaller
Double the SSD for $30 extra
This is a great channel to follow:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jfra7xKVmE
N97 also uses a lot less watts.
Think it is the other way around.
Nah, the N97 is a little more power hungry than the N100/N150.
Intel states that the base power for the N150 is 6W, versus 12W for the N97:
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/241636/…
https://www.notebookcheck.net/N97-vs-Processor-N150_14969_18…
Most BIOSs including the GMKtec will allow you to select the TDP if you want to limit the power, but in all scenarios the slight power efficiency edge should go to the N100 and N150. My N97 draws 6W when idle, running Home Assistant OS (bare metal) with C states enabled. An N100/N150 should be able to go slightly lower still.
Reviews say this model N97 uses less power at idle and also less power at max use vs a 'standard' N150..
I have seen on reddit that USB-C PD charger works if it can handle 15V (albeit the supplied USB charger is 12v): https://www.reddit.com/r/MiniPCs/comments/1himqro/gmktec_nuc…
Does the N97 come with wifi and Bluetooth?
Yes. One click away from self-discovery.
Still a N97 for $199 (only 256GB though) if anyone missed out:
https://www.amazon.com.au/GMKtec-Nucbox-G5-12-256/dp/B0D5CK2…
Not sure if it’s just me but I can’t seem to see the model that is Dual LAN?
Some seller switch the item listed. The n150 originally was a different model with dual lan. Had you purchased it, then your purchase history would have the dual lan.
It's this one with the smaller 256GB SSD. Ignore the URL as it says N100.
https://www.amazon.com.au/GMKtec-Mini-Intel-N100-12GB/dp/B0C…
Just received mine.
all black, 2 eths
Same, and I got a red top plate as well? Maybe it is like a go faster stripe.
oh i havent looked for the plate - oh there it is!
im sad that the usb c doesn't do display too
ok
red top installed
The one thing that prevented me from jumping on this deal. All USB C ports should be capable of both power and display by now.
anyone clean installing windows with these machines? any guides?
activate (go through installer and start up windows)
download iso
mount it
double click it.
If anyone is interested,
Fresh install of opnsense, power usage is sitting at 10w. Feels a bit high, my current OpenWRT NanoPi r5s sits at 6w.
That may not sound like much, but it’s an extra 35kw of power a year.
N150 or N97?
Sorry. N150
Been playing with enabling C-States in bios and opnsense.
That has dropped power usage slightly, but need to test to see if that will impact latency.
Make sure you limit the TDP in the BIOS as well, from reports you should be able to set it as low as 6W.
@Raymondz: Looks like it's called "Power Limit Select" for the GMKtec G3 Plus:
https://youtu.be/9moL1Qxbe8o?si=mKm6NIf9Vj3yG5ry&t=521
@ internet-stranger
That may not sound like much, but it’s an extra 35kw of power a year.
If you mean kWh… that's about $7.00 over a year.
Mine just arrived from Amazon, but I'm surprised by the packaging. It was only packed in a thin paper satchel, even though the actual box is labelled 'Fragile.' Has Amazon dropped the ball on delivery? I'm so used to everything arriving in a box.
What one N150 or N97?
N97
mine also!
same.. my N150 arrived in a 'padded' envelope - I've used ultra thin condoms that were thicker than the packaging amazon used.
Same. Barely any padding.
mines cpu freq seemz to max out on windows at about 2.8Ghz
does anyone know why?
I bought one of each. Original plan is to use one for Proxmox running Home Assistant and Pihole (plus whatever else tickles my fancy).
I'm now wondering if one of these would function as a Plex server using a USB external drive or storage (I prefer to keep separate hardware for various reasons), and if so which device would be best suited for both of these solutions? I watch 4K videos on a LG OLED TV using the WebOS Plex client. The current server is using a HP Prodesk G4 600 I5 8500, which I might be best off keeping.
From the comments above, the N97 would be slightly better for plex and the N150 would be good for Home Assistant/PiHole. Splitting hairs really.
Thanks, I suspected that was the case
If I remove Windows and then decide to reinstall, where do I get the activation key?
@boxall
Thanks very much for the info about Windows key in the Bios, as I too, was wondering about this. Someone above in the comments was suggesting to do an immediate fresh install (because according to him, there will almost be guaranteed viruses/malware etc) and also best to buy yourself a new Windows key and put it on there! 🙄🤣
Thankyou for that link to all the downloads as well, that is exactly what i was hoping to find👍🍻🏆
@wonderboy4
Hope it works out. I just went with the default install. Always lots of rumours about viruses but never much fact, especially related to GMKTec.
@boxall: Yeah, hopefully key is in the BIOS, that would make things nice and easy👍 Me too, just gonna run a scan, that's enough for me. I'm only using it for a audio/midi capture device anyway.
I don't think the key is in the BIOS. I tried to extract mine, but it didn't work.
I was able to do a fresh install of Windows and it activated automatically without a key, but that is probably because I logged into my MS account once on the preinstalled Windows
Decided on my N97 use case. Small retro "console" plugged into the TV. More power and flexibility than the Firestcik TV, Apple TV and Chromecast I already have.
i swear i always miss these deals fml
OMG the N97 GMKtec is SO SO SO small. The windows setup was a little different for sure.
if you're using it for retro gaming / kodi media playback I suggest checking out batocera. it's a bootable self contained linux OS with emulators included and meant to be used on a tv with a joystick (emulation station front end).
On it. Going to have a Windows native option with LaunchBox and then a Batocera image on the SD card.
nice.. though if you're keeping windows, retrobat might be the slightly better option over batocera (as you can easily update the individual emulators rather than wait for the next rollout of batocera, which is usually a good 6 months+ between updates).
@gizmomelb: Will review the options. Thanks heaps. SO many retro devices. The joy is in the building more than the gaming for me.
@gizmomelb: @gizmomelb
Retrobat sounds interesting, thanks👍 I like being able to choose the emulator, rather than having it dictated to you like with Retro Arch (as far as I know) because some emulators for the same console/system are much better.
Although I heard about Batocera many times, so I should probably check it out too.
That's one of the things I like about Launchbox (freedom to run many different emulators, even on a per ROM basis!)
@boxall: Slippery slope…this does look cool though!
https://www.amazon.com.au/Zedo-2-4GHz-Wireless-Keyboard-Andr…
@boxall: That does indeed look cool. I have a PC connected to my TV, so this could be very useful for some couch PC surfing👍
Thankyou for posting 🍻
@wonderboy4: air mouse is good and cheaper way to control a HTPC connected to TV, but I ended up making one of these dongles so I can use the tv remote control to control KODI over HDMI-CEC - cost me about $30 in parts from memory including the 3D printed case, still have bits to make a couple more, should do it then sell them. - https://github.com/gkoh/pico-cec
@gizmomelb: Yeah, air mouse is a great invention for TV's, we used to have one on our Samsung TV, but having it on a PC is even way more useful. Plus the addition of a keyboard is fantastic, I will have to get one soon.
That's a clever device👍 I didn't know this was possible to achieve with a TV remote. Is it mostly for convenience because you don't want to have to swap remotes?
I think Kodi is awesome, but I haven't used it for at least a couple of years, because my big HDD's are still packed in boxes, since a big house move and I haven't got everything up and running like I used to.
But I'm looking forward to setting it up again, it's by far the most beautiful interface I've ever seen for Movie and TV archiving. I used to spend hours downloading artwork backdrops and movie posters (even making a few of my own) just to get it all looking the best I could.
I bet Kodi has improved a lot since even then, it's amazing some of the features and addons that have been developed for it. Although, I did struggle a bit to understand some of it's quirks at times! It's still the best app of it's kind, I've ever seen 👍
@wonderboy4: yes I made the hdmi dongle purely for laziness, err convenience of not having to find the airmouse (as my son was usually the culprit who misplaced it - down the back of the couch, behind the couch, underneath the couch etc.) our tv remote is larger so harder to lose :)
I really like KoDI and have been using it for 2 decades now, currently my KODI is running the jellyfin plugin so it gets all of the artwork, posters, metadata etc. from my jellyfin streaming video setup on my nas, it auto updates etc. so I've disabled kodi's local native metadata scraper as jellyfin just does it better in my opinion.
Though there is a limitation with KODI in that it only supports one movie, one tv and one music library.. jellyfin can have multiple of each and while you can glob them together in KODI, I prefer keeping the tv series, tv series anime, tv series kids separate. So if I use the jellyfin client on the tv or pc I have access to the separate libraries (and thus easier to access with different user profiles in the app), whereas in KODI it just merges them all into it's single 'tv series' library and the littlies might see stuff they're not supposed to.
The jellyfin tv client isn't bad, I'm just not used to it yet as I have KODI muscle memory :)
@gizmomelb: Haha, yeah need a remote with a beacon on it sometimes🤣
That sounds interesting, I am not familiar with Jellyfin, but anything that makes gathering the artwork easier is a great asset, especially if it can be done via a Kodi addon. Thanks for the tip, I will check this out for sure👍
Yeah the Kodi scraper is okay up to a point but I always had to then do manual stuff a lot afterwards. So this sounds like it could be the ticket, or at least an improvement.
I know what you mean with the separate libraries not being easy with Kodi, I wanted the same thing as you, to separate shows (especially animated from live action) and even movie lists too, but it didn't seem to have a default or easy option. But iirc, I did research a it bit and kinda find a way, but I didn't quite manage to get it to work properly (KODI kept getting confused with tags/genres etc) so I set it aside for another time.
Would love to find a solution one day as it's a basic but really essential requirement I feel and it really should be solved/added to KODI by now. Hopefully there is a way or even a compromise out there.'
But, if JellyFin does things better than Kodi, I'd sure be interested to see.
@boxall: Got one and returning. Super hard to use and missing fn keys and tab etc. Sticking with my k400 plus all in one.
Retro gaming on N97 version is superb!!!! Up to PS2, DC and GameCube. What a perfect device and neat little home theatre pc.
glad you're enjoying it mate! was a bargain for the price, previously the cheapest intel n100 mini PC I'd bought cost me $180 AUD. The n150 for $120 was almost a steal.
$150…$120 would have been a steal.
correct.. I had a $30 gift card which I used and did not take into account.
How are you playing games on it mate? I've got the n150 from this deal coming tomorrow and want to get into some retro stuff.
Launchbox/Bigbox under windows 11 and then a seperate SD card running native batocera. Super easy to dual boot for variety. Also a 2.4GHz wireless Xbox one controller connection so it works in both environments.
Awesome thanks for that. Will look into those!
How to tune the N150 (G2 plus model) CPU from 2.9 GHZ to 3.6GHZ?
The $150 computer is enough for daily use and why buy a $1000 computer?
I think 3.6ghz is the single core turbo clock. If all 4 cores are under load, the clock will be 2.9ghz.
Have you changed the TDP in the BIOS?
I changed 2 menu items: "power limit select" set to "high Performance" and "GT turbo" is enabled.
Seems the CPU is throttled to 2.9ghz.
I tested it with a parallel computing program (generating images using 5 threads simultaneously) .
CPU 100%@2.9ghz & memory 10.2/11.7(87%). This may reach the limit.
Performance comparable or even better than my retired 4 cores 8 threads laptop.
Very impressive!
Gday I figured it out!
You need to enable EC Turbo Control Mode and to get a faster power brick. In addition ofc to the performance mode in bios and also in the OS.
I used one from a laptop that is 100w and so it gets all the power it wants now.
now i can see my CPU actually go to 3.4Ghz at times. Before it would be capped at 2.6Ghz
Thanks. I will try and see if I can get the n150 cpu to 3.6ghz.
also make sure windows "energy saver" mode is off
For comparison, running the passmark performance test for Cpu Mark
I got
CPU Mark: 6171
Single thread: 2184
Integer maths: 17133
prime number: 26
Compression, 67696
physics 477
floating point math 11909
sse: 3389
encryption 4569
sorting: 8274
GIven that N100 gets CPU mark of 5452 for multithread and 1926 for single thread, the N150 is 13% faster than N100
this is a nice improvement over my outgoing computer that gets 3971 and 1974 respectively.
and its almost as fast as my home server that gets 6228 and 2119 respectively. that server is running 2x win vms, frigate and home assistant.
@FoxJump: Will run the same on the N97 when I get a chance. Should be similar, but GPU should be higher.
@FoxJump: @FoxJumpWould love to understand what extra tweeking you did as your results do seem high.
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/5337vs6304/Intel-N97-vs…
@boxall: keep in mind passmark relies on people submitting results.
so if people take something OOB and run it, they will get OOB results.
i went through the bios options asking bingchat what it means and tweaking
and tadaa. zippy.
@FoxJump: Found another setting under the power brick setting. “Energy Performance Gain”. Was disabled so will see what happens when enabled.
@boxall: does yours have wifi problems? everytime i boot i need to disable wifi and enable on the device manager
@FoxJump: Nope none. That’s solid. Most times it is plugged into ethernet these days now it is setup.
@boxall: hmm weird
maybe cos i shutdown win11 using shutdown.exe /s /f /t 0 because i hate windows reopening every thing for me every time assuming im doing the same thing
i also hate the "you have blah open" prompt. shutdown shutdown now!
In addition “ofc”????
So I got the N150 and have been setting it up today. Turns out, you cannot boot from a bootable USB (such as a fresh windows install) without firstly updating the BIOS (it lands on a black screen and doesn't go further).
I had to find the correct BIOS file, then create a bootable usb using rufus to then hit F7 to boot off of that usb to load the newer BIOS file.
Once this was done, I was able to get my bootable usb with Windows and start a fresh installation.
Hi, can you share the link for the correct BIOS file?
Here - https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1y9z5q7_VEDcMsA3cGTf5…
Ensure you download the correct one
@Dollar Dreamer: Computers - Computers (Includes Desktops, Laptops, Computer Bags, Monitors, Accessories, Storage, Network) - 0.7%.