Geekom Mini IT8: Geekom is a relatively young player in the mini-PC market, but the company has already distinguished itself thanks to the value-oriented offers that it provides. Mini IT11 is a productivity powerhouse that combines Intel’s Tiger Lake Core i5 and i7 designs with superb networking options while yet retaining a small footprint. The entry-level MiniAir 11 comes equipped with Celeron hardware and is ideal for casual surfing as well as office work.
The Mini IT8 is an option that falls somewhere in the middle of the pack and is intended for usage in an office setting. It begins at just $369 and comes with an older Coffee Lake Core i5-8279U processor. This is a decent price in and of itself, especially when you consider that it comes with Windows 11 Pro already loaded out of the box. After putting in a significant amount of time with the Mini IT11 a few months ago, I was excited to see how the Mini IT8 would perform in regular use. If you are looking for a new workstation that won’t take up too much space on your desk, the following information about the Geekom Mini IT8 is what you need to know.
Geekom Mini IT8 Features and Design
Geekom is a Chinese manufacturer that has only been producing mini-PCs for a year, but it is already obvious that the company knows a thing or two about offering products that have an uncluttered design and a high-quality build. The Mini IT8 has a honed appearance and presents pretty favorably thanks to the shiny plastic finish located at the very top. This is in contrast to the matte surface that can be found on the Mini IT11, and despite the fact that the glossy coating is more likely to pick up fingerprints, you won’t be touching that portion of the product nearly as often.
The rectangular chassis is really understated, and it doesn’t draw any attention to itself in any way. You may also tuck it away behind your monitor because the package comes with a VESA mount that you can attach to the back of your monitor. Both the Mini IT8 and the Mini IT11 have a vented design on three sides, which is fantastic for passive cooling. During the week that I used the machine, I did not have any throttling issues that were caused by the computer overheating.
On the front of the Mini IT8, you’ll find the power button, a 3.5mm jack, a USB-C connector, and a USB 3.2 Gen 2 port. The majority of the Mini IT8’s connectivity choices, though, are located on the back of the device. A USB-C connector is located on the back of the device, in addition to a side-mounted SD card reader, one mini DisplayPort port, one HDMI 2.0 port, Gigabit Ethernet port, and two USB 3.2 Gen 2 connectors. In terms of wireless connectivity, there is Wi-Fi ac as well as Bluetooth 4.2; however, neither of these most recent networking technologies are supported here.
The Mini IT8 has the capability of powering up to four 4K displays, but in reality, most people will only use it with a single display. I had no problems using it to run a 165 Hz gaming monitor off of the machine.
In its products, Geekom uses both Kingston and Lexar NVMe drives interchangeably. The Mini IT8 that I’m testing comes with a Lexar 512GB M.2 SSD pre-installed, and Geekom also uses Kingston NVMe SSDs. The same is true for the RAM; a SO-DIMM module manufactured by either Kingston or Wooposit will be inserted. In spite of the fact that Geekom does not provide the Mini IT8 as a barebones kit, accessing the mainboard of the device is as simple as removing four screws located at the base of the device. This is necessary in the event that the memory or storage needs to be replaced.
You can install a total of 32 gigabytes of RAM in this location thanks to the presence of two SO-DIMM slots. The single M.2 port has the capacity to hold drives of up to 1 terabyte, plus there is a slot at the bottom of the device that can handle a 2.5-inch SATA disk. That’s all there is to it in terms of configurability, but for the vast majority of users, the default settings of 8GB/256GB and 16GB/512GB should be more than sufficient. Visit our page on the finest solid-state drives (SSDs) for recommendations if you require additional storage space.
In terms of its hardware, the Mini IT8 is driven by a Coffee Lake Core i5-8279U manufactured by Intel. This central processing unit (CPU) first appeared in 2019, yet it still works quite fine for applications involving productivity. It performed fairly well in Lightroom, despite the fact that exporting photographs was a time-consuming process; nonetheless, I did not experience any slowdowns when using Chrome or the Office suite. You get a fair degree of performance here considering how much it costs, but it cannot compete directly with the Tiger Lake-powered Mini IT11 as it would be impossible.
The fact that Windows 11 Professional is already installed on the Mini IT8 is one of the aspects of this computer that particularly appeals to me. In addition, there is no bloatware other than what Microsoft includes with Windows 11, and Geekom has done an excellent job of including a Windows license with the package.
Geekom Mini IT8 Review
There isn’t a whole lot that Geekom gets wrong with the Mini IT8, and the mini-PC is excellent for use in an office setting on a regular basis. The fact that it makes use of an older CPU is the primary disadvantage; as a result, it does not exactly produce the same numbers as mini-PCs that are equipped with the hardware from Intel’s 11th Gen or 12th Gen generations.
This is not a system that is built for gaming, despite the fact that it is very good at productivity tasks. It is possible to play a few casual games on the Mini IT8, but the limitations of the hardware become immediately apparent the moment you try to play a AAA game on it.
Geekom Mini IT8 Rivals
Geekom’s very own Mini IT11 is an excellent replacement for the Mini IT8, as it possesses significantly more power and is compatible with Wi-Fi 6 networks. The IT11’s beefier hardware transforms it into a productivity powerhouse; additionally, it does a respectable job of handling casual gaming. Instead of getting a less powerful machine, you should go with the IT11 because it is purpose-built to edit both video and still images. A steal at only $469, the base model is equipped with a Core i5-1135G7 processor, 16 gigabytes of random access memory (RAM), and a 512-gigabyte solid state drive (SSD).
Geekom Mini IT8 price and availability
A little over a year ago, Geekom introduced the Mini IT8, and it can be purchased with a variety of different memory and storage capacities. The lowest model comes with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB solid-state drive, and it can be purchased for $369 on Amazon and on Geekom’s website. All of the models are powered by Intel’s Core i5-8279U processor. Even while that is a decent deal on its own, Geekom is currently holding a Christmas sale in which it is bundling a carrying case for free, and readers of Windows Central can acquire the Mini IT8 for $319 by entering the code XMIT8i5A. This offer is valid until December 25th, 2017.
If you require more memory and storage space, there is a 16GB/512GB edition that costs $439, but you can buy it for just $389 by entering the code XMIT8i5A on Geekom’s website. This model is the same as the 8GB/256GB version in every other respect; the only difference is in the memory and storage modules. The discount code is good until the 31st of December.
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