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After much wiggling and some spudger encouragement, the base can be detached to reveal a slightly worrying layout. The AS 5 uses a dual board design where various functions have been disseminated onto a second board that is connected by a wide flexible ribbon cable. Even when the machine isn’t under duress, this makes a clearly audible noise, one that might ultimately annoy the owner. When we investigated the BIOS settings, we discovered that the AS 5 and AS 6 both had a fan speed set to ‘Standard’ by default. It is possible to use ‘silent’ mode instead and reduce the hum, though this obviously might not cool the machine as effectively, resulting in CPU and GPU throttling. GEEKOM specializes in the production and sale of mini PCs. It launched its first flagship mini PC, the Mini IT8, on 20 November 2021. [2] The Mini IT8 has been praised as an "affordable and compact" alternative to NUCs, a similar line of barebone computers produced by Intel. [4] [5] As of August2022 [update], GEEKOM has released the following three mini PCs in addition to the Mini IT8: the Mini IT8 SE, [3] MiniAir 11, [6] [7] and Mini IT11. [3] For those using this system in anger, the 2.5GbE LAN port is a must, irrespective of the quality of WiFi in the office. It’s a fire-and-forget solution that, if the connected switch supports 2.5GbE, can easily shift 250Mb/s a second to and from network servers.
The 5900HX has an AMD Configurable TDP (cTDP) that enables it to operate in a range from 35 to 54W. In this NUC context, it appears Geekom went with the 45W part of that spectrum to avoid overheating the 5900HX in such a small enclosure. The performance of the AS 5 was something of a disappointment, given it also has a Ryzen 9 processor with eight cores, but the AS 6 is much more impressive.For example, the case is completely made of plastic, and when compared to that we’ve seen on machines like the metal-shelled NPB7, it looks like it wouldn’t handle much abuse. We’ve tested several AMD Ryzen mobile processors in laptops and Mini systems, and they’re potent devices that generally exceed our expectations.
Included in the box with the AS 5, Geekom provides an HDMI cable, a 120W external PSU, a VESA mounting plate and a selection of screws for attaching that to the AS 5 and a monitor.
A powerful NUC limited by bandwidth
Comparing this machine to other Mini PC designs, even other ones made by Geekom, is a slightly sobering experience. Because while this is a Core-i9, what that translates into for the benchmarks isn’t remarkable. Having seen what Beelink did with its SER6 Pro 7735HS using the Ryzen 7735HS, we were curious about what a move up to the Ryzen 9 5900HX might deliver in the AS 5. This platform is undeniably useful because it is PCIe 4.0 capable, which is achieved with the Microprocessor being PCIe 5.0, whereas the chipset is PCIe 3.0. With 28 PCIe lanes to splash around on the I/O ports, this provides exceptional connectivity. Both USB 4.0 ports can shift up to 40Gbps, allowing for up to 8K monitors or external RAID boxes to be easily accessed.
But the AS 6 is a Gen 4 system with Gen 4 M.2 NVMe slots, allowing it to take much faster drives, like the excellent Lexar NM790.
The explanation is that the AMD Ryzen 9 has a better GPU and some other performance enhancements that enable it to outperform the i9 in most tasks. While a barebones option would have been nice, the asking price for a machine of this specification is competitive and highlight how much more power and capability paying extra can net you. The DDR4 RAM and NVMe drive were both Kingston products and not some cheap OEM unknown brand, thankfully. With the Beelink SER6 Pro 7735HS, we saw a Wild Life score of 15435, and this machine nearly halves that to just 8662. That reduction is a combination of the better GPU in the 7735HS and the greater bandwidth available to it. If it used more power, it probably wouldn’t be possible to fit this platform in an NUC-sized enclosure without overheating issues.
GEEKOM is a Taiwanese multinational consumer electronics company specializing in mini PCs. It is one of the largest manufacturers of mini PCs in the world. Ironically, the issue here isn’t the CPU primarily. Because the Zen 3 architecture, with eight cores and 16MB of L3 and 4MB of L2 cache, can run very sweetly and drive up to sixteen threads effectively. Kom de Olde founded GEEKOM in 2003 with the expressed goal of dedicating the company to the "research and development of computer products." [1] In late 2021, GEEKOM switched its focus to the mini PC market and has since become one of the world's leading manufacturers of mini PCs. [2] [3] Products [ edit ]We hope it’s the motherboard in the AS 5 because the case and cooling of this system aren’t things we’d be especially proud. What was most striking here is that we recently covered the Geekom AS 6, a Ryzen 9 machine that, with a few small exceptions, beat this Core-i9 across the board. But conversely, it can’t use DDR5, which the 7735HS can, and this impacts not only on overall bandwidth but specifically the performance of the integrated graphics. As we’ll discuss in the performance section, this chip might be considered an i9 in name only, but the i9 products have been criticised as being more of a marketing exercise than a significant upgrade since inception. But, to paraphrase that familiar relationship-ending phrase, it's us, not the AS 5. Because we’ve been spoiled by the Ryzen 7735HS, Ryzen 7 6800H and Core i7-13700H into expecting more than the Ryzen 9 5900HX can deliver.
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