Deal | AMD-powered GMKtec NucBox M8 mini PC with OCuLink and dual 2.5G Ethernet sees 32% price cut on Amazon
Skyrocketing DDR5 memory prices have unsurprisingly driven up mini PC prices as well. While barebones variants are obviously not affected by this ongoing debacle, not everyone has DDR5 sticks lying around to pop into their new mini PC. Thankfully, attractive mini PC deals can still be found, like the one we're about to go into right now.
The GMKtec NucBox M8 is a budget-oriented mini PC, packing a 6-core AMD Ryzen APU, 16 GB of LPDDR5-6400 memory, and 512 GB of solid-state storage. Courtesy of an ongoing Amazon sale for Prime members, the capable mini PC can now be purchased for just $323.99.
NucBox M8 mini PC: Respectable performance with great I/O
As pointed out by our extensive review of the NucBox M8 mini PC, the system pack a whole bunch of useful features, but is held back by a relatively old AMD APU. To be specific, the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 6650H APU with 6 cores and 12 threads is based on the Zen 3+ architecture, and is no match for faster Zen 4 and Zen 5-based APUs.
However, performance is perfectly adequate given the price, and the system manages to trade blows with the Intel Core Ultra 7 256V Lunar Lake CPU in multithreaded benchmarks.
OCuLink support to appease gamers
There is no onboard discrete GPU, and the Radeon 660M iGPU is barely powerful enough for extremely lightweight workloads and very casual gaming. There is, however, support for OCuLink, which is a welcome addition allowing for extremely fast eGPU setups for GPU-intensive workloads and AAA gaming. The rest of the I/O on offer is as follows:
- USB 4.0 Type-C (With DisplayPort 1.4, Power Delivery 3.0)
- Triple USB 3.2 Type-C (10 Gbps), single USB 2.0 Type-A
- HDMI 2.0, DisplayPort 1.4
- Dual 2.5G Ethernet
- 3.5 mm audio jack
Sustained performance is decent, although our review reveals that fan noise reaches 38 db(A) despite being set to balanced mode. The soldered memory is yet another disappointing aspect of the NucBox M8 mini PC, while the dual M.2 2280 slots are easily accessible, allowing for up to 8 TB of solid-state storage.
At its current discounted price on Amazon, the GMKtec NucBox M8 mini PC offers a compelling package for folks who do not mind the lack of upgradeable memory, and do not have a requirement for high-end computing horsepower.
Disclaimer: Notebookcheck is not responsible for price changes carried out by retailers. The discounted price or deal mentioned in this item was available at the time of writing and may be subject to time restrictions and/or limited unit availability.
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