Deal | AMD-powered gaming mini PC with powerful 12-core Strix Point APU and OCuLink support gets massive $250 discount
GMKtec is a well-known brand in the mini PC arena, offering a vast number of systems at various price points. Customers who are on the lookout for a powerful mini PC with good CPU performance will likely be well-served by the Evo-X1, which packs AMD's powerful Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 "Strix Point" APU. Thanks to an ongoing Amazon sale, the system can now be bought for an all-time low price of $799.98.
The AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 is a very potent APU, featuring a 12-core setup consisting of Zen 5 and Zen 5c cores. In CPU benchmarks such as Cinebench, the Ryzen AI 9 quite easily keeps up with processors from competitors, such as the Apple M3 Pro and the Intel Core Ultra 9 285H in multi-core tests. Of course, synthetic benchmarks are not always indicative of real-world performance, but the numbers do indicate that the Strix Point APU in the Evo-X1 mini PC is unlikely to break a sweat in the vast majority of moderately intensive workloads.
The GMKtec Evo-X1 mini PC does not support internal discrete GPUs, which is typical of mini PCs. The integrated Radeon 890M iGPU with 16 CUs is no slouch, offering performance that can trade blows with an RTX 2050 Mobile GPU. In other words, lightweight tasks and casual low-end gaming should not be a hassle for the iGPU. Of course, the OCuLink port will allow for speedy eGPU connections, which is good news for folks willing to splurge extra on an eGPU setup. Our detailed review of the Evo-X1 mini PC reveals that the thermal performance is decent, although the fan does get rather loud under load. The I/O on offer is as follows:
- USB4 (With PD and DP)
- HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 2.1
- Dual 2.5G LAN
- Dual USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A, dual USB 2.0 Type-A
Wireless networking, on the other hand, is taken care of by WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2. The exact variant of the Evo-X1 mini PC on offer boasts 32 GB of LPDDR5X-7500 memory, which is not user-upgradeable. A 1 TB SSD is present, which, is thankfully upgradeable, courtesy of dual M.2 PCIe Gen4 x4 slots.
Our in-depth review of the mini PC paints a positive picture regarding performance, although we did portray our disappointment with the fan noise and lack of upgradeable memory. However, folks who are willing to live with the downsides of the Evo-X1 mini PC will surely have little to complain about in terms of performance, especially at its current sale price on Amazon.
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.
Source(s)
Amazon (linked above), Camelcamelcamel
