Ready To Go For Just $450
If you are looking for a decently powerful mini PC then the GEEKOM Mini IT8 might just offer some serious competition against a NUC, LIVA or other more famous mini PC. The system ships with a Core i5-8259U with Iris Plus Graphics 655, 16 GB of DDR4-3200 SODIMM memory, and a 512 GB PCIe NVMe SSD. You can double that RAM to 32GB after the fact if you so desire, add an additional 2.5″ drive and perhaps tweak the RAM a bit as it is set to run at DDR4-2400 out of the box.
Connectivity is quite impressive, with both HDMI 2.0 and Mini DisplayPort, GbE LAN, three USB 3.2 Type-A’s, two USB 3.2 Type-C of which one can power a display and finally an SD Card slot. There is no optical drive but that can be excused as the system itself is comparable in size to a 5.25″ drive.
TechPowerUp were impressed by the 46 dBA produced under heavy load, even if there was a bit of thermal throttling at times it is a smart trade off. There are more powerful mini PCs than the GEEKOM Mini IT8 but they are also significantly more expensive and in some cases do not come with as many components. That makes this a solid choice for anyone looking for a moderately powerful system that can be attached to a monitor and doesn’t create a lot of noise.