My Favorite Cheap Mini PC Gets an N150 Upgrade! GMKTec G3 Plus Review

[@teknerd]

I bought one after your first review on your channel. I am very happy with it. I can finally watch my plex library when I am away from home for the first time. My Synology DS920+ didn't have the processing power to trans code 4K DV films, but the G3 doesn't have a problem at all with my library. I can even watch live television away from home by having the G3 transcode the video stream from my HD Homerun Extend. Finally, getting that Plex Pass four years ago is paying off.

[@redmoruga4600]

good to hear that! I've given up on Plex for the last half a year (using Jellyfin now). I got one of these boxes and been spending a good part of my day trying to get a plex container working in docker :)) It's not all done, but nearly there. I heard the n100 cpu can transcode about 4x 4k streams at once!

[@bryans8656]

I have the G3 N100 (16/256), and it's a great little device. No need to upgrade at this time, I'll wait and see what the future holds.

[@mavfan1]

I saw a comparison that said a N 100 running DDR five ram was faster than the N150 running with DDR four so it’d be interesting to see how much DDR five with the N150 might show improved performance over what you’re saying with this N150 with DDR4.

[@srvuk]

They missed the one feature that it really should have come with, DD5 RAM. It has been shown that the RAM does make a difference on these PC's and if it had done, then it would almost certainly have beaten the N97 model. Close but no cigar.

[@craigscherer563]

Thanks for pointing out the power supply voltage. Nobody else does that and seldom do manufacturers publish it. I use a Beelink you reviewed a long time ago to display engine parameters in a 70s era 'Cuda. I am using it in conjunction with a home built fuel injection system. During the winter, it comes inside to run amateur radio programs. I think I will buy one and convert it to dual boot, use the Beelink as backup and as a Plex server for the camper.

[@huboz0r]

Thanks for another great review. Cool to keep up to date with the new intel N-series coming out. Great point on the raspberry pi comparison - why consider a pi 5 when you can get this at a similar price!

[@jeffsauer2198]

Hi Lon... Love your channel. FYI, this model supports up to 32GB DDR4 3200 not 16. Cheers.

[@barberaTP]

@@jeffsauer2198 Nice to know. But 32 of RAM isn't an overkill for that kind of CPUs?

[@jeffsauer2198]

@barberaTP not if you plan to use it as a docker server...

[@vdivanov]

@@barberaTPtoday it may be. In a year or two…

[@estusflask982]

@@barberaTP no

[@barberaTP]

​@@jeffsauer2198 I have the idea that you may have applications that can consume a lot of ram but with only 4 CPUs you can't do too much. If you have a lot of dockers running at the same time that uses almost 100% of the RAM how would their performance be when running in a 4 efficient cores like the n100? That's my doubt.

[@ThePallones]

Just wondering what your usual malware scanners are?

[@tonberryhunter]

The N97 based GMKTec NucBox G5 is faster smaller and the same price.

[@vanhoe0]

When I was looking at this when it launched, the G3PLUS is cheaper than the G5. I went and bought one.

[@MartinPaoloni]

But it also is more power hungry. The N100 (and probably now the N150 as well) is popular due to its acceptable performance under a tiny 6W TDP.

[@sprockkets]

@@MartinPaoloni Well you can set the max power consumption IIRC. But it's really the gpu freq that makes the diff.

[@MrTrentCurtis]

Grub has a simple option to load last picked OS. Highly recommend enabling this flag and it's fairly easy to do and surprised they don't enable it by default...

[@estusflask982]

I just got the N97 NucBox G5. It's smaller than this one. Like the smallest mini PC there is. The N97 is faster than N100 and N150 as well. Has DDR5 RAM instead of DDR4.

[@sprockkets]

The N97 isn't faster than the N150 - they run at the same CPU clock speeds, but the N150 benefits from a more advanced lithography node. That's it. Either chip can use DDR4 or 5 - that's up to the OEM to implement. The N97's replacement is the N250.

[@estusflask982]

@@sprockkets The N97 has faster iGPU. 1.2GHz instead of 0.3GHZ (0.75GHz turbo)

[@sprockkets]

@estusflask982 I don't believe that source, and yes, I know where you got it from. It's mostly wrong

[@estusflask982]

@@sprockkets The source is Intel's website.

[@BeesCantSwim]

Do you update the BIOS and chipset on these pc's?

[@Zoner1501]

There's a G2 plus now with N150 paired with 12GB ddr5

[@matcarfer]

just wish a ddr5 variant was out as it will get a really nice gpu performance upgrade

[@kaplanfx]

CPU is faster in the N150 but they all seem to be shipping with slower DDR4 which is offsetting the performance gains versus N100/N97 machines many of which had faster DDR5.

[@mrttype]

Glad you mentioned the sound level - I love the Raspberry Pi 400 because it's silent(watching this on it). Upgrading to a 500 next year, have you any plans to review one?

[@kamertonaudiophileplayer847]

It looks like a great machine for most use cases.

[@JosephPaulMarbas-c4h]

Merry Christmas sir. that mini pc can play dota 2?

[@BeachTechPC]

Is the windows license stored in the bios?

[@estusflask982]

The motherboard is linked to the Windows license on Microsoft's servers. You can reinstall Windows and won't have to reactivate it.

[@mindbender50]

You should compare it to the N97 processor!

[@LonSeidman]

check out the 3dmark benchmark I mention it

[@jonsookerman6524]

What m.2 sata ssd is that? Do you have a link?

[@dnwheeler]

It's unfortunate that they are still using the same Intel ethernet chip. My GMKtec G3 suffers from the well-known random disconnection problem with the Intel I226-V chipset. I use mine as a Plex server but have to use a USB-to-Ethernet adapter to keep it from disconnecting several times every hour.

[@LonSeidman]

Strange- I have not encountered that

[@estusflask982]

Better than Realtek rubbish

[@huboz0r]

As a G3 owner, this issue is not well-known to me. What OS are you running?

[@dnwheeler]

@@huboz0r @LonSeidman I started with the included Windows 11 install, then applied all available updates. I then installed Plex Server and nothing else. When watching a movie or even when it is updating metadata, the ethernet connection drops randomly several times per hour. This has been a known issue with the I225-V and I226-V controllers for over two years (there are discussions in many forums). I have tried all the suggestions across many discussion forums - none of them made any difference. Even on the Intel forums, there are many reports of this issue with various computers and motherboards. Intel claims they have newer drivers/firmware but you can only get them from the OEM, and GMKtec doesn't haven't any newer updates available for the G3. Note that I am connecting to 1 Gbs switch - there is some speculation that the auto speed detection is getting confused and trying to switch to 2.5 Gbs when it shouldn't. Using a USB-to-Ethernet adapter works fine and is getting me by. Maybe I'll try Linux at some point.

[@TheSimArchitect]

Do you get a commission when we purchase a similar item from amazon nl (and other countries) after opening a link of yours first (I hope yes)? I got a Minisforums device about a week ago after using your link from an older video. 🙂

[@LonSeidman]

I am pretty sure I am set up for nl, thank you!

[@TheSimArchitect]

@@LonSeidman Awesome! I wish I knew the rules better so I could use your links before certain purchases, every now and then.

[@Mike-if2mf]

Lon: Is it usable headless? That is, RDP to it from laptop on same LAN? Sure, likely need attached KVM for initial setup but any issues you see using long term as headless server?

[@LonSeidman]

Should work fine ! I am pretty sure there’s a bios setting to boot it with power.

[@MikeSchmidt-s1l]

Thank you sir.

[@jimcabezola3051]

Yes...this computer is cheaper than my Pi5. It runs any x86-style Linux distro. It has the 3.5mm audio my Pi5 lacks. What's not to like?

[@tldr365]

Power consumption I guess

[@estusflask982]

Pi5 saves a few bucks on your power bill every year but it is far weaker than even the cheapest mini PC

[@jimcabezola3051]

@@estusflask982 There's no hope of my ever buying one of these, then. Electrical power cost here is 2.5 to 3 times higher than the national average, and my Raspbeery Pi keeps me in the black.

[@jimcabezola3051]

@@tldr365 I'll stick with my Pi. Electricity is expensive here.

[@sprockkets]

@@jimcabezola3051 That's like 5w vs 15. You aren't even saving anything vs the other, period. Running an n97 PC at full tilt 24/7 would cost me $1.62 a month to run. And since it wouldn't be on 24/7, it might cost me 30 cents A MONTH to run, at 4hrs a day, every day. Your monitor is going to take at least as much as this PC does, maybe more.

[@Mike01129]

Could you run a bitcoin node on the Linux drive and also use the Windows drive at the same time for general use?

[@MisterUrbanWorld]

I'm in the market for one of these. Looking to add it to an arcade machine, if emulation is good.

[@estusflask982]

GMKtec Nucbox G5 is better for emulation. Faster GPU on the N97.

[@mypetdrgn]

Sorry for off topic, do you have any reviews on mini vac for keyboard or electronic devices? Are they useful?

[@daveac]

'WiFi not as good as it could be' Well, it's at least 10x faster than my wifi!

[@middle_pickup]

Lon, have you tested the hardware accelerated HEVC transcoding beta with Plex yet? Interested how well it works with these n100 and n150 CPU's.

[@LonSeidman]

Are you talking about tone mapping? I am shooting a piece today about it as a matter of fact.

[@MichelBasilieres-i5e]

Why do you use Brave instead of Chrome? How does that affect Speedometer scores?

[@LonSeidman]

I prefer brave for privacy. Scores are the same on either browser

[@huboz0r]

Brave is Chromium based, just like Chrome.

[@sprockkets]

Brave IMO is just substituting one terrible company for another. Either use Firefox, or even something like Thorium, which is Chrome but without most of the crap.

[@jeffsauer2198]

Anyone know the max HDMI resolution this unit is capable of? I know the website says 4K60, but I was hoping it could drive my LG 5K2K 21:9 monitor... but it looks like it is maxing out at 3440x1440... could my old HDMI cable be limiting it?

[@LonSeidman]

It's HDMI 2.0 so the max is 4k 60hz unfortunately.

[@jeffsauer2198]

@@LonSeidman OK... so I was actually able to get it to work... but only at 30Hz because of the HDMI 2.0 limitation, which for basic desktop use is OK. I'm running wayland based KDE Plasma (haven't figured out how to do it with wayland yet), but if I switch to X11 based KDE Plasma, I can add the 5K2K mode by using the gtf command to generate the needed modeline, then use xrandr to add it for my display, and then go back into KDE display settings and select the new resolution. gtf 5120 2160 30 xrandr --newmode "5120x2160_30.00" 452.41 5120 5440 5992 6864 2160 2161 2164 2197 -HSync +Vsync xrandr --addmode HDMI-2 "5120x2160_30.00" appears to be working fine, no dropped frames during youtube video playback. :)

[@jeffsauer2198]

actually, to get this to work with wayland, the only way for now is to add a kernel parameter in grub... for me, I added video=HDMI-A-2:5120x2160@30 and it worked! You can get the name of your display using the kscreen-doctor -o command.

[@davedillehunt1807]

I canceled my G3 and ordered the Plus with your link so you should get a little something for that. 🙂

[@LonSeidman]

Thank you!

[@Oretal]

Oh dang, I just bought one during the Black Friday sale. I hope I got the one with the n150

[@JoseAlba87]

spend the extra $50 for intel n200 or buy j5005 Dell Wyse 5070 for under $100

[@sprockkets]

Lol the j5005 series is dang slow.

[@roopey]

Uff, power consumption isn't great. It's in the league of my N305 which has 8 core and is more powerful

[@PantheraTK]

is n305 still good in 2024/5?

[@niv8880]

What is most annoying about seemingly ALL PC's - a licensed copy of Windows a $20+ tax paid to Microsoft, I DON'T WANT WINDOWS and not everybody does. I've bought 7 PC's in the last 2 months and haven't even seen Windows boot as Linux gets puts straight over whatever is installed. I would have bought more machines if they didn't come with Windows.

[@dansanger5340]

You can buy barebones and supply your own storage and RAM.

[@LonSeidman]

As mentioned they have a barebones version on their website without windows

[@sprockkets]

Barebones or not, the windows license is tied to the machine, not the storage. You aren't saving anything one way or another. Don't believe me? Buy an Odroid H4 board with the n97 from Korea, then price out storage and ram and a power supply and case, then compare the price. The H4 is fanless if you want, but it will cost more no matter what.

[@christophercerny6943]

Moisturize.

[@mikedw6748]

Mind your business.