Your thorough reviews of this kind of hardware are very much appreciated. It's rare to see such detailed reviews of smaller Chinese products like these. Keep up the great work!😊
Yes, to agree with those below, great in depth review! I am old enough to have built a "state of the art 3 transistor ham radio". I followed Bell labs in the development of the tube replacement, "Ever shrinking transistor". I am fascinated by the progress we have made in the last 60 years of electronic tech. I could not refuse buying this incredible tiny desktop computer, for the grand total of $155.00 US. It will fit nicely along with my collection of microcontrollers, from the Mcm6800s and 6502's to the Arduinos, Raspberry Pi's , ec. Thanks for the video!
Thanks for the great follow-up! Personally I'd stick with the original Sata SSD, as I think the real world performance gain isn't worth the price of a new NVME SSD in this case.
I just ordered the G5 because it was on a deal. Specially came here for the storage options, but pleased to see that its not an "ngff" old slot, but nvme. I might just drill a hole on the side so i can stick a 2280 gen3 ssd in it, which is certainly much more cost-efficient than the 2242.
Regarding the nvme drive power problem over the USB port… I remember you mentioning in the Part-1 video of this G5 that there was an option to limit power consumption to 8W and that you seemed interested to adopt it, wanting to keep the CPU under 77 deg C. So I was wondering if perhaps that could’ve caused the power over USB problem for the drive? (in case you enabled it and forgot to remove it before testing this)
My 2TB Inland SSD works just fine. Uses 2 3.0 PCI lanes, gets similar performance to what you found. I put the SSD that came with the computer directly into an enclosure before I booted the G5 and scanned it. No viruses. I pretty much match your results.
@@htwingnut BE200 from Intel is a WiFi / Bluetooth network card that is WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. It works fine in the Gmktec G5 and you can get the drivers from Intel's website.
After watching your 2 videos on this mini PC i bit the bullet and bought one and i am very pleased with the performance. I was a little worried about spy/malware so i ran a Norton power eraser (rootkit) full scan and a microsoft MRT full scan both showed no problems, is there anything else that i should do to put my mind at ease. Regarding the usb problem i just use my computer for emails, streaming and general web browsing nothing to heavy but i have connected a few different external drives, printers etc to all the usb ports without any problems so maybe gmktech have fixed the problem. Keep up the good work.
The fear about malware for many users I believe comes from the fact that AceMagic mini PC's had some malware in their OS distro. It was simple to detect and remove. But left a bad impression and paranoia, for good reason. I feel this device is safe. Best thing you can do is a clean Windows install if nothing else.
in the type C power adapter cable is there only 2 cables? positive and negative cable? I'm asking because let's say if the original Power Adapter became faulty, I can just buy a normal power adapter and join the original type c cable and normal power adapter together by cutting off half the original cable- as a replacement.
I would not recommend cutting and splicing. You can find alternate power adapters for relatively cheap. I also found this 100W brick PSU here: www.amazon.com/dp/B0CHB1DF5Z
@@allenperera6158 Absolutely. USB C is USB C. They all have the same pinouts. That's the beauty of USB. Unlike barrel connectors that can be + or - on inside or outside and different voltages. I have that inline 100W brick myself and works fine.
Another reviewer's video had a commenter who notes that an Apple 87W USB-C Power Adapter (for MacBook Pro) works perfectly for a G5. They are $15 new on Amazon right now. The brick will adjust the wattage automagically.
That underpowered USB port is a shame as otherwise it's not too bad. I suspect that the N97 will become the new darling, becoming more popular than the N100, resulting in more boxes coming out.
Hello. I plan to run this device headless. I will access it from time to time via teamviewer. My question is, how does it handle power failure? Will to restore to a powered on state? Secondly is there a way to disable the power button?
I have a question for you. I tried to clone the m.2 sata drive to m.2 nvme drive and it won't boot. Windows says it cannot find a path to valid boot media. I contacted GMKTEC and they told me this model is SATA compatible only. Obviously, you proved this young in this video. I also sent them a photo of the MB labeled PCIE/SATA under where the ssd goes, but they did not reply again. So, is my only option to do a clean install of Windows11 onto the NVME drive, or is there a way to rewrite the pertinent boot records on the cloned nvme ssd? Thanks again for this video.
@@htwingnut I used DIsk Genius which is supposed to be good but the nvme won't boot. Do the other programs you mentioned create a new boot record for the nvme drive, instead of just copying the sata's one. Apparently, sata mbr are not compatible with nvme.
@@expatinthailand9824 Last time I did a SATA to NVMe boot drive I used clonezilla. Rescuezilla is just a GUI on top. It's been a while. Wish I had a better answer for you. Normally I just do a clean install of Windows on any new SSD just to keep things clean.
@@htwingnut Yea, I will probably just do a clean install at this point. Getting tired of swapping the drives. It is strange GMKTEC support claims the board does not support NVMe but you have shown that to be incorrect.
Yes, you are correct. The USB port should be able to provide 4.5W at a minimum (5v @ 900mA). While an SSD can draw more than that at maximum load, most SSD's these days run under 5W. Regardless, it works with a powered USB adapter, so most definitely a power issue. I haven't had this issue with any other devices I've used with USB drives.
Thanks for the in-depth review. My usb3.0 WD mypassport 4tb HDD doesn't require external power when plugged to my Pi5. Will it work with the G5? Does the G5 supply the same level or more of power to USB ports? Maybe using a 65w usbc brick would supply enough to the usb ports? what do you think?
I believe I have a portable hard drive somewhere, and will try it out. But I don't think it's an issue with the power supply, it's how much power the USB port has been spec'd to provide. That's a GMKTec design consideration. Chances are they spec'd it to the minimum 5v x 0.9A for 4.5W. While technically OK, some HDD's and SSD's will draw up to 6 or 7 W at peak and most USB ports can easily support that. That being said, I did plug in a 12V 5A 60W power supply and it still didn't matter.
@@htwingnut thanks, let me know your findings, of course with the standard 30W power supply :). About the power supply, sorry, can you elaborate what you meant that it didn't matter?
@@user-wf9wq9kq6u Sure. By "it didn't matter" means that I tried it with the USB SSD that was disconnecting and it still disconnected. Connecting it to a powered USB hub and it worked fine.
LPDDR5 soldered on. The CPU only supports Single Channel RAM. But DDR5 RAM has two independent 32-bit addressable subchannels so internally is more or less functionally like dual channel. For this CPU it is more than adequate.
i've got a machine with the N-305 in it, and have been pretty impressed so far! got a question about some odd behavior though. when i was testing it on a game it seems to downclock the GPU. the N-305 is supposed to go up to 1.25Ghz but it likes to sit around the mid 900s.. i checked thermals and that is not it. do you know of a utility that would help trouble shoot the issue? curious if it's power constraints..
Same issue with this little device. It is supposed to go to 1200 MHz but never exceeds 1000MHz. Same with CPU clocks. It's supposed to boost to 3.6Hz but never exceeds 2.9GHz. I realize it's very specific circumstances where it will reach those clocks. A bit disingenuous of Intel IMHO.
@@htwingnut i did a test by restricting CPU usage to 85% and noticed the GPU would then actually get up to 1200 Mhz. So it does seem like it's a power limitation. That's unfortunate because it's leaving a good amount of performance on the table..
@@FroggyTWrite Thanks for testing. I may try that as well. I guess it depends on the need, maybe a lower CPU clock with higher GPU would be beneficial depending on what you're trying to achieve. Gaming it may make sense.
I know its been 7 months. but there was a bios update that is supposed to unlock the remaining 200mhz or so gpu speed. I just did the update on mine. I have not checked actual run speeds yet but others have and have confirmed the bios update made the remaining 200mhz gpu speed actually work when selected in bios. Im not sure when it comes to getting the max cpu frequencies up in boost, though. On the cpu end, I am going to start with repasting and coming up with a more aggressive fan profile... just got my unit and overall super impressed with it's capabilities for the money.
this specific model only two HDMI ports, so only 2. But they can each handle 4k/60. The N97 and N100 can support up to three 4k monitors though. This model seems to support 3 video outputs: 2x HDMI, 1x DVI www.amazon.com/dp/B0CCDPDBX6
![Blox Fruits Dragon Rework Update [Full Stream]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/EqDAp8udhm0/mqdefault.jpg)
Your thorough reviews of this kind of hardware are very much appreciated. It's rare to see such detailed reviews of smaller Chinese products like these.
Keep up the great work!😊
Wow, that was a solid 2 part review of this unit. Clean, clear, concise. I find it hard to believe you are only at 4.59K sub's. I'm in, subbed.
Thanks for the sub and compliment. It is much appreciated.
Thank you for doing a follow up video on the G5. As always, your time and efforts are greatly appreciated.
Yes, to agree with those below, great in depth review! I am old enough to have built a "state of the art 3 transistor ham radio". I followed Bell labs in the development of the tube replacement, "Ever shrinking transistor". I am fascinated by the progress we have made in the last 60 years of electronic tech. I could not refuse buying this incredible tiny desktop computer, for the grand total of $155.00 US. It will fit nicely along with my collection of microcontrollers, from the Mcm6800s and 6502's to the Arduinos, Raspberry Pi's , ec. Thanks for the video!
Thanks for the great follow-up! Personally I'd stick with the original Sata SSD, as I think the real world performance gain isn't worth the price of a new NVME SSD in this case.
I get 5 fps boost on cs 2.0 lol
Nice tip about the oobe command to bypass online setup. One of my many gripes about win11 haha.
cheers
Wow! What an extensive survey with both video’s, very professional.
Thanks a lot for the full review you did an excellent job ❤
Awesome follow-up video! I am ordering this little G5 box now.
Excellent video! Thanks for doing this!
I just ordered the G5 because it was on a deal.
Specially came here for the storage options, but pleased to see that its not an "ngff" old slot, but nvme.
I might just drill a hole on the side so i can stick a 2280 gen3 ssd in it, which is certainly much more cost-efficient than the 2242.
Regarding the nvme drive power problem over the USB port… I remember you mentioning in the Part-1 video of this G5 that there was an option to limit power consumption to 8W and that you seemed interested to adopt it, wanting to keep the CPU under 77 deg C. So I was wondering if perhaps that could’ve caused the power over USB problem for the drive? (in case you enabled it and forgot to remove it before testing this)
My 2TB Inland SSD works just fine. Uses 2 3.0 PCI lanes, gets similar performance to what you found.
I put the SSD that came with the computer directly into an enclosure before I booted the G5 and scanned it. No viruses.
I pretty much match your results.
Thanks for the feedback!
@@htwingnut BE200 from Intel is a WiFi / Bluetooth network card that is WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. It works fine in the Gmktec G5 and you can get the drivers from Intel's website.
I got a random 256GB NVME 2242 SSD for only $25 and it is working fine with GMKTec Nucbox G5.
Did you put it in the slot of the original M2 drive or in the wifi M2 slot?
@ the original m2 drive
After watching your 2 videos on this mini PC i bit the bullet and bought one and i am very pleased with the performance. I was a little worried about spy/malware so i ran a Norton power eraser (rootkit) full scan and a microsoft MRT full scan both showed no problems, is there anything else that i should do to put my mind at ease. Regarding the usb problem i just use my computer for emails, streaming and general web browsing nothing to heavy but i have connected a few different external drives, printers etc to all the usb ports without any problems so maybe gmktech have fixed the problem. Keep up the good work.
The fear about malware for many users I believe comes from the fact that AceMagic mini PC's had some malware in their OS distro. It was simple to detect and remove. But left a bad impression and paranoia, for good reason. I feel this device is safe. Best thing you can do is a clean Windows install if nothing else.
Love your work, would you recommend this or something else around $220au ($145us)?
in the type C power adapter cable is there only 2 cables? positive and negative cable? I'm asking because let's say if the original Power Adapter became faulty, I can just buy a normal power adapter and join the original type c cable and normal power adapter together by cutting off half the original cable- as a replacement.
I would not recommend cutting and splicing. You can find alternate power adapters for relatively cheap. I also found this 100W brick PSU here: www.amazon.com/dp/B0CHB1DF5Z
@@htwingnut are you sure the pin outs are compatible?
@@allenperera6158 Absolutely. USB C is USB C. They all have the same pinouts. That's the beauty of USB. Unlike barrel connectors that can be + or - on inside or outside and different voltages. I have that inline 100W brick myself and works fine.
@@htwingnut thanks!
Another reviewer's video had a commenter who notes that an Apple 87W USB-C Power Adapter (for MacBook Pro) works perfectly for a G5. They are $15 new on Amazon right now. The brick will adjust the wattage automagically.
can we fit the NVME SSD diagonally into device if we use PCI-E extender?
That underpowered USB port is a shame as otherwise it's not too bad. I suspect that the N97 will become the new darling, becoming more popular than the N100, resulting in more boxes coming out.
Hello. I plan to run this device headless. I will access it from time to time via teamviewer. My question is, how does it handle power failure? Will to restore to a powered on state? Secondly is there a way to disable the power button?
What key is the stock nvme 2242 sata drive?
I have a question for you. I tried to clone the m.2 sata drive to m.2 nvme drive and it won't boot. Windows says it cannot find a path to valid boot media. I contacted GMKTEC and they told me this model is SATA compatible only. Obviously, you proved this young in this video. I also sent them a photo of the MB labeled PCIE/SATA under where the ssd goes, but they did not reply again. So, is my only option to do a clean install of Windows11 onto the NVME drive, or is there a way to rewrite the pertinent boot records on the cloned nvme ssd? Thanks again for this video.
Your best bet is to use something like Rescuezilla or Easus Disk Copy.
@@htwingnut I used DIsk Genius which is supposed to be good but the nvme won't boot. Do the other programs you mentioned create a new boot record for the nvme drive, instead of just copying the sata's one. Apparently, sata mbr are not compatible with nvme.
@@expatinthailand9824 Last time I did a SATA to NVMe boot drive I used clonezilla. Rescuezilla is just a GUI on top. It's been a while. Wish I had a better answer for you. Normally I just do a clean install of Windows on any new SSD just to keep things clean.
@@htwingnut Yea, I will probably just do a clean install at this point. Getting tired of swapping the drives. It is strange GMKTEC support claims the board does not support NVMe but you have shown that to be incorrect.
the nvme has a higher power draw than what the USB port can supply
Yes, you are correct. The USB port should be able to provide 4.5W at a minimum (5v @ 900mA). While an SSD can draw more than that at maximum load, most SSD's these days run under 5W. Regardless, it works with a powered USB adapter, so most definitely a power issue. I haven't had this issue with any other devices I've used with USB drives.
Can you post the powered USB hub that you used? Many thanks!
Wondering if the nvme to pcie.x16/x1 work on these
Thanks for the in-depth review.
My usb3.0 WD mypassport 4tb HDD doesn't require external power when plugged to my Pi5.
Will it work with the G5? Does the G5 supply the same level or more of power to USB ports?
Maybe using a 65w usbc brick would supply enough to the usb ports?
what do you think?
I believe I have a portable hard drive somewhere, and will try it out. But I don't think it's an issue with the power supply, it's how much power the USB port has been spec'd to provide. That's a GMKTec design consideration.
Chances are they spec'd it to the minimum 5v x 0.9A for 4.5W. While technically OK, some HDD's and SSD's will draw up to 6 or 7 W at peak and most USB ports can easily support that.
That being said, I did plug in a 12V 5A 60W power supply and it still didn't matter.
@@htwingnut thanks, let me know your findings, of course with the standard 30W power supply :). About the power supply, sorry, can you elaborate what you meant that it didn't matter?
@@user-wf9wq9kq6u Sure. By "it didn't matter" means that I tried it with the USB SSD that was disconnecting and it still disconnected. Connecting it to a powered USB hub and it worked fine.
Can this PC be powered via USB port on a monitor?
Probably not. Most USB ports run at 5V unless it's a PD (power delivery) USB port. This mini PC requires 12V and up to 3A power draw.
@@htwingnut wow, thanks for the quick reply. 🙏🏽
hi, can i just plug a normal 100W USB C GaN pd charger from choetec into this that i use for my phone and laptop?
I'd like to know the same, I have a 100W USB C GaN Wall charger from Anker that I would like to use for power.
Will a USB C Wall charger 45W be enough to power this safely?
45W is probably pushing it. It should work, but it will either limit performance or cut power if stressed beyond what the PSU can provide.
Hi! does it have LPDDR5 or normal DDR5? I guess they're single channel?
LPDDR5 soldered on. The CPU only supports Single Channel RAM. But DDR5 RAM has two independent 32-bit addressable subchannels so internally is more or less functionally like dual channel. For this CPU it is more than adequate.
They list 2TB as MAX storage size, anyone tried larger?
i've got a machine with the N-305 in it, and have been pretty impressed so far! got a question about some odd behavior though. when i was testing it on a game it seems to downclock the GPU. the N-305 is supposed to go up to 1.25Ghz but it likes to sit around the mid 900s.. i checked thermals and that is not it. do you know of a utility that would help trouble shoot the issue? curious if it's power constraints..
Same issue with this little device. It is supposed to go to 1200 MHz but never exceeds 1000MHz. Same with CPU clocks. It's supposed to boost to 3.6Hz but never exceeds 2.9GHz. I realize it's very specific circumstances where it will reach those clocks. A bit disingenuous of Intel IMHO.
@@htwingnut i did a test by restricting CPU usage to 85% and noticed the GPU would then actually get up to 1200 Mhz. So it does seem like it's a power limitation. That's unfortunate because it's leaving a good amount of performance on the table..
@@FroggyTWrite Thanks for testing. I may try that as well. I guess it depends on the need, maybe a lower CPU clock with higher GPU would be beneficial depending on what you're trying to achieve. Gaming it may make sense.
I know its been 7 months. but there was a bios update that is supposed to unlock the remaining 200mhz or so gpu speed. I just did the update on mine. I have not checked actual run speeds yet but others have and have confirmed the bios update made the remaining 200mhz gpu speed actually work when selected in bios. Im not sure when it comes to getting the max cpu frequencies up in boost, though. On the cpu end, I am going to start with repasting and coming up with a more aggressive fan profile... just got my unit and overall super impressed with it's capabilities for the money.
Can these devices (the N100 as well) actually manage up to 3 monitors at 4k ?
(Maybe looking to get one of these for a trading rig with 2-3 monitors)
this specific model only two HDMI ports, so only 2. But they can each handle 4k/60. The N97 and N100 can support up to three 4k monitors though. This model seems to support 3 video outputs: 2x HDMI, 1x DVI www.amazon.com/dp/B0CCDPDBX6