GMKtec Mini PC N150, G3 Plus Intel Twin Lake N150 (3.4GHz), 8GB DDR4 RAM 256GB PCIe M.2 SSD, Desktop Computer 4K Dual HDMI/USB3.2/WiFi 6/BT5.2/2.5G RJ45

Bought this on a whim just to try the smaller, lower cost NUC G3 PC. Decided to see how it would perform as a Plex Media server. Was pleasantly surprised that it performed very well. Connected it up to my HDHomerun Quattro 4 channel Off-The-Air tuner and discovered that it could record 4 separate TV channels simultaneously without any glitches. So now I use it as a dedicated media server. VLC Media Player ran smoothly, also.The G3 came preloaded with Windows 11 Pro and I did not notice any bloatware, but I did do a clean Windows 11 Pro reinstall with no issues as a precaution.After a few months I had an issue with the SSD. Contacted GMKtec support by email and they responded that day. They had me try a few tests to verify it was bad. Sent me a new SSD right away. Turns out they upgraded the SSD to a 1TB drive from a 256GB gratis. Not sure if it was deliberate or not, but I’m not complaining.The G3 has 2 SSD slots – one for a 2280 type NVMe SSD and one for a shorter 2242 SATA SSD. It comes with the NVMe SSD installed in the 2280 slot. While I was waiting for my SSD replacement, I re-imaged the OS on a spare 2242 SATA SSD and tried it out, and it’s been working with no issues. Read somewhere where someone tried the PC with both slots installed but had trouble booting, but I did not try this. I only had one SSD installed at a time.I see where the G3 has been updated to the G3+ which now uses the Intel N150 processor instead of N100. The G3 or the G3+ should be more than capable of handling most light-weight applications.

Bought this mini pc to replace a dying raspberry pi 3 running home assistant with Ad-guard. I wanted something power efficient as running home assistant temporarily on virtualbox on windows was using between 25 and 50 watts. Without booting into windows i backed up with clonezilla, wiped and installed home assistant. TIP: in bios (ESC key), changed power limit select to high performance. Home assistant while with no intensive tasks hovered at 9 watts. Home assistant with intensive task with cpu running at 100% running folding@home was using no more than 25 watts. when power limit select is changed to balanced or quiet, at max load uses 17-19 watts and idles at 9 watts with no intensive task.Only issue i have is when turning on or rebooting, the monitor would not turn on and i have to switch hdmi port on mini pc to get image to show. i had this issue a couple of times but luckily for my purpose i will not be needing a monitor attachedOverall i am very happy with this mini pc for home assistant since it was a huge upgrade for me, i also enjoyed trying out usb booting different Linux distros (F7 is boot menu).

“. Download the Win 11 Pro OS files on another PC.2. Start the PC, find the USB flash drive, right-click the USB flash drive to format it as NTFS, and rename it to "WINPE" (There are images in the video instructions for reference)3. Extract the ZIP/ISO file (using WinRAR or another extraction application) and move the extracted files into the "WINPE" drive on the USB drive (Please use a 32GB USB Drive)4. Plug in USB drive into the Nucbox USB port and power on the computer. It should automatically start to reinstall. (If it does not reinstall, test another USB port or USB thumb drive, and make sure Boot settings are set to USB drive)5. After reinstallation, the pc should restart, if it does not restart please turn off the pc and remove the USB drive. After, enter the test mode, double-click the Cleanup Action icon and then click OK in the pop-up.During OS reinstallation do not connect to the internet, after setting up a Microsoft local account, then connect to the internet and activate the OS.“ This is what a warranty gets an elderly man with next to no technical skills.

GMKtec G3 PLUS 8gb memory, 256gb storageI had been looking for a backup for my three year old Lenovo laptop in the event that it might quit on me in the middle of doing my taxes. I didn’t want something that cost more than a couple of hundred dollars – just something that might be able to take over in the midst of a crisis. I read a few dozen reviews of these mini PCs and most of them were far more powerful and expensive than what I needed.But around Christmas, Amazon had a deal on the GMKtec G3 PLUS mini with an N150 chip, 8 gigs of ram and a 256 gig storage drive. It clicked all my buttons. It arrived quickly (Thanks Amazon!) and I started it up within a few days.The first thing I noticed was the Windows 11 Pro operating system. I’ve never used that flavor of Windows before and found some differences from my Lenovo laptop which was upgraded from Windows 10 Home to Windows 11 Home. The other thing I found was that despite its presumably slower processor (than the Lenovo Core 5) it is pretty zippy. Nothing seemed slower or more cumbersome than what I was used to. Last, I noticed that this small green box on my desk never makes a peep – apparently there is no fan necessary to dispense heat from the processor.Plusses- This thing is tiny. It is as quiet as a church mouse, has plenty of ports (four USB3 and two HDMI ports) and takes up very little landscape on my desk.- The GMKtec G3 Plus processor is more powerful than I expected. I have one huge Excel file that contains over 20 thousand rows of data and I tested my new box by sorting the rows in different ways. It didn’t pause a bit – almost scary how fast it handles data. Again, versus my Lenovo’s Core 5 processor, I noticed no difference.- The operating system is Windows 11 Pro. I’ve never needed a Pro edition of Windows before, so I’m not sure if this is a plus or a minus. See note below about SMB access.- This dynamo is so quick at doing things that I’ve changed out my Lenovo laptop as my main machine and now use this. I keep 90% of my work on a network drive, so accessing what I need is easy, regardless of which computer I’m working on. But the extra room this small box gives me on my desk made this switch inevitable. There seems to be no downside to moving from a 12 gig Intel 5 laptop to this GMKtec.- Support is really on-the-ball. I contacted them via email over a minor issue and they got back to me within a few hours. That is extraordinary.Minuses- This is picky, but I wish GMKtec had designed the box around a USB-C power supply. Instead, they provided a fairly large power brick with a proprietary plug. Not a huge deal, but most of my laptop computers and Chromebooks take USB-C power inputs.- Windows 11 Pro will not connect to two older Buffalo NAS devices. The error seems to be connected to an issue with SMB1. No problem connecting to my newer Synology and UGreen NAS drives, but I cannot for the life of me get the GMKtec to talk to those older drives. My Lenovo laptop, running Windows 11 (not Pro) has no problem at all. This might not be an issue with GMKtec, so this, too, is a minor point.All in all, this GMKtec is an incredible bargain. It is small, sleek and impresses me every day that I use it. The storage can be supplemented with a bigger internal drive and the memory can be upgraded. It could attach to the back of a monitor that has the necessary screw ports (my monitors do not have these) for a even smaller foot print. The USB ports meet my needs and this is one of my best purchases of 2024.