If you see spam please report it - and let us know what you think of this mini pc -useful for you as a little work machine without taking up any space ?
ECS do some good stuff, chinese brand, but I bought a few of their mini pc before for my caravan and for work and they have been really reliable. Hard for them to go wrong really
The components inside arent bad, and at least that website offers two sticks which you can mix and match for memory upgrades - I like how you guys change the review hardware up all the time
Really unusual to see you guys testing one of these, not sure its for a gaming audience, but I can't believe it only takes 4 watts when idle. thats incredible - guess its more like a laptop processor than a desktop model
Would need to be priced around £600 to be useful, 1TB SSD, more memory etc - but as other people have already said useful for specific things. I used one for running Linux for a while, to test things as I develop as well. always handy to have as a second or third system
These are good systems for software development, and you can take them home with you for security too - I use a similar one in my job all the time. Not very flash or ideal for the gaming audience, but really handy for moving around locations when you cant just put things on an external drive
These are useful for a lot of people, even for a family living room for general things , like booking flights, kid educational stuff etc - and they wont want to play games on it either as its slow
I think this machine would be ideal for storing a lot of data to counter your video argument. Can easily put a lot of business critical files on it and it would never need to leave your possession
Leo said in his Xmas video that he's not (re-)reviewing Intel processors and associated motherboards until Intel has got all the fixes out. This is likely to be end of January at the earliest. And I agree with him. Intel obviously botched the launch. I suspect because marketing and finance overrode the engineers on timing. And now marketing and finance are in control of Intel...
I think its a pretty solid deal for the money, not sure 8gb as standard would be enough, nice to see the 48gb option isnt much more - think it adds on another 100 quid in the UK
£480 is really good for this, I need a system for some code development and testing - just ordered one - thanks! I put in extra ram in mine however. to 48gb - £108 more
Have one, but its a lot higher spec than the one you reviewed. I can carry it about in a bag all the time. even smaller than a laptop for moving between locations
I like these they are good as long as you accept their limitations. Can you do major gaming and video editing? No. Can you use it for word processing / web / excel? Absolutely. With a tiny power draw too.
It would be nice to see a fanless version of this computer, performance limited. Run its 14 cores at 1GHz will still be perfect for most fanless PC needs.
Tiny wee thing, pretty inoffensive, but its not really anything I would be interested in - good to see they can get the power demand down to 4 watts on a CPU
A good spec is around £650, bigger SSD - 250gb is not enough for anything, and more memory, as 8gb is quite poor even for a basic development machine in 2024
Not sure people will buy this to play crap games on it, but interesting to see that section - you ever try putting linux on these things? really good idea
If you see spam please report it - and let us know what you think of this mini pc -useful for you as a little work machine without taking up any space ?
Happy New year Kitguru !
Good review, thanks Mat
I like ECS, had a few of their things from Amazon on sale, and worked well, even the instructions seem to be good english which is unusual
I like this, fully speced out though its close to a grand. bit hefty for something like this !
Thanks for the review
ECS do some good stuff, chinese brand, but I bought a few of their mini pc before for my caravan and for work and they have been really reliable. Hard for them to go wrong really
Thanks Mat, good review
No worries!
You could get a decent desktop system for £800, I know thats not what this is about, but its a very specific use case, thats for sure
4 watts - thats a pretty special processor for specific uses. I think AMD might have made more sense for them though for relaibility alone
The lower down the stack Intel CPUs even during the power problem period never suffered from the issues.
When did that store open icube? never seen them before
Have a similar machine I use for my job - as other people are saying, great to carry around with you for work
Good to hear
Nice review, never heard of them but that store you liked to is bookmarked - seems like it has a lot of stuff I do like
Good to hear 👍🏻
The components inside arent bad, and at least that website offers two sticks which you can mix and match for memory upgrades - I like how you guys change the review hardware up all the time
pretty cool wee system to put in behind a tv or monitor without compromising too much on CPU power.
4 watts when idle, that is mighty impressive
It's virtually NOTHING! And even at idle its doing loads of stuff.
Love the aggressive way Matt pronounces BUSINESS.
Love the massive HDMI logo on the box. Doesnt look like an afterthought at all.
🤣
And then not even providing the ports specs, neither on the port like the rest or on the website. 2.0? 2.1 TMDS? 40 Gbps? Come on
Pretty nice wee rig. Thanks mat
Thanks to you to
Really unusual to see you guys testing one of these, not sure its for a gaming audience, but I can't believe it only takes 4 watts when idle. thats incredible - guess its more like a laptop processor than a desktop model
@@boltsandbraces6261 I'd imagine it's meant more for media server/SOHO uses. With maybe some light gaming use.
Yeah likely for Linux stuff too.
4 watts is good for an always on server or something like that.
Emulation, small mobile platform.
Performs really well for the size. Ideal for most people with no space for a tower case 👍🏻
ecs, wow I haven't seen anything from them since Athlon first launched, had no idea they were still around.
Seems a lot of people don’t 👍🏻
@@KitGuruTech Arent they one of those massive companies that make stuff behind the scenes for everyone else?
Good business machines - never seen this brand before, but there are a few options available now for these wee rigs
They aren’t bad.
'KitGuru does NOT get a percentage of any sale or participate in any kind of affiliate program.' - always like to see this - good job Kitguru !
Yes I like to see this too, too many shills around
We never sell products for percentages 👍🏻
I think you would need to upgrade the spec to at least 32gb of ram and 512GB SSD over the basic one
16gb would be fine for a lot of people.
Good review thanks !
Thanks for watching!
Dual ethernet ports is handy - not overkill at all, ideal for the faster port to connect to a second pc and the other to a network
Ok fair enough 👍🏻
I really dont get dual lan ports. But then again have never used that feature on my desktop PC either.
I think this would be useful for a business or developer. certainly not for anyone wanting to play games
Really cool looking wee system!!
Great review
Would need to be priced around £600 to be useful, 1TB SSD, more memory etc - but as other people have already said useful for specific things. I used one for running Linux for a while, to test things as I develop as well. always handy to have as a second or third system
These are good systems for software development, and you can take them home with you for security too - I use a similar one in my job all the time. Not very flash or ideal for the gaming audience, but really handy for moving around locations when you cant just put things on an external drive
Would be ideal for a lot of people tbh. Just not the primary Kitguru audience !!
These are useful for a lot of people, even for a family living room for general things , like booking flights, kid educational stuff etc - and they wont want to play games on it either as its slow
lol the anti gaming machine 👍🏻
Great review, but not for me I dont think
Quite a strong GPU in there quite impressive.
I think this machine would be ideal for storing a lot of data to counter your video argument. Can easily put a lot of business critical files on it and it would never need to leave your possession
It has a lot of potential uses
Ports all well and good but its good too many! Could you imagine plugging a cable into every single port?
Thanks. 🙏
You’re welcome 😊
Linux seems like a much better option for these devices, less overhead
Wish they used more premium materials for the case but it looks like its been designed to a price point.
Amazing how many companies are selling these processors in systems and Leo still hasnt reviewed his from months ago !
Leo said in his Xmas video that he's not (re-)reviewing Intel processors and associated motherboards until Intel has got all the fixes out. This is likely to be end of January at the earliest.
And I agree with him.
Intel obviously botched the launch. I suspect because marketing and finance overrode the engineers on timing.
And now marketing and finance are in control of Intel...
the power draw and lack of heat is a huge selling point.
Its alright, I think there is a place for these - they seem quite expensive to me whenever I go to look at buying one though
Interesting - had to laugh seeing you playing those games on it, graphics look dire
I like this mini systems. Imagine if one had some semi decent gpu power as well
TWI extra Zeds! Are they crazy!!!
Only if you cant handle it
Could this take advantage of the extra performance you get out of a gen5 nvme? Would make it that little bit better for video editing.
Wow this was a hard one to review, shame you didnt try linux on it ,seems ideal for that OS, lower overhead and demand too
I think its a pretty solid deal for the money, not sure 8gb as standard would be enough, nice to see the 48gb option isnt much more - think it adds on another 100 quid in the UK
£480 is really good for this, I need a system for some code development and testing - just ordered one - thanks! I put in extra ram in mine however. to 48gb - £108 more
Hope you enjoy it! Keep us posted.
Have one, but its a lot higher spec than the one you reviewed. I can carry it about in a bag all the time. even smaller than a laptop for moving between locations
How much did that cost you ?
I like these they are good as long as you accept their limitations. Can you do major gaming and video editing? No. Can you use it for word processing / web / excel? Absolutely. With a tiny power draw too.
My wife always says I’ve a tiny package so seems like the idea system for me 😂
Tiny wee rig this. Pretty cool for a small room too.
My only worry with these things is that they are often abandoned by the manufacturer firmware updates become non existent.
Do they sell them in white? sorry could not resist asking the question
Hah. Don’t think so.
Thanks Mat, good review - interesting to tried to game on it lol, you would try to game on anything wouldnt you !?!
Absolutely
Was there any stability issues with it at all?
Wouldnt be, that processor hardly takes any power
I like this format but theres a LOT of compromises you need to deal with to make it a daily driver.
It would be nice to see a fanless version of this computer, performance limited. Run its 14 cores at 1GHz will still be perfect for most fanless PC needs.
Great idea 👍🏻
surely 4 watts power load when idle must be some kind of power record?
It’s well optimised regardless
My mate has a mini PC, by PC SPECIALIST I think who made it, he uses it for software development and coding and his bitcoin crap
Wow that CPU is literally roasting under testing. Thats not good.
incidentally 4 watts when idle?? wow
This is basically a laptop chip, not too difficult to do that really. its nice though to see.
Pretty sweet we system! Certainly for people le me with small houses!
Even small enough to use in a cardboard box !
Tiny wee thing, pretty inoffensive, but its not really anything I would be interested in - good to see they can get the power demand down to 4 watts on a CPU
Very good for a high end plex media PC.
Intel mini pcs are no comparison in performance, I/O ports flexibility or price to some AMDs pcs out there..
Like these and they are better priced that Mac minis for sure. And have native x64 compatability. Could be a decent streamer
Would like to see these benchmarked against appley silicon.
Hi mat. Merry Christmas. You should have time off 😮
Happy holidays!
Why the dual lan ports? Dont get it.
It's plastered with ports. Quite impressive they found room for all that.
not bad. Bit specialist for me
A good spec is around £650, bigger SSD - 250gb is not enough for anything, and more memory, as 8gb is quite poor even for a basic development machine in 2024
16gb ram and a bigger ssd doesn’t add too much to the price
CPU could do better but that GPU is quite impressive.
Immediately would increase the SSD to around half a terrabyte at least
Yes most likely would but it’s a nice cheap option at default
Why didnt they just use USB-C for all those connectors? Would have been far neater.
Very handy - but id imagine windows 11 would kill the performance, would be an ideal machine for a linux distro to run on
Who knew "bare bones" means 8gb Ram & 256gb SSD.
Ideal for codeworks
🍻
Class wee rig really for a work system hide it behind a monitor. Free the desk and floor up.
It can use 115w on paper but no way is it going to do that sustained.
Not sure people will buy this to play crap games on it, but interesting to see that section - you ever try putting linux on these things? really good idea
More chinese tat, sighs
Linux OS installed on that ASAP -
These things biggest problem are things like the raspberry pi. If you dont need windows you can save 300 quid and get a pi5.
Its annoying its not based on arrow lake.
Arrow lake has a weaker igpu through.
Would probably be better off with an AMD chip.
This one seems quite good to be fair, runs at ok temps and only takes around 4-5 watts when idle.
That thing is tiny!
You look a bit bored mat. Hope you got some turkey
Would have been great if it had a ryzen processor in it. Instead of that Intel garbage.
😬
Its a faily decent gamer considering thats a integrated graphics.
Would anyone really buy one of these things ?
It's kind of cool to get one of these and mount it behind a massive monitor and just have a keyboard and mouse visible.
Z5 plus wasn’t as good as this one.