GEEKOM Mini IT13 & A5 review: More ports, choice between Intel and AMD, performance or price

Small form factor computers are packing more punch these days. We have reviewed a couple from GEEKOM in the past and are back with a double review, featuring better specifications, more ports, and still relatively affordable.

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

Our GEEKOM Mini IT13 & A5 review looks at a pair of small form factor computers that are easily upgradable, VESA mountable, and with decent specifications. If you already read our previous GEEKOM reviews, this one will be pretty similar aside from the performance section. We don’t typically double up on reviews but given the Mini IT13 and A5 are pretty similar, we decided to combine them into one. Enough with the delays, read on for our full review and find out why we awarded the GEEKOM Mini IT13 with an Editor’s Choice of 2023 Award and the A5 Mini PC with a Top Pick of 2023 Award.

Specifications

The GEEKOM Mini IT13 and A5 Mini PCs we reviewed have the following features and specifications:

	GEEKOM Mini IT13	GEEKOM A5 Mini PC
Processor	• 13th Gen Intel® Core™ i9-13900H (14 Cores, 20 Threads, 24MB Cache, up to 5.40 GHz);  i7-13700H or i5-13500H available • TDP 45W	• AMD Ryzen™ 7 5800H (8 Cores, 16 Threads, 16MB Cache, 3.2 GHz~ 4.4 GHz) • TDW: 35W
GPU	Intel® Iris® Xe	AMD Radeon™ Vega 8 Graphics
Memory	Dual-channel DDR4 SODIMM, 32GB; expandable up to 64GB
Storage	• 1x M.2 2280 PCIe Gen 4 x4 SSD (2TB), support up to 2TB • 1x M.2 2242 SATA SSD slot, expandable up to 1TB • 1x 2.5″ SATA HDD (7mm) slot, expandable up to 2TB	• 1x M.2 2280 PCIe Gen 3×4 NVMe/SATA SSD (512GB), supports up to 2TB • 1x 2.5” 7mm SATA HDD, supports up to 2TB
Ports	3x USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports, USB 2.0 port, 2 USB4 ports, SD card reader, 3.5mm jack, 2.5GbE LAN port, 2x HDMI 2.0 ports, Power connector
Ethernet	Intel® 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet
Wireless	Bluetooth v5.2, Intel® Wi-Fi 6E AX211	Bluetooth v5.2, Wi-Fi 6
Operating system	Windows 11 Pro
Dimensions (W x D x H)	4.61 x 4.41 x 1.94″ (117 x 112 x 49.2mm)
Weight	1.44 lbs (652g)

What’s in the box

• GEEKOM Mini IT13 or A-Series Mini PC
• VESA mounting plate
• Power supply
• HDMI Cable
• VESA mounting screws
• Quick Start Guide
• Thank You Card

Design

Stand a bit taller than previous versions of the GEEKOM mini PCs. Like its siblings, the Mini IT8 and MiniAir, the GEEKOM Mini IT13 and A5 are small and pretty nondescript. They are about 4 5/8″ wide, 4 3/8″ deep, and a bit taller at just under 2″ in height (the previous models were about 1 3/8″ in height). The Mini IT13 is blue in colour while the A5 is rose gold and both have rounded edges for a smooth finish. The GEEKOM logo is printed across the middle on the top.

The front of these mini PCs has two USB-A 3.2 Gen2 ports, one with always-on power, a 3.5mm audio/mic port, and a small power button. The back is where you’ll find most of the ports which include the small round 19V power port for the power supply, a USB-C 4 port with DisplayPort, an HDMI port, a Gigabit Ethernet port, another USB-A 3.2 Gen2 port, a USB-A 2.0 port, a second USB-C 4 port with DisplayPort, and a second HDMI port. The left and right sides have a grille finish for ventilation. The left has a full-size SD card slot while the right has a Kensington lock slot.

The bottom of the GEEKOM Mini IT13 and A5 are solid, with four rubber feet screwed into the bottom. Removing the four screws in the feet allows you to easily access the guts of the system. Here you can easily add more storage to the device. Inside the main unit, you can add a 2.5″ SATA SSD drive for storage, upgrade the M.2 2280 PCIe NVMe SSD, as well as add a second SODIMM RAM chip in the extra empty slot (up to a maximum of 64GB, 32GB per channel). On the Mini IT13, you can even add an M.2 2242 SATA SSD for even more storage.

Overall, the GEEKOM Mini IT13 and A5 Mini PCs are compact but still easy to upgrade and add extra RAM and storage to them. Easily VESA mountable, they can be tucked away out of sight behind a monitor for a cleaner workspace as well.

Software

While most systems ship with Windows 10/11 Home, the GEEKOM Mini IT13 and A5 Mini PCs ship with Windows 11 Pro, giving you full access to all the consumer and business features Windows 11 has to offer. If you’ve read any of our other recent laptop or desktop reviews, you’ll know that we’re pretty big fans of Windows 11 here at Techaeris. It’s a decent OS with a modern look and feel and runs just fine, especially with the processor and RAM specifications of these two mini PCs.

Best of all, there’s no excessive bloatware, including antivirus programs, pre-installed on these systems so they are as clean as it gets when it comes to a fresh Windows 11 install.

Performance

Unlike the last GEEKOM PC I reviewed with its Celeron processors, the Mini IT13 we reviewed has a much higher-end 13th Gen Intel® Core™ i9-13900H chipset. The A5 Mini PC isn’t a slouch either with its AMD Ryzen™ 7 5800H processor. Both feature 32GB (upgradeable to 64GB) of dual-channel DDR4 memory and SSD drives. The Mini IT13 has a 2TB Lexar SSD NM7A1 PCIe Gen4 4×4 NVMe SSD while the A5 Mini PC shipped with a 512GB Lexar SSD NM620 PCIe Gen 3×4 NVMe SSD.

As I usually do, I ran the usual hard drive read/write benchmarks:

	GEEKOM Mini IT13 (Lexar SSD NM7A1 2TB)	GEEKOM A5 Mini PC (Lexar SSD NM620 512GB)
CrystalDiskMark Seq Read (Q8T1)	4821.24 MB/s	3497.63 MB/s
CrystalDiskMark Seq Write (Q8T1)	4446.63 MB/s	3122.83 MB/s
AS SSD Seq Read	3874.33 MB/s	2815.31 MB/s
AS SSD Seq Write	3755.26 MB/s	3060.75 MB/s
ATTO Seq Read (max)	4290 MB/s	3260 MB/s
ATTO Seq Write (max)	4150 MB/s	2950 MB/s

The SSDs offer up pretty solid read/write speeds. While SSDs are pushing over 7000MB/s these days, unless you are gaming or doing intensive graphics or video editing, the speeds on these Lexar SSDs are more than suitable for most users. I did use both extensively for day-to-day work for a few days and had no issues with it the onboard graphics worked well for document processing, web browsing, video streaming (Netflix at 4K HDR), and even basic photo editing using Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom.

I also had no problems running two 4K monitors on either during testing. In addition, when running and in use all day, neither system was overly warm to the touch.

As mentioned in the Design section above, you can easily upgrade the SSD and RAM, as well as add additional drives (SATA to both and an M.2 2242 SSD to the Mini IT13) to either system for even better performance. Still, for most day-to-day activities, either works just fine as configured, although 512GB is pretty close to the bottom of what you’d want for storage.

Price/Value

The GEEKOM Mini IT13 starts at $599 for the i5-1500H processor. Our review unit with the i9-13900H processor retails for $899. Fortunately, they’re currently on sale and can be had for as low as $499 (and $789 for the i9-13900H model). The retail prices aren’t too bad but the sale pricing offers up pretty decent value for what you get.

The A5 Mini PC, on the other hand, is much more affordable with an MSRP of $499. Currently, it’s on sale for $399 which almost puts it into impulse buy territory.

Even better? You can get $40 off either model with the following codes at checkout:

• Mini IT13: Amazon (use code 9O59IDB3), GEEKOM website (use code techaeris40)
• A5 Mini PC: Amazon (use code SDYKVBCL), GEEKOM website (use code techaerisa540)

Photo Gallery

Wrap-up

While the form factor between the GEEKOM Mini IT13 and A5 are identical, and the performance on both is more than acceptable, your choice boils down to two things. If the price point is what you are after, you can’t go wrong with the A5 Mini PC. If slightly better performance options, choice of processor, and even more storage upgradability are what you need, the Mini IT13 is the one you’ll want to go for. Either way, both are solid little (literally) computers that are more than enough for what most people need for day-to-day computing at home or in the office.

The fact both are easily upgradeable and come with Windows 11 Pro, as well as the various price points, it was an easy call to award the A5 with a Top Pick of 2023 Award and the Mini IT13 an Editor’s Choice of 2023 Award here at Techaeris.

 

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