GMKtec NucBox K7 Pro Mini PC review

GMKtec NucBox K7 Pro: 30-second review

GMKtec has a mini PC for every occasion it appears, and the new K7 Pro is one that reaches out to those who find the integrated video technology offered by AMD not quite cutting it for their requirements.

Built around the 6000 series AMD Ryzen 9 PRO 6950H, this powerful rig can address 96GB of RAM and at least 8TB of internal SSD storage.

The Ryzen 9 CPU is a mobile processor, but GMKtec has unlocked more potential by increasing the TPD value above that used in a typical laptop installation.

It also ticks the boxes for firewall builders with dual 2.5GbE LAN ports, and included in the many external ports are two USB 4.0 connections.

However, the critical feature that might swing many sales is the OCuLink port, a technology designed to allow discrete desktop graphics to be externally connected.

There are some limitations to this that we’ll discuss in this review, but even with those limitations, this machine has the potential to be a mini workstation or even a gaming system using OCuLInk.

Considering the specification, the GMKtec K7 Pro isn’t expensive, with a barebones option (no RAM, storage or Windows 11 install) costing around $320. For the modest outlay, the K7 Pro has enough inherent power to cope with all conceivable office tasks, but it also has the possibility of even more demanding roles through expansion.

GMKtec NucBox K7 Pro: Price & availability

• How much does it cost?  From $320
• When is it out? Available now
• Where can you get it? Directly from GMKtec

As with many of the GMKtec mini PC range, the K7 Pro is available in multiple SKUs. The cheapest is a barebones model without memory, storage, or an operating system installed for only $319.99. That’s $160 less than the MSRP, even if we can’t confirm if they sold any at that higher price.

The two other options include Windows 11 Pro and either 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage or 64GB of RAM and 2TB of storage. These options cost $459.99 and $629.99, respectively.

When you crunch those numbers, they make zero sense. Adding 32GB, 1TB, and Windows increases the barebones price by $140, but doubling the memory and storage adds another $170.

We’d probably recommend buying the 32GB and 1TB option and upgrading it yourself. However, both DDR5 slots are occupied, and the two 16GB modules would need to be removed to increase the memory to 64GB.

We’re aware that GMKtec is the only mainstream mini PC maker to have used the AMD Ryzen 9 PRO 6950H, so like-for-like comparisons are difficult.

However, Minisforum has the EliteMini UM780 XTX, which uses the AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS processor and offers the OCuLink port. But, the price of that machine is $439 for the barebones and $569 for the 32GB and 1TB options.

There is also a machine from Beelink, the GT Ultra, which we will review shortly but is even more expensive.

Overall, it might use slightly older mobile processor technology, but the asking price for the K7 Pro elevates it to something of a bargain.

However, GMKtec does make a non-Pro model of the K7, and we’ll be covering that soon to see if that offers even better value.

GMKtec NucBox K7 Pro: Specifications

GMKtec NucBox K7 Pro: Design

• Metal skinned
• Plenty of ports
• Relatively easy access inside

In previous GMKtec designs, the amount of plastic has been a minor issue, but the K7 Pro does at least have gunmetal skinning on its sides, with a plastic top and bottom.

Slots on the sides and underneath provide an entry point for air, which is then ejected on the lower rear and from a gap around the lid.

GMKtec engineers apparently divided the system into a top and bottom compartment and managed each with its independent exhaust ports and fans. This delivers a reasonably quiet system even when it’s being benchmark-stressed.

I/O ports on this system are numerous, with seven on the rear and five on the front. USB is evenly distributed, with three on the front and back and one of the desirable USB 4.0 on each of those faces.

For display output, the K7 Pro has HDMI and DisplayPort on the back, but combined with the two USB-C ports that can also connect monitors, it is possible to attach four displays to this system. That said, the Radeon 680M GPU integrated into the Ryzen 9 might struggle if all four graphics outputs showed contents being rapidly updated.

But that’s where the OCuLink port comes in, as it can circumvent the limitations of the Radeon with the power of an externally connected discrete video card that could be AMD, Nvidia, or even Intel-made.

The placement of the OCuLink port on the front does seem out of place, but if the machine is VESA mounted to a monitor, this probably won’t make a difference.

To operate the OCuLink port, a special cable and an external enclosure for the video card, which includes a power supply dedicated to the discrete video card, are required.

A minor snag is that GMKtec doesn’t currently make an OCuLink enclosure for the K7 Pro, but it seems a natural progression that one might be coming. In the meantime, other brands have these enclosures, but we never tested whether they work with this OCuLink port specifically.

Some SFF system makers don’t like customers inside their systems, but given that GMKtec sells the K7 Pro in a barebones model, the engineers who designed it considered this feature.

Access requires that you simply twist the top, and once this is removed, four screws release the fan housing on top, and you can easily get to the top of the motherboard where the memory and storage are located.

Our review hardware had two Crucial-branded DDR5 modules (2x 16GB), which are socketed for easy replacement. Recently, 48GB modules have become available for those who want the maximum 96GB of memory in their K7 Pro.

Storage is via two 2280 M.2 PCIe slots, with one already occupied on the top two SKUs.

It’s great news that they are both 2280-sized, as we’ve seen many designs recently where the second slot is demoted to 2242 or even 2230 size.

The largest modules that are easily available are 4TB, with only a few brands, like WD, offering 8TB drives. This will likely change in the next year, with 8TB becoming more common and even 16TB drives available. With two slots, the K7 Pro is easy to upgrade, as you can easily clone the existing storage to larger capacity modules.

The only issue with M.2 drives is that most enclosures for NUC systems don’t offer room for drives that come with a mounted heatsink.

As a development from the K6 and its ilk, the K7 Pro is refined with easy internal access and good options for more memory or drive capacity once inside.

GMKtec NucBox K7 Pro: Features

• AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS (8 cores, 16 Threads)
• 20 PCIe Lanes
• Radeon 680M
• OCuLink

The mobile AMD 6000 processors first appeared in 2022, making them approaching their second birthday. Since then, AMD has released a slew of 7000 series designs and, most recently, the first 8000 series chips.

What’s curious about AMD mobile processors of this specification is that they all come with a similar architecture with eight cores, each with hyperthreading. The differences between the different series are quite subtle and often involve slightly higher boost clocks or a better GPU.

Therefore, the AMD Ryzen 9 PRO 6950H is close in performance and capabilities to the Ryzen 9 7940HS that arrived in 2023, with a Zen 4 architecture.

The advantages of the Ryzen 9 PRO 6950H over lesser models are that its Zen3+ design supports DDR5 memory, Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX) to accelerate performance for calculation-heavy applications, and has twenty PCIe 4.0 lanes.

The downside of this processor is that it uses the older Radeon 680M integrated video, although the 780M that’s appeared in subsequent chips isn’t dramatically faster.

While it is possible to achieve some modest gaming on the Radeon 680M, those wanting more graphics performance should consider using the OCuLink port to attach a discrete desktop GPU. Not only will doing that provide, depending on the graphics card, a magnitude better performance, but as the card will have its own memory, it won’t be sharing the memory and bandwidth of the main memory with the processor.

The flip side of the OCuLink port is that it doesn’t offer the same bandwidth as an x4 or better PCIe slot, and using it will reduce the lanes available for other purposes.

To reduce traffic across the OCuLink connection during interactive graphics rendering, it is best to use a video card with enough memory to hold the textures it needs without repeatedly pulling them across the bus. Therefore, graphics cards with 8GB of VRAM or less should be avoided for optimal performance.

Overall, the chip in this machine might be circa 2022, but it has plenty of useful performance for the majority of customers.

GMKtec NucBox K7 Pro: Performance

• Decent performance
• Radeon 680M
• PCIe 3.0 NVMe

What is fascinating about the K7 Pro is that it is almost as fast as the K8 model that uses the AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS, a Hawk Point chip that is Zen 4/RDNA3/XDNA based.

How is this possible? Well, the standard TPD of the Ryzen 9 PRO 6950H is 45W, but in the context that this machine isn’t a laptop running off batteries, it has been adjusted to allow for 70W operating in the K7 Pro.

That elevates the K7 Pro performance a notch, to the point where the lack of a Radeon 780M GPU is largely negated.

The only place that the K7 Pro system is notably slower is in the NVMe storage, where the K7 Pro is evidently using PCIe Gen 3 storage, and the K8 has a Gen 4 drive.

The GMKtec documentation states that both M.2 slots are PCIe 4.0 rated, so we assume this shortfall can be addressed merely by dropping in a better SSD.

It should be noted that the K8, as specified here, costs $620, an additional $160 more than the K7 Pro.

GMKtec NucBox K7 Pro: Verdict

For the money, this is a remarkable Mini PC that combines power and flexibility, making it an obvious choice for a wide range of tasks.

The inclusion of the OCuLink port also addresses the single biggest limitation of the Mini PC. Specifically, they don’t have an externally exposed PCIe slot.

While OCuLink is a subversion of Thunderbolt technology and doesn’t offer the same bandwidth as a proper 4X PCIe slot, it can go some way to fix the performance limitations imposed by integrated graphics with a suitable OCuLink enclosure and discrete video card.

The only fly in this ointment for GMKtec is that it lacks a branded OCulink enclosure, forcing its customers to source this from its competitors.

Even if you don’t want to go down the external GPU path, the K7 Pro is a great performer, and the perfect device for repurposing should plans change.

Should you buy a GMKtec NucBox K7 Pro?

Buy it if…

Don’t Buy it if…

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