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Review cover GEEKOM AE8 Mini PC GBAtemp review
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An 8000 series Ryzen CPU in a familiar boxy form factor, we check out Geekom’s more budget AE8 Mini PC.

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So let’s jump straight into the specs on offer. The model we’re looking at today is the Ryzen 7 flavour of Geekom’s AE8 Mini PC, featuring the 8845HS paired with a pretty respectable 32GB of RAM, and a passable 512GB M.2 2280 SSD. Now that might sound familiar; this isn’t Geekom’s first Mini PC to use this CPU, along with its big brother the Ryzen 9 8945HS. I actually covered the A8 back in June with that higher spec Ryzen 9, so if nothing else I was a little excited to see just how the cheaper model would fly.

In terms of ports we have a very standard affair at this point. I’m just going to rattle it off, but if you’ve seen the A7, the A8, or even the GT13 Pro, you’ll know exactly what we’re working with already. On the front panel we’re looking at two USB A 3.2s, along with the power button and a 3.5mm combo jack. On the left we find the ever-appreciated SD reader, and on the right the ever-underappreciated Kensington lock. As ever the bulk of the IO remains on the back, with two HDMI 2.0s, two USB Cs, one of which being USB 4, and the other 3.2, two USB As, one of which being USB 3.2, and the other USB 2.0, a 2.5G Ethernet port, and finally the barrel connector. The system does also support power over USB C, which is always something I can appreciate for those who often misplace their barrel plugs.

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It’s an entirely standard affair, but I can see why they wouldn’t want to reinvent the wheel. I’ve said it before, but it was and continues to be a really solid offering in terms of connectivity on such a small device. I do personally prefer the approach they took with their Mega series of Mini PCs, fitting in a few extra USB ports on the front at the cost of a slightly larger case, but what we have here will be more than enough for most.

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Though I do feel the boxier case here is an aesthetic downgrade from what we’ve seen in the A8 and similar, something I can certainly appreciate is how easy it makes opening up the system. With the A8, you first had to remove adhered rubber feet, and then navigate around internal plastic shielding without unplugging the two wireless antennas. It’s a pain that I’ve never liked, with me unplugging the WiFi and not being able to plug it back in the last time I messed with it. The AE8 is absolute simplicity. The four feet the system rests on each has a screw, and when loosened the bottom comes off with no fuss. From there you have a straight shot to your RAM and SSD for easy upgrades; something you might want to consider with this system only having 512GB of storage. The case does also have a compartment for a 2.5 inch drive, though no visible way to actually use it. I do understand that, as mentioned before, these form factors are reused. Having said that, it’s a shame that bit of extra storage couldn’t somehow be worked into the system; it would be a genuinely compelling reason to recommend it over the previously-released A8.

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One last tidbit of note is that the top “GEEKOM” faceplate is actually removeable. This is something I’ve neglected to notice in any of my previous boxy-design Mini PCs, and is actually pretty neat. If for some reason you have multiple lying around, you can swap the top for a more unique look. The more meaningful use here would be getting the dimensions and making your own, though I’m not sure exactly how complex that would be. The top plate is just held in place by plastic clips, making it really easy to take off.

Solid Performance

The performance of the AE8 certainly isn’t lacking, even on the lower-end model I have to hand. To throw my usual benchmarks at the 8845HS, we’re seeing entirely respectable scores from both Geekbench 6.2.2 and Cinebench 2024.1.0. In the former we’re looking at a single-core score of 2592 and a multi-core score of 13238, with Cinebench showing a single-core score of 105 and a multi-core score of 908. These scores are definitely lower than what we saw in the A8’s 8945HS, but really not by much. We’re talking about a 3% increase on Cinebench and a 2% increase on Geekbench, both looking at the multi-core performance. When comparing the two AE8 models I do feel this is a clear winner, even if you might be left wanting more in the 512GB of storage. It is worth noting however that the 8845HS is itself not the cheapest way to get these performance numbers, with it just being an 8745HS with an NPU tacked on. And for 99% of people that really won't make a difference. Looking at the performance of these very similar chips though though, it will be capable of retty much anything you could reasonably expect from a Mini PC, and that does carry over into your light gaming and more general emulation performance.

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When it comes to emulation certain things go without saying at this point. This system will handle anything before the GameCube with no problems at all; really it’ll play a good chunk more than that. Wii U performs fantastically outside of a few first time shader stutters, and I had no issues cycling through the few Switch games I had to hand. The Link’s Awakening remake, Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate, and Girls und Panzer DX all ran remarkably well. There are limits as to what an integrated GPU is capable of, with games like Tears of the Kingdom still struggling to keep up, but it is still a solid showing.

For PC gaming it’s a pretty much identical experience to what I covered in the A8 review. Testing out the same games I ended up with very similar results, with Baldur’s Gate 3 being incredibly playable with some settings tweaks, alongside other big hitters like Elden Ring and Armored Core 6. For these kinds of graphically intense games you should definitely expect to be doing some settings tweaks; we don’t have the power on hand to assume things will be perfect out of the box. Having said that though, it’ll definitely keep you entertained if it’s all you had to play on.

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As a few other quick use cases, I did also try out the AE8 with OBS as a simple streaming box using a USB microphone and external capture card. There’s not really much to say here, it handled the load well, with the WiFi 6E card inside holding its own with a bitrate of around 10mpbs to Twitch. You definitely wouldn’t be able to stream while running some of those more demanding PC games, but I can see the appeal of having an external system setup like this. The small form factor is a real plus for that. I also threw CLion onto the system, though I’m not entirely sure what I was expecting to test. The app felt responsive and compiling a CMake project I was playing with felt about as responsive as any other laptop or PC I’ve had it on. For its size it’s definitely a solid all-rounder, though the same can definitely be said for systems from other manufacturers at an even lower price than this.

One Worth Your Time?

Geekom’s AE8 finds itself in an interesting position. When looking just at Geekom’s lineup, it’s definitely among their better value systems, coming in at £649 at the time of writing. It’s a PC I’d have no issues using myself, coming in at almost half the price of the GT1 Mega I do still daily drive for performance that is basically on par. If this PC is something you’re interested in, Geekom have as usual thrown some discount codes our way if you’re ordering before the end of the year. Per my usual disclaimer, we don’t get any kickback from these, but they do get the price down by a further 6% if ordering directly from Geekom’s store.

Verdict

What We Liked ...
  • Incredibly performant CPU
  • 32GB of RAM included even in the base model
  • Easy to open up case
  • Great assortment of IO
What We Didn't Like ...
  • No support for a 2.5 inch SSD/HDD despite the case being designed for it
  • 512GB SSD can feel restrictive
8
out of 10

Overall

All in all the AE8 is everything that was good in the A8 in a boxier, and more importantly, cheaper package. The Ryzen 7 offers a more compelling deal for only a marginal performance loss, ultimately being the one I would recommend to anybody interested.
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E
The 8845HS isn't the top end chip in its lineup. So interested buyers aren't looking for the absolute fastest, their value function trades among performance and price. And for that calculation wrt this chip there's a damning defect: 8745HS, virtually the same chip, minus the AI coprocessor. 8745HS is being priced substantially lower.

Unless you're using that AI coprocessor for something, I don't see a use case for 8845HS.
 
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Exidous said:
The 8845HS isn't the top end chip in its lineup. So interested buyers aren't looking for the absolute fastest, their value function trades among performance and price. And for that calculation wrt this chip there's a damning defect: 8745HS, virtually the same chip, minus the AI coprocessor. 8745HS is being priced substantially lower.

Unless you're using that AI coprocessor for something, I don't see a use case for 8845HS.
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Thanks for that, I'll admit I got slightly mixed up myself in thinking the NPU addition was exclusive to the Ryzen 9. I've made a few edits to the review just to reflect that there is another cheaper way to get basically the same performance. I'd like to think I can blame AMD's awful naming of parts just a little, but it's on me either way.

It is a little surprising Geekom aren't looking into the cheaper chip to stay a little more competitive honestly. The SER8 from Beelink is something somebody else recommended on a different review, and it really does seem great value. It's kinda the crux of these Geekom systems. I'll stand by saying they're solid to actually use, but they just don't offer the best value (outside of sales anyway). It's difficult to score something like that when prices seem to move up and down so quickly lol
 
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E
Most of the Ryzens with NPUs are the new naming convention three-digit ones, those branded Ryzen AI. You're certainly right that AMD's naming convention is atrocious and blameworthy for most confusion. Here's the naming convention for this processor's generation and several past:

Ryzen [brand number] #### [letters]
Ryzen [brand number] (Year)(Segment)(Architecture)(Nonsense) [letters]

Year of introduction, where 7=2023 and 8=2024. Segment, like, but not always brand number, Ryzen 3,5,7,9. Architecture, where 4 equals Zen 4. And some extra nonsense number that often means nothing.

The letters usually relate to intended power draw. HS is mid-high I think. U is the lowest power draw.

tl;dr, the third digit in a four digit naming convention (including an extra number, and letters) is the most significant for performance. Just totally ridiculous.

As for Geekom, I don't know if they have access to the 8745, it was released a half year after the rest of its generation and seemingly only for Chinese manufacturers. I presume Geekom is Chinese, but there might be further availability limitations. Or it could simply be they haven't rolled it out yet, I think the 8745 chip has only been sold to consumers for a couple of months.
 
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Jayro
Looks cute. With a 64GB RAM upgrade, this could be a little Photoshop editing powerhouse that mounts behind a monitor.
 
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