Geekom IT13 Max review: An Ultra 9 mini PC held back by its own configuration

TechRadar Verdict

This is a very capable and solidly built mini PC, with a processor that offers the might and AI potential but lacks any serious support from the rest of the components. The Ultra 9 185H performs as expected, and for office and light creative work the IT13 Max is an excellent option. The industrial touches suggest that while the price makes it a good option for the office, its heart is in industry as part of a workshop or production-line machine where the older ports and processing, rather than graphic potential, are best suited.

Pros

• +Ultra 9 performance
• +Dual USB4 and 2.5GbE
• +Solid all-metal build

Cons

• -Memory soldered non-upgradable
• -Memory ran slower than expected
• -Fan noise under load

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Jump To:

• 30-second review
• Price and availability
• Specs
• Design
• Features
• Performance
• Final verdict
• Should you buy it?

Geekom IT13 Max: 30-second review

The Geekom IT13 Max is an interesting machine, built in the style of the usual Mini PC, yet with a quality that is slightly more solid and industrial than I’d usually expect. The design also lacks anything inspirational; it’s purely functional even down to the metal pressed backplate.

The specifications are also interesting, with a high-powered Ultra 9 185H and Arc GPU and NPU all integrated, providing impressive computing power. However, it all feels slightly limited with just 24GB of RAM that's soldered and non upgradable, then there’s the storage at just 500GB meaning that if you’re looking to store files onboard then you’ll quickly run out of space. Exactly as I discovered with the 4K video edit test in Premiere Pro and the gaming test, where it was a strict one game installed at a time.

However, as I started to look deeper at the system, you see that there’s something else going on with the RS232 and RS485 headers that means this can be integrated with a larger industry systems, well beyond anything that I have access to.

This is a mini PC that has a market in industry or as a solid machine for office use; if you work in the creative industry or fancy a bit of gaming, then while it’s powerful enough to handle quite demanding tasks, it's not the best mini PC we've tested for that, and there are better options out there.

As a standalone mini PC, it’s understated and powerful, great as a solid machine for the office that will plough through Microsoft Office applications with ease, but in reality this is a machine with a focus as part of larger industry applications.

Geekom IT13 Max: Price and availability

• How much does it cost? £749 / $749
• When is it out? Now
• Where can you get it? Directly from Geekom

The IT13 Max is available direct from Geekom US for $799 and Geekom UK for £749.

It's also on sale for the same price at both Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.

This buys you the 24GB RAM and 500GB SSD version that I have looked at in this review. There are, however, two present versions of this machine available. The other is what seems to be the lower-specified 16GB DDR5 with a 1TB SSD option; however, this machine offers two SO-DIMM slots accepting up to 96GB, which would be better suited for creatives, especially if used with an eGPU.

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