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Not long ago I reviewed the GEEKOM A7 mini PC, which is a small stylish mini PC with great performance and plenty of ports. Now GEEKOM has released a new model called the GEEKOM A8. At first glance, it looks like a modest update that trades a Ryzen 7040HS processor for a newer Ryzen 8040HS chip with more AI performance.
But that’s not the only change GEEKOM has made. The company introduced a new cooling system it calls “IceBlast 1.5” which promises better heat dissipation. Also the GEEKOM A8 comes with a faster SSD and VESA mounting hardware. I wanted to know how much of a difference those changes make, so I took GEEKOM up on the offer to review the new mini PC.
GEEKOM sent me an A8 to test. This mini PC was provided to Liliputing for free, with no requirement that the computer be returned upon completion of the review. This review is not sponsored by GEEKOM, and the company did not modify or approve the content of this article in any way.
Design
From the outside, the GEEKOM A8 looks virtually identical to the A7 model. The only physical differences are that the new version comes with a newer processor, speedier storage, and a VESA mount kit.
Like its predecessor, the GEEKOM A8 exterior measures 112.4 x 112.4 x 37mm (4.43 x 4.43 x 1.46 inches) and consists of a brushed aluminium case with a detachable plastic bottom.
If you remove the bottom you’ll find two SODIMM slots with support for DDR5-5600 memory, an M.2 2280 slot that supports PCIe Gen 4.0 NVMe storage, and an M.2 2230 slot populated by a MediaTek 7922 wireless card. The M.2 2230 slot is covered by the M.2 2280 slot, so you’ll need to remove your SSD in order to access the wireless card.
GEEKOM offers the mini PC with a choice of AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS or Ryzen 9 8945HS processors, up to 32GB of RAM, and up to 2TB of storage.
Both of those processors are laptop-class processors with 8 Zen 4 CPU cores, AMD Radeon 780M integrated graphics, and an NPU that offers up to 16 TOPS of AI performance.
But the Ryzen 9 chip supports higher CPU and graphics frequencies.
Ryzen 9 8945HS | Ryzen 7 8845HS | |
CPU | 8 x Zen 4 CPU cores / 16 threads 35 – 54W TDP |
|
4.0 GHz base / 5.2 GHz max | 3.8 GHz base / 5.1 GHz max | |
GPU | AMD Radeon 780M 12 RDNA 3 GPU cores |
|
Up to 2.8 GHz | Up to 2.7 GHz | |
NPU | Up to 16 TOPS |
It is also worth noting that the only difference between the Ryzen 9 8945HS in the GEEKOM A8 and the Ryzen 9 7940HS processor in the GEEKOM A7 is that the latter processor has a weaker NPU that only provides up to 10 TOPS of AI performance.
The review unit came with 32 GB of memory provided by two 16GB sticks of Crucial (CT16G56C46S5) DDR5-5600 RAM. There’s also a MediaTek 7922 M.2 2230 card that supports WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 (LMP 12.8977). Installed above this was 2 TB of NVMe storage provided by what appears to be an “available in China only” Acer N7000 M.2 2280 PCIe Gen 4.0 drive.
On the front of the GEEKOM A8 are two USB Type-A 3.2 Gen 2×1 (10 Gbit/s) ports, a 3.5mm headphone jack and an illuminated power button.
The left side has a full-sized SD slot together with fine mesh holes for ventilation. These holes are replicated on the entire right side.
The bulk of the ports are on the rear. These include, from left to right:
- 1 x Power jack
- 1 x USB4 Type-C Gen 3×2 (40 Gbit/s) port (above)
- 1 x HDMI 2.0 port (below)
- 1 x 2.5 Gb Ethernet port
- 1 x USB Type-A 3.2 Gen 2×1 (10 Gbit/s) port (above)
- 1 x USB Type-A 2.0 (480 Mbit/s) port (below)
- 1 x USB Type-C 3.2 Gen 2×1 (10 Gbit/s) port (above) with DP Alt Mode
- 1 x HDMI 2.0 port (below)
All of the ports are annotated and testing showed they functioned as expected based on their descriptions.
One new feature included in the published specification is that the rear USB Type-C ports now support USB power delivery. Initially I took this to mean you could power the mini PC by plugging a USB power adapter into either of these ports, but this doesn’t work. Instead GEEKOM says the USB-C ports can supply up to 15 W of power delivery using USB PD 3.0, allowing you to charge other gadgets by plugging them into the computer, although I didn’t verify this during testing.
To power the computer, GEEKOM provides an “Ultra Slim” Hyleton (hyleton-120W-1906320) adapter that comes with a separate power cord. This 120 W (19 V, 6.32 A) power adapter is one of the new smaller and lighter adapters that are sometimes included with newer mini PCs.
Also included in the box is an HDMI cable, a small instruction booklet and a thank you card, as well as a VESA mount with a small packet of screws, both of which were omitted with the GEEKOM A7.
Unfortunately one thing that GEEKOM didn’t change was the process for opening the mini PC to access the motherboard. It’s still an awkward and risky process that requires you first remove the rubber feet and then the screws underneath them.
Then you need to carefully lift the plastic base slightly in order to get to a further screwed-down metal plate. After removing the four screws, you need to remove this plate to gain access to the inner components.
The main WiFi aerial (Editor’s note: aerial = antenna) includes a cable that is both attached to the metal plate and to the plastic base by black tape holding it in position. It is best to remove the tape from the metal plate as this will provide sufficient slack to the WiFi cable to allow the metal plate to be removed and the plastic base to rest horizontally.
The WiFi cables are then connected to the WiFi card by RF Connectors and these in turn are held in place by a small sheet of clear plastic covered in adhesive and firmly stuck to the WiFi card.
I’ll revisit the significance of this design below when I cover WiFi performance below.
UEFI (BIOS)
The GEEKOM A8 has the same extremely limited UEFI (BIOS) version as the A7. The most useful setting is a “FAN Mode” option on the first screen whose default is “Normal Mode” and can be optionally toggled to “Quiet Mode” or “Performance Mode”. The “Performance Mode will increase the performance and the fan speed. Conversely, “Quiet Mode” lowers the performance and the fan speed.
To access the UEFI (BIOS), immediately after powering on the mini PC you can use either the “Esc” or “Del” keys to enter directly into the UEFI (BIOS). Or you can use the “F7” key to access “Boot Menu” and then select the appropriate option.
Windows Performance
The GEEKOM A8 review unit came with Windows 11 Pro Version 23H2 OS build 22631.3296 pre-installed, which I upgraded to OS build 22631.3593 for testing.
I also shrank the Windows partition down by 100 GB so I could also install Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (Noble Numbat).
This time for the A8, all the testing was performed using “Performance Mode” in the UEFI (BIOS) unlike for the A7 when “Normal Mode” was used. The power mode was set to “High performance” on Windows and the CPU Scaling Governor was set to “performance” on Ubuntu.
I started performance testing by using Crystal Dew World’s CrystalDiskMark to measure the storage performance on Windows. The results were quite good, with data transfer speeds coming close to the sequential read speeds of up to 7200 MB/s and write speeds of up to 6200 MB/s that the Acer N7000 SSD should be capable of hitting.
GEEKOM A8 Windows Storage |
Read (MB/s) | Write (MB/s) |
CrystalDiskMark M.2 2280 NVMe | ||
Seq1M Q8T1 | 7109.06 | 6237.95 |
Seq1M Q1T1 | 5034.10 | 5538.23 |
RND4K Q32T1 | 867.35 | 669.65 |
RND4K Q1T1 | 77.83 | 245.83 |
For the SD card reader, I tested using an UHS-II card on Windows. For sequential reads I got a speed of 196.10 MB/s and for sequential writes I got 168.78 MB/s which are both fairly typical speeds for top end mini PCs, although a USB attached card reader can achieve nearly the theoretical maximum speeds of 312 MB/s.
Now for the other performance benchmarks. I’ve included the results from my reviews of the GEEKOM A7 together with the AOOSTAR GEM12, GMKtec NucBox K8, AYANEO AM02, ACEMAGIC F2A and Simply NUC Onyx NUC13OXv9 in the table below. This allows for comparison with similar “top end” AMD and Intel mini PCs.
I also want to point out that I’ve included the Power Limit values for each mini PC. It is important to take their settings into consideration when making any comparison as their values can have a significant impact on the performance.
On Windows I ran:
- PassMark Software’s PerformanceTest (general performance)
- UL’s 3DMark (CPU and graphics) and Procyon (office productivity)
- Maxon’s Cinebench (CPU)
- Primate Labs’s Geekbench (CPU and graphics)
- Unigine’s Heaven (graphics)
GEEKOM A8 |
AOOSTAR GEM12 |
GMKtec NucBox K8 |
GEEKOM A7 |
AYANEO AM02 |
ACEMAGIC F2A |
Simply NUC Onyx NUC13OXv9 | |
AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS | AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS | AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS | AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS | AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS | Intel Ultra 7 155H | Intel Core i9-13900H | |
Default (PL1=54 & PL2=60) |
Default (PL1=65 & PL2=70) |
Default (PL1=54 & PL2=54) |
Default (PL1=45 & PL2=60) |
Default (PL1=45 & PL2=54) |
Default (PL1=60 & PL2=90) |
Default (PL1=45 & PL2=54) |
|
PerformanceTest | |||||||
PassMark Rating | 8746.7 | 8590.9 | 8151.2 | 7781.7 | 7161.5 | 6392.6 | 5651.2 |
CPU Mark | 31784.5 | 31961.9 | 29949.0 | 31410.6 | 29983.3 | 31636.0 | 29862.6 |
2D Graphics Mark | 912.4 | 904.1 | 880.4 | 972.2 | 957.7 | 798.9 | 942.3 |
3D Graphics Mark | 8021.4 | 8061.2 | 7559.2 | 7088.4 | 7260.4 | 5761.1 | 3967.1 |
Memory Mark | 3423.0 | 3474.4 | 3389.1 | 3366.6 | 3415.3 | 2716.5 | 3733.4 |
Disk Mark | 51099.8 | 40295.3 | 37932.7 | 43651.7 | 18229.6 | 22072.7 | 22823.1 |
3DMark | |||||||
Night Raid Score | 31382 | 31897 | 31279 | 30791 | 30772 | 28521 | 22207 |
Graphics score | 37347 | 38068 | 37968 | 37223 | 37467 | 34107 | 24959 |
CPU score | 16474 | 16627 | 15654 | 15558 | 15290 | 14793 | 13669 |
Fire Strike Score | 7854 | 7851 | 7898 | 7880 | 7902 | 7212 | 6050 |
Graphics score | 8494 | 8530 | 8577 | 8519 | 8556 | 7897 | 6452 |
Physics score | 28561 | 27985 | 27978 | 26165 | 26282 | 25682 | 27210 |
Combined score | 2961 | 2935 | 2959 | 3019 | 3014 | 2643 | 2298 |
Procyon | |||||||
Office Productivity score | 7612 | 6976 | 7300 | 7624 | 7522 | 7306 | 7947 |
Word score | 7526 | 6864 | 7506 | 8490 | 7897 | 7403 | 7664 |
Excel score | 8597 | 7701 | 8238 | 8282 | 8241 | 7546 | 8147 |
PowerPoint score | 7499 | 7277 | 7440 | 7540 | 7736 | 7667 | 8153 |
Outlook score | 6291 | 5435 | 5220 | 5327 | 5378 | 6060 | 7725 |
CINEBENCH R23 | |||||||
CPU (Multi Core) | 16594 | 16806 | 15786 | 15824 | 15926 | 18517 | 15063 |
CPU (Single Core) | 1814 | 1790 | 1766 | 1765 | 1741 | 1823 | 2048 |
CINEBENCH 2024 | |||||||
CPU (Multi Core) | 964 | 970 | 914 | 899 | 886 | 1029 | 827 |
CPU (Single Core) | 107 | 105 | 104 | 106 | 105 | 108 | 121 |
Geekbench 6.2.1 | |||||||
Single-Core Score | 2693 | 2670 | 2590 | 2612 | 2621 | 2466 | 2830 |
Multi-Core Score | 13539 | 13353 | 12868 | 13270 | 13023 | 12680 | 12499 |
OpenCL Score | 31128 | 30905 | 27649 | 33240 | 33134 | 33831 | 17298 |
Unigine Heaven 4.0 | |||||||
FPS | 79.7 | 82.0 | 79.1 | 80.6 | 81.3 | 81.9 | 66.8 |
Score | 2008 | 2066 | 1994 | 2031 | 2047 | 2064 | 1683 |
I also ran 3DMark Time Spy which achieved a score of 3331 with a GPU score of 2963 and CPU score of 11298 which was also inline with the other mini PC’s results.
Overall the performance of the GEEKOM A8 was very good, as expected.
It would have been interesting to test the A8 using a higher value for PL1, say 65 watts, but as will be seen under “Thermal Issues” below, the cooling probably couldn’t handle it.
Gaming Performance
Given how good the AMD Radeon 780M integrated GPU is, I tried a handful of AAA games:
GEEKOM A8 |
GEEKOM A7 |
|||
AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS | AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS | |||
Default (PL1=54 & PL2=60) |
Default (PL1=45 & PL2=60) |
|||
Game | 1080p with settings of | FPS | 1080p with settings of | FPS |
SOTTR | Low Graphics | 57 | Low | 57 |
High Graphics | 43 | High | 42 | |
Horizon Zero Dawn | Favour Performance | 54 | Favour Performance | 48 |
Favour Quality | 40 | Favour Quality | 37 | |
COD MW II | Performance | 137 | Performance | 124 |
Visual Quality | 121 | Visual Quality | 101 |
The results for the GEEKOM A8 were slightly better than those seen on the A7, but this is likely due to the slightly higher power limit setting resulting from running in “Performance Mode” rather than “Normal Mode”.
I also performed a test of the GEEKOM A8’s USB4 port with an external graphics dock.
Similar to my testing with the A7, I connected a DIY eGPU consisting of a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 housed in a ADT-Link K43SG connected via a JEYI ASM2464 USB4 M.2 NVMe Enclosure and USB4 cable.
The Host and Device speeds were again just over 3600 MiB/s, confirming that the USB4 port is functioning at its best capabilities with the eGPU.
Running Shadow of the Tomb Raider using 1080p high defaults like before, showed the average FPS increase from 43 to 95 FPS.
This is actually 10 FPS better than on the A7 and is simply due to the increased CPU performance created by the higher power limit as the game is actually GPU bound.
NPU Performance
As there doesn’t seem to be a general consensus on the best tools for benchmarking NPUs yet, I thought I’d turn to AI itself to see what recommendations I could find. What better way is there than asking “Copilot”, Microsoft’s AI for everything, “What can I use the NPU in an AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS for?”
Unfortunately Copilot replied “The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS features an NPU (Neural Processing Unit), which is designed to accelerate AI workloads. However, as of now, Windows doesn’t recognize it because DirectML doesn’t yet support AMD’s NPU”. So currently it seems like the NPU is as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike.
Editor’s note: In a blog post published November 17, 2023, AMD said that “there are more than 100 AI-powered functions that now run on Ryzen AI from many vendors, including Adobe, BlackMagic Design, and Topaz Labs. The number of AI-enabled applications is growing steadily as AI PC shipments grow and existing apps are updated.”
AMD also offers documentation for developers that want to tap into the Ryzen AI NPU (neural processing unit). But for non-developers just looking to put that NPU to use, it can be a bit of a chore to find any applications that make use of the Ryzen AI NPU.
Computers with AMD’s next-gen Ryzen AI 300 series processors will eventually qualify as Microsoft Copilot+ PCs, but the Ryzen 8040 series processors don’t have powerful enough NPUs to qualify and won’t support the Copilot+ features Microsoft is bringing to Windows 11.
Power consumption
Power consumption was measured by connecting the GEEKOM A8 to a power meter that was in turn connected to a UPS power outlet to provide clean power.
- Powered off (shutdown) – 0.7 W
- UEFI (BIOS) – 10.8 W
- GRUB menu – 23.8 W (if left in GRUB the power increases due to an increase in the fan speed)
- Idle – 7.0 W (Windows) and 5.2 W (Ubuntu)
- CPU stressed – Max 93.6 W, average 84.3 W (Windows “Cinebench” + “FurMark”)
- CPU stressed – Max 86.2 W, average 74.9 W (Ubuntu “stress” + “FurMark”)
WiFi Performance and Issues
Probably the most significant issue I encountered while testing the GEEKOM A8 was poor WiFi performance. Since the computer has 2.5 Gb Ethernet port that offers excellent performance, with upload and download speeds up to 2.37 Gbps, I was able to use the computer with a wired connection without any problems.
However WiFi download speeds on both the 5.0 GHz and 6.0 GHz bands were simply unacceptable, at less that 80 Mbps. What is strange is that the GEEKOM A8 uses the same WiFi card as the A7, which has decent wireless performance.
I tried to see if I could resolve the WiFi issue by first repeating the tests with the mini PC in different positions, including upside down, to see if this would improve the speed. There was never any improvement, even though running a “netsh wlan show interface” showed that signal strength was 100%.
So I decided to replace the aerials to see if that fixed the issue. However due to the way the card has been installed, it was necessary to remove the small sheet of clear plastic covering the RF connectors so I could use the existing aerials.
Unfortunately the adhesive was too strong and, as I lifted the plastic, it ripped the “Aux” RF connector off the aerial cable. So I had to connect some replacement aerials, which I temporarily attached to the base plate.
This resulted in a significant improvement. Download speeds rose to nearly 160 Mbps. But while that’s nearly twice as fast as before, it’s still pretty terrible considering the MediaTek 7922 WiFi 6E card theoretically supports wireless data transfer speeds up to 1.9 Gbps.
Thinking perhaps it could be a faulty WiFi card, I swapped the card in the GEEKOM A8 card for the one that works so well in the GEEKOM A7. I also chose to attach the original “Main” RF connector to its aerial rather than using the pair of replacement aerials. Predictably, cutting in half the number of aerials also reduced the download speed by about 50%, although the upload speed was only slightly reduced from its original performance. And just to confirm that swapping the WiFi cards made no improvement, I put the original WiFi card from the GEEKOM A8 back into the computer. After seeing similar results, I determined that the culprit was probably not a faulty WiFi card.
As a result of tinkering with the aerials, I found myself with a spare piece of black tape after putting everything back together. Feeling like I’d found the proverbial leftover reassembly screw, I quickly took the base plate off and stuck the tape over the actual aerial.
I didn’t think that would impact performance, but when I later retested the WiFi speeds I noticed a substantial improvement to the download speed which now reached 301 Mbps. I must admit, I mused over this sudden speed increase for some time until it dawned on me the only difference was the application of the extra piece of tape.
So perhaps the poor WiFi is caused by inadequate shielding, as electromagnetic interference (EMI) is affecting the signal?
To test this theory I covered the aerial with aluminium foil taped down with electrical tape and then covered with some gaffer tape to create a partial Faraday shield. Finally we have a winner! Compared with the original single aerial speeds, upload improved by nearly 80% from 429 Mbps to 768 Mbps and download improved by nearly 1000% from a virtually unusable 46.6 Mbps to reasonably functional 512 Mbps.
Looking at the device shows the WiFi aerial is directly above the SSD, and the metal base plate that forms the “shield can” as part of the Board Level Shielding (BLS), has a cut out along the edge at this point. Because of the hole, it does not extend to provide the required shielding. It looks like for this particular aerial position and SSD combination, the download speed is severely impacted by EMI from the SSD.
I also tried replacing the MediaTek card with an Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 card with replacement aerials positioned underneath the outside of the plastic bottom of the case which acted as an EMI shield, and WiFi performance was excellent.
WiFi 5.0 GHz | ||||||||
GEEKOM A7 | GEEKOM A8 | GEEKOM A8 | GEEKOM A8 | GEEKOM A8 | GEEKOM A8 | GEEKOM A8 | GEEKOM A8 | |
WiFi Card | A7 card | A8 card | A8 card | A7 card | A8 card | A8 card | A8 card | Intel AX200 |
Aerial Mods | Original twin aerials |
Original twin aerials |
New twin aerials |
Swapped card single aerial |
Original single aerial |
Taped over single aeriel |
Pseudo shielded single aerial |
New outside twin aerials |
Upload | 1.25 Gbps | 1.07 Gbps | 1.11 Gbps | 443 Mbps | 429 Mbps | 452 Mbps | 768 Mbps | 1.48 Gbps |
Download | 1.30 Gbps | 74.9 Mbps | 157 Mbps | 56.5 Mbps | 46.6 Mbps | 301 Mbps | 512 Mbps | 1.41 Gbps |
So it is possible to get acceptable wireless performance from this computer. It’s just that the default configuration in the unit GEEKOM sent me appears to have the SSD and WiFi aerials arranged in such a way that electromagnetic interference has a negative impact on download speeds.
It’s not clear if this is an issue that affects all units, but at least one other review from a tech news website encountered sluggish WiFi performance.
Bluetooth Issues (Ubuntu)
As I discovered when reviewing the GEEKOM A7, the current Linux kernel does not support Bluetooth for this particular MediaTek 7922 card. However this has been patched with the 6.10 kernel.
For now, to use Bluetooth you have a few choices:
- Use DKMS to include this patch with your current kernel
- Build your own kernel and include the patch
- Download and install the latest release for 6.10 or later
Thermal Performance and Noise Issues
Aside from the fact that the GEEKOM A8 has a newer processor than the A7, the biggest change is that GEEKOM has used a new proprietary cooling system, known as “IceBlast 1.5”.
The company claims the new cooling system was designed with the goal of “improving the mini PCs’ performances by up to 20% while reducing 80% of operating noise” but based on my experience, IceBlast 1.5 doesn’t live up to either of those promises.
On Windows I ran a high workload which consisted of running Cinebench R23 in a ten minute loop along with running FurMark at full-screen. I measured how loud the main top fan was by using a sound meter next to the device. Whilst idling the GEEKOM A8 was silent with no reading registering on my sound meter. When stressing the system, the noise was quite loud measuring up to 54 dBA.
I also monitored the noise underload on Ubuntu. Initially, whilst idling, the A8 was again silent. However when similarly stressing the system, the noise was slightly less at around 49.8 dBA. This is likely due to less power being consumed judging from the power measurements taken (see “Power consumption” above).
When I ran just a stress test on all cores for 20 minutes, the noise again registered around 49.8 dBA which was slightly louder than for the A7 which only hit 44.5 dBA for the same test.
During the Ubuntu stress test I recorded the CPU temperatures and frequencies using the same script I used when testing the A7. Plotting the results together on the same graph highlights the some key differences between the A8 and A7.
Despite the A7 using a lower power limit of 45 watts, the CPU temperature stayed at a constant maximum of 95°C.
With the new cooling system and higher power limit of 54 watts, the A8’s maximum CPU temperature only reached 92°C. During this time the average frequency was 3780 MHz, peaking at up to 4670 Mhz and dipping down to 544 MHz.
However, as can be observed, this was not sustainable as about halfway through the test, the CPU throttled. As a result the CPU temperature dropped to 84°C and the frequency average dropped to 3550 MHz, peaking only at 4090 MHz but still dipping to 544 MHz. In contrast, the A7 initially throttled slightly, before averaging quite consistently at around 3690 MHz.
So whilst it seems like the new cooling system works in the short term, by reducing the CPU temperature and allowing a higher frequency when under a heavy load, it doesn’t offer sustained cooling, and the result is that the CPU throttling will kick in, reducing the CPU frequency and consequently impacting performance.
Verdict
The GEEKOM A8 is a nice-looking, small and powerful mini PC. However it is not perfect. And unless you have found a way to make use of the more powerful NPU, you may be better off purchasing the A7.
Whilst the new proprietary cooling does reduce the CPU temperature allowing a higher power limit to be used for short bursts of performance, workloads that require sustained performance will actually run more slowly on the GEEKOM A8 than they would on the GEEKOM A7.
Accessing the motherboard of this little computer is also harder than it needs to be due to the design, which makes replacing or upgrading the memory and storage quite challenging.
The whole WiFi configuration is disappointing with poor WiFi performance and an awkwardly placed WiFi antenna. In fact I’d be seriously tempted to replace the WiFi card with an M.2 2230 NVMe SSD given there’s only a single M.2 2280 slot for solid state storage. Sure it will run slower as it can only use a single PCIe lane but it is better than using an SD card for storage expansion.
The compromise resulting from making the form factor small is arguably not worth the penalties incurred on the functional issues highlighted.
Despite these shortcomings, CPU and graphics performance was good. And with its small power adapter, superior port offerings and three-year warranty, the A8 might appeal to some if the price is right and you plan to use Ethernet rather than WiFi.
I’d like to thank GEEKOM for providing the review unit.
The GEEKOM A8 is available for purchase from Amazon or GEEKOM, where they’re both on sale at discounted prices at time of publication (July 16, 2024):
GEEKOM is also providing Liliputing readers with a chance to save 5% off the normal retail prices by using the coupon code LILA8 at the GEEKOM website or LILILPA8 at Amazon. But those coupons, which expire July 31, 2024 cannot be combined with the July 16th sale.