I’ve tested my share of mini PCs, but Geekom’s A9 Max stands out for its combination of power and price.
Geekom A9 Max AI
The Geekom A9 Max AI is available for $999 on Amazon.
This tiny PC has tons of power to spare and can even work well with the inefficiencies of Windows.
However, its fans can be quite loud.
When I review small form factor PCs, I tend to keep my expectations in check. Given that I use a monstrous System76 Thelio desktop for most of my work, it’s generally a challenge for such a tiny, shiny box to match. In fact, I’ve never met a tiny PC that could outperform my Thelio.
The GEEKOM A9 Max AI Mini certainly gave it a run for its money. And while being hampered by an inferior OS. Note to all companies sending me PCs to review: Please send me machines with Linux preinstalled. Not only do I find it far easier to review computers with Linux, but it also shows consumers that you do offer open-source options.
With that request out of the way, let’s talk about the A9 Max AI.The Geekom A9 Max AI mini PC
This tiny PC packs a serious punch in power and takes up very little room.
Dell Tower ECT1250 Intel Ultra 7 512GB SSD 16GB RAM Desktop:
$750 (save $150)
Dell Tower Plus EBT2250 Intel Ultra 7 RTX 3050 1TB SSD 16GB RAM Desktop:
$1,000 (save $350)
Lenovo IdeaCentre Tower Intel i7 14th Gen 512GB SSD 16GB RAM Desktop:
$684 (save $316)
HP OmniDesk Intel i7 14th Gen 2TB SSD 16GB RAM Desktop (Meteor Silver):
$800 (save $400)
Alienware Aurora ACT1250 Intel Ultra 7 RTX 5070 Ti 1TB SSD 32GB RAM Desktop:
$1,850 (save $450)My experience
Naturally, because this machine sported the Windows operating system, it took a long time before I could even use it. There were updates aplenty, logging in with my Microsoft account, blah, blah. You know the drill.
As you probably noticed, the name of the PC includes AI, and I’m sure you can guess what that means. That’s right, this little buddy was built for « unmatched AI performance. » What does that even mean?
Consider this: most people who use AI aren’t using it locally; they’ll be using ChatGPT or one of the many cloud-based services.
According to the description, the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor « delivers an industry-leading 80 TOPS of total AI acceleration, featuring a next-gen XDNA 2 AI engine that pumps out 50 TOPS of dedicated NPU performance, enabling seamless Copilot+ experiences, local large model deployment, and advanced content generation.
