Today I got my hands on the latest mini PC from GEEKOM – the mini IT13. This is the first mini PC powered by the latest INTEL 13th CORE processor we’ve ever reviewed. And luckily I got the highest version. The tiny box down below is a monster PC with an i9-13900h CPU, 32g RAM, and 2TB SSD. It might be also the most powerful mini PC that you can find on the market. After having it for tests and daily uses, I would say that this little bomb is truly impressive. So I can’t wait to introduce it to you guys.
Unboxing
In terms of packaging, the mini IT13 is packaged in a compact color box. Open it and I can see the mini-PC, and underneath it are some accessories, including a 120w power adapter that supports wide-range inputs, a HDMI cable, a User Manual, and a VESA Mount. The VESA Mount can secure the unit to the back of most monitors, collecting and hiding the cables in a good way. So by far, GEEKOM has done a really good job with all the accessories.
Design
The mini IT13 is made of metal in most of the body, everything I can touch is made of metal, but it only weighs 652g, which is much lighter than most laptops, So it’s pretty easy to carry on the go.
And it’s so compact that it even fits in my satchel well! The mini IT13 has the Geekom logo on the top, and there are two air inlets on both the left and right. The right metal grills have an SD card slot. The main IO panels are on the front and back; there are two 10Gbps USB ports on the front as well as a 3.5mm headphone jack. And on the back there are 2*hdmi2.0 ports, a USB2.0, another 10Gbps USB-A type, as well as 2 special type-C ports, also called USB-4.0, supporting up to 40Gbps. They are particularly powerful for supporting connecting graphic card docks.
In terms of network support, the mini IT13 comes with an AX211 WiFi kit and a LAN port that supports a wired network of up to 2.5Gbps. With all these interfaces, you can have quite a lot of possibilities with the mini IT13.
Internal Structure
One of the things I like about the internal structure of the mini PC is that, it supports multiple storage options. The 2TB variant comes with a 2280 NVME SSD, and you can add an extra 2242 SATA SSD or a 2.5″ SSD on your own to expand the total storage. It’s also worth noting that the mini IT13 has an exclusive cooling structure for the hard drives. good job! GEEKOM.
Considering the compact size of the mini IT13, I would say that its expandability and connectivity are perfect, and the high-speed interface can also significantly improve efficiency when used with the i9-13900h.
If you look closely, the mini IT13 has a metal frame that completely surrounds the board, so even if you shake the PC violently, it won’t rattle, that means I can put the mini IT13 in my backpack and take it on the go without worrying about anything.
Performance
The mini IT13 is powered by a 14 Cores 20 Threads i9-13900h processor, that’s pretty insane for a mini PC. Thanks to the Raptor Lake-H series’s great power efficiency and the 14 cores, the latest i9-H CPU achieves a multi-core performance of 7881 in the CPUZ test, which is 7% ahead of the desktop i9-10900k with the same 20 Threads. Performance is 7% ahead, the highlight is single-core performance. Compared to the i9-10900k, the i9-13900h in the mini PC is 25% ahead.
Well In the Cinebunch R23 test, the mini IT13 scores 11,800 in multi-core performance, which is more than enough to handle most complex tasks.
I’m actually more concerned about the power consumption and temperature than its performance. In the CPU stress test, the mini IT13’s i9-13900h power consumption reached 60w in the first second, and then the power consumption stayed at 35w. And after a 10-minute CPU stress test, the power consumption stably remained at 35w.
and the CPU package temperature stayed close to 80°C. The CPU’s p-core was running at 3.3ghz and the e-core was running at 2.5 GHz, while the surface temperature of the mini IT13 was only 40°C.
The thermal performance of the mini IT13 is truly excellent, considering the i9-13900h has a very powerful performance at 35w output. Of course, if you are a geek user, you can also try to unlock the power limits to get a higher CPU performance. It’s also worth mentioning that the noise control of the mini IT13 is very good, you can barely hear the noise during daily use. You do hear the fan noise when doing complex tasks, but to my surprise, the noise of the mini IT13 is different from the harsh centrifugal fan on a laptop, it is more similar to a 12cm fan on a PC. So, there’s nothing for me to complain about here.
About the GPU, it’s our old friend – the 96EU INTEL Xe GPU. In the gaming test, I first tested the GPU in Counter-Strike 2, with the screen set to 1080p low setting, it ran at 80-110 fps, and I did complete a couple of headshots during the game, which was pretty good.
In Genshin Impact at 1080p low setting, we tested in the Fontaine area, the frame rate was around 50fps and the gaming experience was relatively smooth. Overall, thanks to the mini IT13’s dual-channel 3200MHz RAM, the GPU performs quite well, and the mini IT13 has very good temperature control when gaming. No kidding, the mini IT13 can be your gaming PC if you play games that don’t require super high graphics.
Another thing that interests me is the 2TB SSD. The mini IT13 uses a Lexar MN7A1 PCIE4 SSD. There are no details of the specific SSD variant, but most likely this is an OEM product that is not for the retail market.
In the actual test, the performance of this hard disk is very good, it has very fast read and write speed, which fits well with our imagination about PCIE 4.0 SSD. I also tried some extreme tests, in the 1000GB of large file reading, it still kept 2700MB/S in the whole test. Personally, I’m very satisfied with the SSD offered by the mini IT13 at this price.
User Experience
The mini IT13 does have a very good user experience, the i9-13900H is even more powerful than the big PC I’m using, when running complex tasks, this CPU does bring higher efficiency. It also has a reasonable combination of parts and components: The chip brings powerful performance, while the 32G dual-channel memory offers great support for multitasking, and the 2TB SSD has enough space to store the data generated by CPU computing. Meanwhile, there are 2 extra storage expansion ports, and high-speed ports make mini IT13 a good enough replacement for a traditional PC. And if you really need extra graphic performance, the USB-4 can also add those graphic card docks in, no matter for gaming or AI-tasking.
All in all, I have no reason to say no to a super-powerful mini PC like this. If you guys are interested in the Geekom mini PC, the brand now offers a nice discounted price with coupon codes, either by heading to the official store or Amazon.
