When it comes to Mini PCs from Geekom, there’s usually one comment that prevails above the rest: it’s too expensive. Though offering some of the latest and best CPUs in a Mini PC, the prices remain prohibitive to the point of putting a lot of people off. Enter the A6. Coming in as a more mid-range option to sit between their truly budget Air12 and their more performant systems, can this sub-$500 PC keep up with its more expensive siblings?
Starting from the Top
The basics here will be pretty familiar if you’ve seen a similar-looking Mini PC before. This form factor is something Geekom have previously used in both their A and GT series PCs, with this one falling into the former AMD-powered category. In terms of both IO and design, this is identical to both the A7 and A8 before it, and as a whole that’s not a bad thing. On the front we get two USB 3.2 Type A ports next to the headphone jack and power button. On the left side the ever-appreciated full-sized SD port, and on the back we get the full cast of a DC barrel connector, two HDMI 2.0 ports, two USB Type As, one 2.0, and the other 3.2, a 2.5G Ethernet port, and two USB Cs. Of note here is that only one of the USB C ports is USB 4, while the other is USB 3.2 with DisplayPort capabilities. That last USB C port is actually the sole discrepancy between the A and GT series, with the Intel-powered GT systems having two USB 4s. For most people the A6’s configuration will be plenty, but it’s noteworthy all the same. Having moved between my desktop and this form factor of Mini PC a lot lately, the only port I find myself missing is a full DisplayPort. To be fair to the system, you can still get by with a USB C to DP cable, or an adaptor, but it’s one extra thing you need to get.
As always with this form factor, I will take a moment to speak out about how frustrating I find it to open. What we have here is a remarkably compact and aesthetically-pleasing package, but one that again features tightly-packed wireless antennae that are very easy to unplug and very annoying to get plugged back in. Though less aesthetic, I really feel Geekom were onto something with their boxier designs, with the XT series being the gold standard. The hexagonal vents looked stylish there, and you instantly had access to everything you’d want to replace. I would love to see more of that, or some innovation to the form factor being used here to just make it a little easier. Both the RAM and SSD are replaceable here, but from my experience opening these systems up, I know I wouldn’t bother.
On the inside we see a CPU that’s a few generations old in the 6800H. For those who have been watching the PC handheld space, the name might ring a bell, with the 6800U being featured in a number of notable handhelds like the AYANEO 2 and GPD Win 4. The H flavour offers very similar performance profile, though is capable of a higher TDP and comes through with better multi-core performance. With these handhelds being fairly popular, you have a wealth of content out there online for emulation and PC game benchmarking. If it ran well on the 6800U, it’ll run as well or better here. And though it’s a few years old, it’s still got teeth.
Solid Performance
To get the obvious out of the way, the 6800H is more than capable of emulating everything up to the GameCube and Wii era. I feel like on any relatively modern chip that is a safe assumption, but it’s worth mentioning all the same. When it comes to emulating Nintendo games, the real kickers are Wii U and Switch, as well as a few of the more challenging 3DS titles like Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate. The Radeon 680M iGPU isn’t quite on par with the 780M we’ve seen in more recent AMD CPUs, but it’s capable of more than you might think.
Looking at Breath of the Wild on Cemu to start out as the defacto hard to run Wii U game, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. It runs, and at the default 720p I dare say it runs well. At least once shaders are compiled. Setting the FPS++ mod to target 60fps we generally see the framerate hovering around the 40 mark, with shader compilation tanking it as low as 15 at its worst when I booted the game for the first time. Past that initial boot and round of compilation, I don’t think I’ve seen much of a drop lower than 30. It’s not going to be the most glamorous emulated showing for Breath of the Wild, but it’s certainly in a playable state. And with Breath of the Wild performing well, it should go without saying that other Wii U titles are a cinch too. Captain Toad, Wind Waker HD, and Mario Kart 8 all played near flawlessly, with only minor stutters again during shader compilation. The system is ideal for playing something like Wind Waker HD’s randomiser, since subsequent replays won’t have those same small stutters. Again though, I could certainly play through the game factoring them in.
With 3DS up next, Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate performs pretty well at x3 internal resolution using Vulkan as your backend of choice. The game still doesn’t look fantastic on a large screen thanks to a filter it uses, but if you haven’t tried it before, this would be a great way to play it all the same. Performance is similarly good in the 3DS Pokemon games and Ocarina of Time 3D, where again I could very much play through a randomiser or two without issue.
The real beast today is Yuzu, or whatever fork of it people currently reach for. As a little disclosure here, I’m still running the final Early Access build with it giving me good performance on other systems. Your mileage might vary with continuation forks or Ryujinx. Really though, I was surprised at what the A6 was capable of. A game like Tears of the Kingdom is beyond its capability sure, but Animal Crossing New Horizons, the Atelier games? They run pretty well, with only minor stutters seen in each. It’s not going to be a system that can play it all, but with some playing around you may find yourself surprised by what it is capable of. Especially for its age.
Closing out the whistle stop tour of the A6’s performance I wanted to give PC gaming a shot. For this I downloaded a few recent titles in Astral Throne, Warriors Abyss, and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. Astral Throne, as a fairly low-poly indie title, runs great out of the box. Given the emulation performance again, it’s probably not a surprise, but as a game I’ve been putting some time into recently, I wanted to try it all the same. The more challenging titles are undoubtedly the latter two, with Warriors Abyss having just come out last week as an action-packed and somewhat entity-heavy title, and Rebirth naturally being something of a graphical onslaught to push the iGPU.
For Warriors Abyss I targeted 60fps at 1080p and I will say it struggled to hit that, even on the less dense early maps on a low preset. Playing as the flashy Nobunaga, the framerate would generally hold in the mid-40s, with particularly busy parts of the game taking it closer to 30. Having said that though, it’s again certainly playable. If fluctuating framerate is something you’re not fond of, the game does do a good job of holding 30fps when capped.
Our final trial is Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and, well, it puts in a decent effort. Defaulting to a medium graphics quality and a lot of settings on high at 1080p, you’re looking at a framerate in the 20s. That isn’t great, but it’s a lot better than I was expecting. Making the more rational choice to set things to low doesn’t actually seem to do all that much, with the game still struggling to hit 30fps even just standing around at 1080p. Quite unbelievably, that skyrockets to a consistent 60fps at 720p, at least while roaming around the world. You do see some stutters into the mid-50s when running, and some drops into the 30s occasionally when actually fighting, but it is shockingly playable. I feel like I say this a lot, but I continue to be impressed by just what these systems can run, especially considering the one I have here is neither the latest nor greatest. If I were desperate to experience the game and had no other way to go about it, I could stomach this. You surely lose something in the lack of visual detail, but the core experience is still all here. I will note that this is just from my time playing the first 30 or so minutes of the game, so it may get worse in the more open areas later. I haven’t yet found the 50+ hours I need to play the second part of the trilogy, so lack a more complete save to skim through.
An Affordable GEEKOM Mini PC?
Currently retailing for $449 on their US-serving site, and £499 in the UK, I think the A6 offers some pretty good value when compared to Geekom’s other offerings. Though not the latest and greatest, it’s a well-rounded package that’s capable of a heck of a lot when it comes to both emulation and gaming. Though it’s a solid deal for a Geekom system, is it a solid deal in the larger Mini PC market? That’s where I’m just not quite sure. A quick search reveals similar systems from Minisforum, including one that offers that same 6800H for just £320. At that price you do drop down to 16GB of RAM compared to the 32GB here, and with less IO to boot, so there are arguments to be made for both systems.
All things considered the A6 is a good PC though, and I don’t feel you’ll be left wanting for much if you do happen to pick one up down the line. Even if some companies do have similar systems cheaper, I am happy to see Geekom looking at the lower end as well as the higher priced machines I’ve review in the past.
As always Geekom have sent over a couple of codes to cut the price if you are interested in picking one of these up. As usual I’ll mention we don’t get a kickback from these being used, so do so at your own pleasure:
Verdict
What We Liked …
- Great looking and familiar case
- Solid IO offerings
- Surprising emulation and gaming performance for a few generation old CPU
- 32GB of RAM as standard
What We Didn’t Like …
- Case design remains a pain to open up
- Lack of DisplayPort is something I’ve started to notice more
- 6800H can be found cheaper elsewhere if it’s just raw power to money ratio you’re interested in
8 out of 10
Overall
As a more affordable entry to Geekom’s Mini PC lineup, the A6 is a system that can do more than I first thought. Capable of high-end emulation and even some modern PC gaming, the 6800H shows it still has some fight left in it. This isn’t necessarily the best value PC you’ll find available, but it’s one that does do a good bit to justify its cost.
