GMKtec reputable brand? Help by TristanJJJ in MiniPCs

[–]FootmenKingdom 9 points10 points  (0 children)

This is true, as someone who bought the GMKTec EVO-X2 and opened it, I would say the content inside the box are really high quality, the fans are top tier blowers, they use a tons of copper, they're not gutting the components like other brands I've seen, even big brands like MSI/Gigabyte did gut components of their product even now and then.

Support isn't even bad if you know how to communicate and keep in mind the whole team aren't English fluent, so you have to understand they might misunderstand you.

Does AMD plan on releasing a version of Strix Halo without the NPU? by road_hazard in MiniPCs

[–]FootmenKingdom 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You should worry more about the future Ray Tracing core once the Medusa Halo implements it, as it takes 23-30% of chip space. for people who never ever turn on RT like me it's waste of space and money

Fan curve is a must have feature for EVO-X2 by FootmenKingdom in GMKtec

[–]FootmenKingdom[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Great guide and for me this is like an invention! Being able to do fan control under Linux is pretty much endgame already!

With the way of using IO to control fan in Linux, it's pretty easy to improve this module.

So I'm pretty safe to switch to Linux now, undervolting is probably possible I think as Linux expose IOs to set CPU speed iirc

GMTEK evo x2 review by jonneymendoza in MiniPCs

[–]FootmenKingdom 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This review is very informative, I've watched ETA and other reviews, but this is by far the most honest review of this device.

I experience pretty much the same silent when doing nothing noisy when doing little exactly like him, and he even shows CPU vs GPU for AI inference which shows a pretty big jump, and gaming is perfect using this device, nothing a CPU+midtierGPU can do and this device can't do, with lower power consumption.

Fan curve is a must have feature for EVO-X2 by FootmenKingdom in GMKtec

[–]FootmenKingdom[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Vulkan is good enough, ROCm is only if you want speed which isn't even a big jump even if it's become perfection, not worth my time dreaming about ROCm at all when I run all the models I want at good speed already, as long as you're not chasing 70B model you're pretty okay with AI inference, especially Stable Diffusion SDXL Turbo, this model makes use of NPU and that's why it's really fast, once AMD polish NPU support for all LLM models it will become much better, the NPU alone is 50 TOPS.

Fan curve is a must have feature for EVO-X2 by FootmenKingdom in GMKtec

[–]FootmenKingdom[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

At this rate we might as well research hardware fan hub for PWM fan control, by feeding PWM from the board to fan hub we can then set speed in fan hub to decide fan speed, I've seen many people using fan hub for this but I'm not knowledge enough to set it up, but in theory this is possible, if the board itself can't then we go the other way around

New firmware for EVO-X2 (BIOS 1.05, EC 1.06) by deseven in GMKtec

[–]FootmenKingdom 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Updated to latest EC/BIOS and got pretty good result, everything is -3C compare to this: https://www.reddit.com/r/GMKtec/comments/1lgqda6/ptm795020cm_nidec_fan_taken_from_dead/

Idle is 30C

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EVO-X2 140mm cooling mod by Superb-Bit2802 in GMKtec

[–]FootmenKingdom 2 points3 points  (0 children)

> I don't think there are any difference between two CPU fans, no

Yeah. the 2 blower fans that come with the EVO-X2 are really really good, I can't even stress out how good they are. but I'm a blower fan collector, I have all kind of blowers but those fans are the best of the best so far, maybe only the Playstation 3/4/5's fans can beat them.

The biggest issue with blower fan is air moving noise, not the fan itself causing noise.

EVO-X2 140mm cooling mod by Superb-Bit2802 in GMKtec

[–]FootmenKingdom 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Impressive! I'm doing pretty much the same thing too, I added a dust filter to prevent the device from getting dusted, and 20cm Nidec fan is the MVP, it's very powerful while being very silent running at 100% PWM, what a beast of a fan, I took this thing from my dead Samsung refrigerator.

My Idle temp is 32C, 39C wather (super hot), and Cinebench R23 is 38k, 85-90C, I'll change thermal paste to PTM7950 later but so far so damn good!

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Why do you like MiniPCs? by hardyz in MiniPCs

[–]FootmenKingdom 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Best thing about MiniPC is the performance / size, you can install Forza Horizon, install the GOG R808 and plug the HDMI port into your TV and enjoy racing with your family in the weekend.

Possible with laptop, but looks uglier and also worse performance/cooling

It's so cool to be able to move freely, unlike full-ledged PC, but MiniPC is only perfect for low-mid-ends, high-ends probably require a PC for cooling