Geekom A6 Mini-PC Review – A Compact All-Rounder with Power at a Fair Price

Packaging contents

Geekom supplies the A6 Mini PC with a power cable, a VESA adapter, a manual and an HDMI cable.

Technical data

The mini PC was provided to us by Geekom and has the following technical data:

• Processor : AMD Ryzen 7 6800H, 8 cores 16 threads, 4.7GHz max. (45 W TDP)
• RAM : 32GB 4800MHz DDR5 (2 x WPBS48D508SWB-16G)
• NVMe SSD : KINGSTON OM8PGP41024N-A0 1024GB
• Power supply : 19V 6.32A (hyleton-120W-1906320)
• Network: Realtek RTL8125 Gaming 2.5GbE
• Wi-Fi adapter: MediaTek MT7922 Wi-Fi 6E
• USB: 1 x USB 4 Gen 3 Type-C , 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C , 3 x USB 3.2 Gen 2, 1 x USB 2.0
• GPU: AMD Radeon 680M
• Monitor ports : 2 x HDMI 2.0, 2 × USB Type-C
• Audio connections : Headphone jack
• Other: SD card reader
• Expansion : 1 x M.2 2280 compatible with NVMe PCIe 4.0 x4 or SATA (occupied), 1 x M.2 2242 SATA, 1 x M.2 2230 for WIFI (occupied)

First impression

The Geekom A6 is advertised as a versatile mini PC – ideal for office, multimedia and even gaming.

The technical data of the AMD Ryzen 7 6800H show that Geekom has installed a very powerful CPU in terms of processor and graphics performance.

With 32GB of DDR5 memory, 1TB SSD, 2.5GbE and Wi-Fi 6E adapter, this looks like a pretty well-rounded package. All of this is packed into a sturdy, pretty chassis and comes with Windows 11 Pro.

Case and Build Quality

The case of the Geekom A6 looks very stylish, the look is reminiscent of aluminum, but the material used seems to be plastic.

The design is clean and tidy, which I generally like a lot. The casing of the Geekom A6 is also very slim and takes up little space on the desk.

The most important connections for daily use are located on the front of the case.

The side air inlets are realized by a stylish grid pattern on the side. On the back, next to the air outlet, there are further connections on a high-quality plastic panel.

The outer base plate is made of plastic and has four rubber feet. Underneath these are screws that allow access to the inside of the Geekom A6. There you will find another metal plate that is used for shielding, stabilizing the case and cooling the components such as the SSD. You can see that Geekom is trying to build a high-quality case.

Pre-installed software

The Geekom A6 comes with Windows 11 Pro (64-bit), which also makes features such as remote desktop connection available.

Drivers are available directly from the Geekom website, including BIOS updates, support documents and manuals.

Cooling system and noise

At full load, the AMD Ryzen 7 6800H consumes up to 80 watts and reaches temperatures of up to 95 degrees. The processor still clocks at up to 3.7 GHz, which is significantly higher than the guaranteed clock speed of 3.2 GHz.

The volume is silent in desktop mode, and even short periods of high CPU usage are absorbed in silent mode. With a permanently high usage, the Geekom A6 is gently audible even from a greater distance, but this can be annoying for some people.

The M.2 SSDs are passively cooled via the internal metal base plate.

Maintenance

To clean the Geekom A6, you should regularly vacuum the side fan grilles. It is certainly possible to clean the Geekom A6 completely, but you should proceed carefully so as not to damage the WLAN cables in the housing.

All components such as SSD, RAM and WLAN adapter are hidden under the bottom cover and the inner metal base and can be easily replaced after removing a total of eight screws.

Office performance

The AMD Ryzen 7 6800H, combined with 32 GB DDR5, has more than enough power for all native or browser-based office applications. We didn't notice any delays in everyday use - everything was super responsive. The Geekom A6 made a very good impression.

Thanks to HDMI and USB-C, the Geekom A6 supports a monitor setup of four 4K monitors, which leaves nothing to be desired when it comes to multitasking. We tested a setup with two 4K monitors - operation remained smooth and fast.

The NVMe SSD made a good impression in terms of short-term performance, as is typical for QLC, but becomes a bit slower during long write operations.

Geekbench

SSD benchmark

Video streaming, YouTube, Netflix and Co.

The AMD GPU can easily decode all common formats such as H.264, H.265, VP9 and AV1 with hardware support. This means that all streaming services can be used without any problems.

One of the devices tested was YouTube - 4K with AV1 worked perfectly, but 8K only ran with severe stuttering. In general, however, a playable 4K video resolution should be sufficient for most needs.

Creative performance

Programs such as Photoshop, Lightroom, Blender or video editing programs can be used without any problems.

When exporting photos, rendering images or transcoding videos, you have to expect longer waiting times and slight stuttering if the hardware support of the AMD GPU is not used.

Gaming performance

Gaming is definitely possible on the Geekom A6, but less graphically demanding games are best suited for this. Even games with a performance mode, such as Fortnite, run quite smoothly. To find out whether the game you want will run, it is advisable to enter the integrated graphics chip in combination with the game title on YouTube. You can often then find performance test videos for the corresponding hardware.

The graphics chip significantly exceeds the performance of comparable Intel systems.

Since gaming puts a strain on both the integrated GPU and the CPU, maximum performance is limited by the heat generated by the CPU and GPU. Under maximum load, the processor and the integrated graphics card throttle each other.

To compare the graphics performance, here are the values from the GFXBench benchmark.

Networking capabilities

The Geekom A6 from our test was equipped with a Realtek 2.5 GbE Ethernet adapter and a MediaTek MT7922 Wi-Fi 6E module.

The performance of the Wi-Fi adapter was tested with a Wi-Fi 6 access point. At a distance of 5 meters, the mini PC achieved a maximum data transfer rate of 800 Mbit/s in the speed test.

When using a network share, a constant transfer rate of an average of 85 MB/s was achieved under optimal conditions.

The Realtek 2.5 GbE Ethernet adapter consistently achieves maximum speed.

Expandability and connection options

The RAM can be replaced or expanded up to 64 GB. The M.2 NVMe SSD can be replaced and an M.2 2242 SATA SSD can also be installed.

The Wi-Fi adapter can also be replaced with another model.

For external expansion, the Geekom A6 offers a USB 4 and several USB 3 ports, including USB-C. In addition to a USB 2 port, it also offers an SD card reader.

Power consumption

We tested the energy consumption of the Geekom A6 on both Windows and Linux with desktop interface.

In terms of power consumption, the Geekom A6 with AMD processor leaves a very good impression. When idling and under light load, it is very low or - depending on the load scenario - sometimes the lowest that we measured in our test.

The following shows the power consumption for the individual utilization scenarios:

Energy efficiency

To measure the energy efficiency of the CPU, we rendered the classroom scene in Blender.

The energy efficiency of the Geekom A6 lies between the Geekom AE7 and the NiPoGi AM16 and thus corresponds exactly to the order of the processor generations, with the Geekom AE7 having the newest and the NiPoGi AM16 having the oldest processor.

Selection of components

The Kingston SSD has a high reading performance, but the writing speed drops noticeably during long data transfers - typical for QLC storage. An example of this would be a Windows update, especially when the SSD is full.

The RAM is from Wodposit. Even though the brand is relatively unknown, the performance of the modules is very good, as far as can be judged using application benchmarks.

The MediaTek Wi-Fi adapter supports all major standards. It is already compatible with Wi-Fi 6E, which uses the 6 GHz band in addition to other bands and thus achieves even higher data rates than Wi-Fi 6.

The 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet adapter is from Realtek.

Evaluation of the individual areas

Pros and cons

This category highlights areas that stand out in the mini PC for its price, both positively and negatively, or that deviate from expectations of a mini PC. Only those features that are relevant in the context of the intended use are rated as negative. For example, poor gaming performance in a mini PC/SOC that is not designed for gaming is not considered a negative point of criticism.

Pros

• Price-performance ratio: Almost on the level of the Geekom AE7 for about 250 euros less
• Quiet operation : Inaudible at low and medium loads.
• Expandability storage : Allows the exchange of the NVMe SSD/SATA SSD, as well as the installation of an M.2 2242 SATA SSD
• Versatile : It is suitable for content creation, office applications, streaming and multimedia
• Design and housing: Small, unobtrusive, well made and high quality
• Windows: Ships with Windows 11 Pro
• Energy consumption: Energy consumption is very low, apart from ARM processors
• NVMe SSD: 1 TB is a lot for the price
• RAM: 32 GB is more than enough for the advertised purposes
• Memory: Use of DDR5 and expandability to 64 GB
• Network: 2.5 GbE Ethernet adapters and Wi-Fi 6E fulfill almost all wishes in this area.
• Cooling: M.2 hard drives were taken into account in the cooling concept
• Drivers and BIOS updates: Everything important can be found directly on the Geekom website

Cons

• NVMe SSD: There are also inexpensive SSDs with TLC modules

Conclusion

The Mini-PC in Use

The Geekom A6 is a very good all-rounder for all advertised tasks such as office and multimedia applications. Video streaming also works very well.

Content creation works smoothly. Depending on the hardware acceleration supported by the application, the experience is either super fast or sometimes a bit slower.

Games with low graphics requirements usually run smoothly and at 60 FPS, but must be tested individually for each game.

Connectivity is high thanks to fast Wi-Fi 6 and 2.5 GbE Ethernet connections.

The mini PC is expandable – through its SD card reader and a variety of fast USB ports or internally through the option to replace the NVMe/SATA SSD, install a second SATA SSD or expand the RAM to up to 64 GB.

Also worth mentioning is Geekom's extensive support website, with drivers, BIOS updates and manuals.

Price and purchase recommendation

The Geekom A6 is particularly attractive at the advertised price of 549 euros. Thanks to the generous features in almost every hardware area - processor, RAM, hard drive, connectivity - and a compact and high-quality housing, the Geekom A6 is a very good offer.

Therefore, a purchase recommendation for all those who are looking for a powerful mini PC for office, content creation or multimedia that does not immediately reach its performance limits.

Buy Geekom A6

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Information about the offer

The offer is limited and the price is subject to change at any time.

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