Should you buy a Windows Mini PC in 2025? My decision after a week of test

Key takeaways of zdnet

• Geekom A9 Max AI is available for $ 999 on Amazon.
• This small PC has a lot of power and can even work well with the incapacity of windows.
• However, its fans can be quite loud.

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When I review the small form factor PC, I take into account my expectations. Given that I use a demonic System76 Thelio desktop for most of my work, this is usually a challenge for such a small, shiny box. In fact, I never met a small PC, which can improve my thehelio.

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Geekom A9 Maximum AI Mini certainly gave it a run for his money. And during being interrupted by an inferior OS. Pay attention to all companies that review me to send PC: Please pre -print me with Linux. Not only do I find it very easy to review the computer with Linux, but it also shows consumers that you provide an open-source option.

With that request, IAI talks about A9 Max AI.

My experience

Naturally, because this machine sported the Windows operating system, before I could use it, it took a long time. My Microsoft accounts, Blah, Blah were updated while logging in with Blah. You know the drill.

As you probably saw, PC’s name includes AI, and I am sure you can guess what it means. This is correct, this little friend was designed for “unmatched AI display”. What does that even mean?

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Consider this: Most people who use AI are not using it locally; They will use one of the chatgpt or several cloud-based services.

According to the description, the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor “distributes an industry-municipality 80 tops of total AI acceleration, with an next-round XDNA 2 AI engine, pumps to 50 tops of dedicated NPU performance, capable of producing seamless coopillot+ experiences, local large models, and advanced material production.”

Yes of course. And why it will not happen, isn’t it?

The thing that jumped on me is the “local big model perineogen”, so I did what you can expect: I installed Olama and downloaded one of the big LLM how well it would perform. The model in the question was 9GB Dipsec-R1: 8B, and I pulled it for both A9 Max AI and My System 76 Thehe, which pop! _OS was running.

After pulling the model, I asked each question (both are being used from the command line:

What is Linux?

This is a fairly straightforward and simple question. So, how did they rent? There is a breakdown here.

Even though both machines have used the same LLM, Deepsek-R1: 8B running on Linux produced an answer which was quite long and more depth. At its top, the answer produced by A9 Max AI was suffering from terrible grammar and more mistakes were generated than Thelio’s.

As far as time is concerned, they looked like this:

• TheLio: 2: 42.38
• A9 Max AI: 01: 07.69

Unfortunately, the Times does not really tell an accurate story, given how high the answer of Thaloi was.

Also: How much RAM really does your Linux PC really need in 2025? If I did mathematics, you don’t have to do

From an overall experience, my system76 theloo was too much for the work of running AI. To be fair, A9 Max AI was interrupted by Windows 11, which would make a big difference, given that Windows 11 consumes far more system resources than Linux.

I then really tried to push the A9 Max AI and use the GPT -SS: 120B model, which is much larger and more capable than the originally used Deepseek model. I thought it would work beyond A9 Max AI what one would use for it.

Result? Well, it was very slow, but should be expected by such a large model on a small machine. The good news is that the results were quite accurate. I could hear high speed fans to keep the CPU cool, and the final result took about 5 minutes to complete.

But given that this machine does not have a powerful NVidia GPU, it was still very impressive that it was able to run the model.

Let’s be beyond the AI ​​issue and look at it from a more traditional user experience.

Apply

I installed several applications on A9 Max AI and found that they were all installed very quickly and went quite well. I established Libreoffice, GIMP, MSty, and Virtingbox to see how well A9 Max stood how well I was.

Finally, everything quickly installed and went smoothly. With the prepared application, I decided to create a virtual example of Ubuntu using Virtu Acux, to see how well it performs. I gave VM 10 GB RAM and 4 CPU core (32 GB RAM and 24 CPU core).

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After the installation ended (took about 2 minutes), I began to see VM to see how good it would be. During the establishment of Ubuntu guest, fans on A9 Max AI were the most loud, so under the load, it is not a cool machine. I was able to escape from inside another room of the fans. If calm is a requirement (and you really push your machine), it may not be a computer for you. If there is sheer power and a small size that you are searching, then this mini PC is a great option.

After VM was made, I removed it. It should be no surprise (especially given the resources allotted for the machine) that Ubantu guest went very well. Even with VM Up and Running, the installed application performed quite well.

I should add it: Ubuntu Guest OS drove the circles around Windows 11, even though it had one third of Rama and a sixth of the CPU core. That alone validated my repression that Windows was a hindrance.

ZDNET purchase advice

In the first blush, a mini PC selling for $ 999 may look like a bad deal, but when you consider the performance received with A9 Max AI, the cost decreases with a factor. This small machine handled everything that I could throw at him, and this is the only reason that it takes a nap because Windows was the reason for 11. If I had taken time to install Linux on this machine, I could imagine that it would perform well with madness. Unfortunately, Windows is a resource hog and does not achieve the efficiency of Linux.

It is being said, Geekom A9 Maximum AI Mini PC Seriously impressed me. If I was on hunting for a powerful PC that would be taken next to any place, it could be my first choice.

Also: I finally found a Windows Mini PC that is enough to replace my desktop (and it is on sale)

Geekom A9 Max AI Mini PC Tech Spac

• Processor: AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 (Configical TDP 54W)
• Graphics: AMD Radeon 890m (RDNA 3.5, 16 Comput Unit)
• AI performance: up to 80 tops of total AI performance with a dedicated AI engine
• Memory: Dual channel DDR5-5600MHz RAM up to 128GB
• Storage: 1 x m.2 2280 pcie 4.0 nvme ssd slot, 1 x m.2 2230 pci
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 2 x 2.5 GBE RJ45 port several USB ports, including DP-ALT-Mode and USB 4.0 Type-C port with power delivery.
• 2 x HDMI 2.1 port
• Full size SD card reader
• Operating System: Windows 11 24 H 2
• Dimensions: 135 × 132 × 46.9 mm