We’ve been testing a new Mini PC for a few weeks now. NiPoGi GK3 Plus Who gave us the brand? It is a basic device but in its most complete configuration and with excellent performance. If you are looking for a computer for office or multimedia use, read on because this analysis will interest you.

technical page

in the box

As with other models of the brand box content is completeAlthough the box itself attracts more attention this time, the future a little less well maintainedwith ecru carton and general packaging for this model or any other model. Considering the price range of the product, we cannot expect more.

We find inside Mini PC itselfplus little more than an HDMI to HDMI cable, a power cord with a transformer, a VESA mount to hang the device on the back of our monitor or Smart TV, and the necessary screws and meager instructions to use it.

We have everything you need Get it working right out of the box.

Design

As already in CK10 We’re not looking at the nicest mini PC possibleAlthough it is suitable for this. Moreover, if we place it behind our screen, we will not even remember that it is there, so its appearance will be completely unnecessary.

Plastics used in the case They are not of very high qualityAlthough they are more than adequate, they feel a little flimsy. As we said, it is not very important that it is not exposed to impacts or abuse, especially since it is a desktop computer.

The equipment comes well thought out, with a lid that opens when you simply remove a screw and press a plastic slider, giving you access to its interior. On the other hand, we find grilles and holes for ventilation both on the top, on both sides and on the bottom of the computer.

In terms of connectors, the GK3 Plus is well supplied, but it has some shortcomings, some more serious than others and has a slightly strange distribution. There is only a blue LED illuminated line on the front, indicating that the device is on.

There is a headphone jack port on the back, a pair of HDMI portsIf we want to connect to two screens, one USB 2.0 port and a power outlet in addition to the aforementioned slider to open the top cover.

In addition to this on the left power buttonto carry three USB ports more, two are USB 3.0 and the other is USB 2.0. We say the distribution is a bit odd because those ports and the power button would be better on the front than on one of the sides.

Finally, on the right side vga connector which we can use on older monitors, however, only 1080p resolution.

We also say that we noticed the shortcomings because in such a device the memory card slot would be useful, but first of all, because a USB-C port has been greatly missedThis allows both the device to be powered and connected to a display.

Hardware and features

As we mentioned before, access to the interior of the equipment is quite easy. We just need to unscrew a Phillips screw and slide a small lever. This removes the top cover and exposes the computer hardware.

As standard we find a RAM 16 GB on a single DDR4 SO-DIMM module and an M.2 NVMe type SSD 512GB capacity. Underneath them is a large fan and the processor, which in this case is a processor. N97 It belongs to the Alder Lake family from Intel, has 4 cores and 4 threads, and can reach speeds of 3.6 GHz.

Although the output configuration is quite interesting for a team with this expectation, we can say this: failure in terms of expansion possibilities (We’ve already seen others from the brand that offer much more).

On the one hand, There is only one RAM slot. If this weren’t real, this might not be a problem. The 16 GB it installs is the maximum the processor supportsSo we don’t have a chance to expand on this side.

The place where we will not have any problems is the warehouse. For two reasons. On the one hand, if 512 GB seems insufficient, we can replace the SSD it has installed. On the other hand, we also have an extra slot. Add a second SSD even though it is SATA type.

In terms of video, this model Offers 4K at 60 Hz to be able to even do this without any problems 3 screens at the same timeThis seems very optimistic to us, given the graphics power of the equipment and the display connection possibilities (there are only 2 HDMI ports and a VGA that only supports 1080p, so there can be three displays, but not three at 4K at 60 Hz).

Put in to use

Bringing NiPoGi GK3 to our service simple enough for everyone to reach. As we mentioned above, the box has everything we need to do this. To have our complete equipment, we will only need a keyboard, a mouse and a monitor or Smart TV.

Once all the two basic cables are connected (power supply and display output), all we have to do is turn it on and pair it with a wireless keyboard and mouse or connect one of the working ones via a USB cable. To use them wirelessly we can use both Bluetooth 5.2 and the USB radio frequency connector supplied with the peripherals.

We also have both the obligatory RJ45 Ethernet to connect to the network and WiFi 6 if we prefer to do it wirelessly.

The device boots up relatively quickly.This takes a little more time, especially the first time. Also, since the computer comes with Windows 11 pre-installed, we will have to follow all the steps mentioned to create or use our Microsoft account and update it if necessary. In total, the entire process (including the update) won’t even take us an hour.

Usage and performance

This is NiPoGi GK3 Plus This is an input device This offers tuned performance comparable to the eighth-generation Intel i5 (we rank fourteenth). It looks like a cliff, but it’s actually It performs very well as long as we are clear about what we want from it. Not for nothing, its processor is quite new, it dates from 2023 and is far beyond what we have seen in terms of performance in models with Celeron chips.

As with other mini PC tests we’ve carried out, we focused on its use in office automation to see how this GK3 Plus responds. LibreOfficein video, with both Windows player and VLC, and in photo retouching, with Lightroom and Photoshop. We also attempted to play games with Fortnite.

In the section office / work We find that this GK3 Plus responds with complete fluidity. The stronger teams have little to envy and rarely show any slowdown.

Neither in video nor in music playback. Actually, VLC opens videos very fastsomething that other, even more powerful equipment does not have. These are viewed smoothly and we have no problems fast forwarding or rewinding. There are no interruptions or pauses in playback.

On the photo editing side, we have no doubt that more powerful hardware will perform much better, but the result was not too bad for us. Computer can handle Photoshop well and it only starts to show problems when we have very heavy documents after adding too many layers. Of course, we didn’t even bother trying it in video editing: we already imagine the result.

Of course, we didn’t experience any problems surfing the web with multiple tabs open in Chrome, Firefox, or Edge. We had close to 30 simultaneous hops and did not notice any slowdown. The same goes for streaming video. YouTube does not cause any problems as expected and works smoothly.

As for the game, as we said, We tried it with fortnitebut this time the performance was not acceptable. It doesn’t even reduce the graphics requirements to the minimum. We must be clear: This team not for playing Beyond casual games like those offered by Microsoft itself and its ilk. Of course, we can try old or not very demanding games, but we will have to test graphics configurations, since most of them do not perform the same. If that’s the use we want to give it, it’s featureless in every sense.

Also add that it is a very efficient team. with very low consumption and also, fan is very quiet. Therefore, placing it in the living room is an excellent choice if we want to watch movies or series or browse more conveniently than with the browser integrated into the Smart TV.

Price and results

Finally, we need to mention the price aspect. We are talking about a device whose official price is 299.99 euros, but in reality we can find it for 249.99 euros. We currently have it for 189.91 euros in the Black Friday campaign, but code KYXXOSZMWe can reduce this by another 5% by remaining at the same level. 180.49 euros.

In short, if we are looking for a computer for home use, most importantly, we are looking for a Mini PC that is worth it. office automation, navigation, email management or video and audio consumption. If that’s what we’re looking for, the current price is irresistible, especially if we already have a monitor, keyboard and mouse, and what we’re looking for is something to replace other equipment.

In its favor we have low consumption, very low noise and the possibility of expanding the storage space. A USB-C port is missing and above all the ability to expand RAM.

This product was provided by the brand for testing purposes. You can find more information about CK10 on the NiPoGi website

Images: NiPoGi | Manu Garcia, NiPoGi

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