MINISFORUM has been cranking out a number of small form-factor desktop computers over the past few years including models with AMD Ryzen 4000U and Intel Comet Lake or Coffee Lake chips.

The new MINISFORUM GK50 is a little different. It’s a small, passively cooled computer powered by a 6-watt Intel Pentium Silver N5030 Gemini Lake Refresh processor. While it’s less powerful than some of the company’s other models, it should also be quieter – with no fan or other moving parts, it should run silently.

MINISFORUM is selling the GK50 for $299 and up.

The starting price gets you a model with 8GB of LPDDR4 RAM and a 128GB SATA SSD, but you can also pay $20 more to get an 8GB/256GB configuration.

Intel’s Pentium Silver N5030 processor is a 4-core, 4-thread chip with a 1.1 GHz base frequency and support for burst speeds up to 3.1 GHz. It features Intel UHD Graphics 605 with support for burst speeds up to 750 MHz. And theoretically the system should be able to drive up to two 4K displays, although I’ve found 4K performance for these Gemini Lake Refresh chips tends to vary from PC to PC and depends greatly on the applications you’re running and/or the bit-rate and other characteristics of 4K video you may want to play.

The system measures 4.9″ x 4.4″ x 1.2″ and features a decent range of ports including:

  • 1 x HDMI 2.0 (4K@60Hz)
  • DisplayPort (4K@60Hz)
  • 4 x USB 3.0 Type-A
  • 2 x Gigabit Ethernet
  • 1 x 3.5mm headphone jack
  • 1 x 3.5mm mic input
  • 1 x microSD card reader

There’s also a wireless card with support for WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5.0 and the system has support for dual storage devices thanks to an M.2 2280 slot and a 2.5 inch drive bay.

It comes with a VESA mount that allows you to attach the computer to the back of a TV or display or mount it on a wall.

via FanlessTech

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4 replies on “MINISFORUM GK50 is a fanless mini PC with Intel Gemini Lake Refresh for $299 and up”

    1. Probably a design decision based on the fact that it is fanless. The X and Y dimensions determine how effectively it can expel heat. If the top face of the PC was smaller, there would be less surface area for a heatsink, and less venting for heat to rise upwards.

  3. Awful design. Somehow they failed to put any USB ports on the back of it, despite being slightly wider than most standard NUC models.

    I guess the concept of this Mini PC is just to have a mess of cables all over my desk?

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