All language subtitles for Are Mini PCs better than full size PCs_ Try the Geekom IT12 Core i7-1280p for size(720P_HD)

Mini PCs are a great way of fitting a

fully powered, quiet computer into any

space where you don't want a big ugly PC

case. So, let's see what the GeekCom

IT12 mini PC can do.

Hi, and welcome to Bites and Bits. MiniP

PCs are one of my favorite form factors

for desktop computers, and you can get a

very powerful, fully featured computer

in an incredibly smalls size box. Now,

these fit easily onto any desk or can be

mounted behind a monitor to completely

clear the processor box clutter. So, for

today's video, um, a company called

GeekCom have very kindly sent me one of

their IT12 series mini PCs. Now, now

this unit costs around about £500 or

$500 and is a 12th generation Core i7

powered device which boasts a top level

specification and great expandability

for one of these small machines. So,

let's see what you get and how it

performs.

So, if we take a look at what's inside

the box. So, so once you get this nice

quality lid off, uh you're met with the

mini PC itself. So, this measures in at

just over 11 cm square and 5 cm deep or

4 1/2 in square by 2 in. Now, it sides

are packed with IO ports, and again,

we'll take a look at those in a second.

And the unit then itself weighs in at

about 650 g or or 23 oz.

So underneath that then um in this

pullout section here, you'll find a

full-sized HDMI lead.

Underneath that then we've got obviously

a a a thank you card and a manual uh

followed by a surprisingly small 120 W

power brick delivering 19 volts at 6.32

amps. Now this also comes with a mains

lead um which will probably be

customized for your region. We have some

mounting screws and then finally a visa

mounting plate so that you can attach

this PC to the back of your monitor. So,

you've got pretty much everything you

need to get set up and running.

So, if we move on to looking at the

specs for this PC, uh we've got a 12th

generation Intel Core i7 1280p, which

gives us 14 cores and 20 threads running

at up to 4.8 GHz. So this is teamed with

32 GB of DDR4 RAM installed as two 16 GB

modules which gives us proper dual

channel memory setup. Now of course you

can then expand this up to 64 GB if you

need more memory. Now this Intel chip

includes the Intel Iris XE graphics

chipset which is great for everyday

tasks. U but obviously you'll not be

playing the latest PC games at high

quality. Now, most of these mini PCs um

will have an option to go for a Ryzen

processor. Um but to be honest, although

that will give you gaming uh better

gaming performance, the difference is

really going to be from moving from low

quality on this Intel processor up to

possibly being able to get medium

quality on the Ryzen alternative. On the

other hand though, if you're going to be

doing any sort of video editing work, um

this Intel chip will easily beat the

Ryzen alternatives as it does include

some extra media encoding hardware.

Now, now storage on this PC is actually

very well catered for with three

internal drive slots. So, so the main

installed drive on my unit is a 1 terbte

NVME drive which is in this 4 channel

PCIe 4.0 M but2 2280 slot. Um now now

basically then this gives you up to 2

terb of hard drive storage with up to 8

GB per second data transfer speeds. Now,

now again, um this will this speed will

of course depend on the actual drive

that you use.

Now, there is a second M.2 slot and this

is a 2242 slot. Um so, it uses a

slightly smaller card. Um but this only

has the SATA interface um for up to 1

TBTE of SSD storage. Uh and the final

then we have a third high hard drive

slot which is a standard SATA connector

mounted in the base of the unit and

inside that then you can slot in a

further 2 terb of storage using a 2 1/2

in um SSD drive. Now now the hard drive

um that we you get supplied with comes

pre-installed with Windows 11 Pro, but

of course you can change this to

whatever you like. Now, as I'll show you

in a in a second, um, having these extra

hard drive slots also opens up the

possibility of easily creating a dual or

or a triple boot system very easily.

Now, after that, then we have um some

built-in Bluetooth version 5.2. The

system does have WiFi 6E for some very

fast Wii Wi-Fi transfer speeds. and we

have a a an up to 2.5 Gbit pers Ethernet

port. Now, if we look around the case,

um we have a number of IO ports. Um so,

we've actually got a total of six USB

ports. So, so on the front, you'll find

two USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports, and one of

these also includes then a display port

connection. And again, these are on the

standard USB um size connectors.

Around the back, then you've got a third

USB 3.2 Gen 2 port and then a single USB

2.0 port. Um but we also have then two

USB type-C ports and and and these are

both USB 4 powered ports and they both

include display port capability. So, so

this gives you the ability to connect

some very fast peripherals and and up to

8K resolution displays to this little

powerhouse PC. Now, on the back, we also

then have the power supply connection,

our our Ethernet port, and then two

full-sized HDMI ports

on the on the sides of the unit. Then we

get a full-sized SD card slot and then

on the other a Kensington lock so you

can bolt this PC down to your desk. Now

build quality has always been one of

GeekCom's um strong points and the IT12

continues with this. So the case is

built from a sturdy metal plating and

the official figure here is that it can

support up to 200 kg or or 440 lb. So,

so, so, so do feel free to use this as a

mini step to reach up to tall shelves.

Now, the metal case and the dual copper

heat pipes inside the system. Um, teamed

with their Ice Blast 2.0 cooling system

do keep this unit running very cool. Um,

even with very intensive usage, um, this

only results in a very small amount of

fan noise. So, to be honest, um, in in

most of my testing, the the fan was

actually silent. So, this is quite an

efficient system.

Now, one last thing that GeekCom also

provides as standard on I think pretty

much all of its mini PCs is a three-year

warranty. And, and this again backs up

their build quality. So, so you can be

certain that the products they have,

they actually do have confidence in them

as being sort of longlasting devices and

reliable devices.

So overall right then um this does end

up being a pretty impressive package

even considering the price point of

around about $500.

So this specification um it actually

allows this mini PC to be very versatile

when it comes to expansion. Now as I

mentioned uh for memory you've got the

capacity here for dual channel up to 64

GB

on the graphics side. Then um again

we've got our internal graphics but you

can attach an external graphics card to

this PC over either of those two USB

four connections. So this will

effectively give you an external four

lane PCIe connection. Now now that won't

be enough to run your graphics card at

full power. Um so most your graphics

card will have 16 lanes. Um but it will

boost the performance from this

integrated hardware. So, so the USB 4

connection is not as fast as a dedicated

Oculink connection, but it is much

easier um to set up and to get things up

and running. And it it of course it does

allow you to connect this external

graphics card. Now, now having said

that, you are going to pay over £150 for

a a good quality GPU adapter dock. And

that of course is on top of the cost of

any card that you want to install. and

you will end up with a big graphics card

box hanging out the back of your nice

neat mini PC. So, to be honest, I I'm

not entirely convinced that this is a

great solution to gaming, but of course

then if you do want to upgrade it, the

choice is there for you. Now, now for

me, the the most um interesting

expansion is using those three hard

drive slots, those three internal hard

drive slots. So, so first off, um you

can of course just add some extra

storage. So, at full capacity, um using

all three slots, you can then get up to

5 terabytes of internal disk space,

which is which is pretty good for one of

these sorts of systems. Now, if if you

do need more um disk space than that,

then of course those USB 4 interfaces

will give you 40 Gbit pers NVME disc

speeds. Uh and again that from an

external drive

and and even those USB 3 ports will give

you higher than SSD disc performance. Um

so so this basically gives you a full

desktop machine in a package that fits

inside your pocket and and this is great

if you are perhaps hot desking or or or

you need a full PC that you can take to

different sites. Um it is really

portable.

But the other thing then is that you can

also easily turn your Windows PC into a

multiboot system by simply installing

different operating systems onto each of

the internal drive. Now, now I'm I'm

always looking at ways to build retro

gaming systems and this PC is destined

to become one as well, but but I do love

having a powerful Windows PC in such a

nice neat unit. So, so I've actually

here I've I've used an old laptop drive

to install a complete Linux-based retro

gaming computer um using the standard

SATA bay in the base of this box. So,

so, so to get this to work, um you

actually do need to unlock some of the

BIOS features on the GeekCom PC. So, so

as standard, it comes with the BIOS

locked down. And again, that's just

really for security features, just to

make sure that you don't do something

silly and actually brick your computer.

Um, but but if you do head across to

their support pages, you will find a

link to their BIOS unlocking toolkit.

Now, this is just a simple app that you

download and it only needs to be run

once inside your Windows installation

and that then will enable the advanced

features inside of the BIOS setup code.

Now, now specifically, this is going to

let us turn off the secure boot feature

so that we can boot from multiple hard

drives. So, once I've got that set up, I

can now boot up my PC and all all I need

to do is to press the F7 key during that

boot to bring up my boot device menu.

So, this will then list me all of the

bootable hard drives. So, I can just

choose whichever one I want and boot

into that computer. So, in my setup

here, I'm using something called Battle

Sera, which lets me play pretty much

virtually any retro games console up to

and including the PlayStation 3 and the

Xbox 360.

and and and teamed with the powerful

processor in this Geekcom IT12, I I've

really got access then to a fully

powered retro gaming machine that I can

take round to friends houses or or or

and and simply plug into their TV and

turn that into a really powerful

console. Um, of course, then once I

finished using the PC as a gaming

system, um, uh, it will then

automatically reboot back into my

Windows PC, and I've got then my work PC

just ready to go, um, from there. Now, I

I will be covering this full setup um,

in an upcoming video. So, so please do

watch out for that and and make sure you

subscribe to the channel so that you

don't miss those updates.

So overall then um as far as a mini PC

is concerned, I think this IT12 system

um gives you some great possibilities

for customizing it to exactly your

needs.

So this PC is obviously very capable of

becoming your everyday PC, but we do

need to look a little bit at its overall

performance.

Now, now, now for comparison, I've run

the system through Geekbench and it

returns the values that you would expect

from a Core i7 1280p processor. So, mine

returned a single score uh a single core

score of 2341

and a multi-core score of 9,022.

Now, now this particular processor, it

it was the flagship laptop device from

Intel in 2022. So obviously um there are

faster processors around now, but it

does still deliver great performance and

it is more than enough for almost any

task you want to throw at it in an

office environment. And that does, as I

said, include video editing with its own

custom hardware for that. And and

running multiple applications on the one

PC, it it will more than cope with all

of that with ease.

As I said, really the only weak point I

can find on this is in its gaming and

graphics performance. Um, so its

Geekbench score here was just under

18,000 at 17993. Um, and that is still

then fine for all of my retro gaming

needs. Any sort of um Photoshop um, uh,

Adobe um, Premiere Pro work and so on.

All of that is covered absolutely fine.

And it also then gives you the ability

to do some PC gaming as well. As I say,

for me, the retro gaming there, it it

covers everything I want to very easily.

So, so again, if if PC gaming is your

thing, then probably this type of

computer really isn't for you anyway.

Um, pretty much all of these mini PCs

are based off these laptop um style

processors. Um, so you will always be

dealing with that and of course the

integrated graphics unless you try going

down that external graphics card route.

Um, but again I would say if if that's

what you want um really you want to be

looking at a a full gaming PC.

So so really then um who who is this

computer for? Well again the main

selling point of these mini PCs is of

course this physical size. These are

really nice neat computers. So if if you

need a fully powered computer that will

simply disappear from your desk, then

this is ideal. And that visa mounting

option will let you bolt it onto the

back of pretty much any monitor and that

will then clear your desk space. If if

you do need to keep it portable, then

this this small size, it will just hide

away in the corner. And with the sort of

the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity, um

you can keep your desktop then free from

any trailing wires. It is a really good

nice neat solution

for me. Of course, this is a great way

of converting my main family TV into a

full Windows PC. And of course, then

with this option of booting it into one

of these streamlined Linux retro gaming

packages um such as Battle Sera, that is

just a a real gamecher for me. These are

really useful systems.

So, I hope that you found this video

useful. Um, please do click the like

button and subscribe to the channel for

more technology, gaming, coding,

electronics, and making projects. I will

put links down to where you can get hold

of these, um, little mini PCs um, in the

description. And again, at the moment,

um, here October 2025, um, GeekCom is

actually running their 22nd anniversary

um, promotions, so you will get a a

really good deal on it. So, I look

forward to seeing you again in another

video very soon and bye for now.

For more games programming, electronics

projects, and retro gaming, please make

sure you like this video, subscribe to

my YouTube channel, and visit my

website.