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In brief: Buying a mini PC usually means compromising performance and living with a loud cooling system. With the Megamini G1, Geekom and Tecno decided that water cooling was the solution to balance size with horsepower. Still, it uses laptop parts and costs hundreds of dollars more than similarly-configured laptops.
Geekom and Tecno recently launched a Kickstarter campaign for what they claim is the world's smallest water-cooled PC. The 5.47-liter Mini PC boasts laptop-grade hardware capable of delivering excellent 1080p gaming performance.
While most mini PCs rely on integrated graphics or APUs, the Megamini G1 features a mobile Nvidia RTX 4060 GPU and offers configurations with either an i7-13620H or an i9-13900H processor. It comes equipped with 32GB of DDR5 5200MHz memory, 2TB of PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD storage, and supports an additional SSD.
The unique liquid cooling system is designed to consistently operate at under 26 decibels. It has a maximum flow rate of 2.0 liters per minute, holds up to 3060 milliliters of coolant, and circulates up to eight times per minute. Additionally, the Megamini G1 features a 6,888 square millimeter copper heatsink, dual fans operating below 36 dB, and an L-shaped radiator capable of dissipating up to 250W.
The mini-PC also offers a variety of high-speed connectivity options, including a 63 GB/s OCuLink port for external GPUs or additional storage. It supports Thunderbolt 4, dual HDMI 2.0 outputs, an Ethernet port, six USB-A ports, an audio jack, and an SD card slot.
Another standout feature is a small display screen near the top of the chassis, which shows real-time CPU, GPU, and RAM temperatures and utilization.
The Kickstarter campaign for the Megamini G1 has obliterated its initial goal, and there's still more than a month to go. Shipping is planned to begin in November, with early bird pricing starting at $1,499 for the i7 model. The full MSRP for the i9 version is $1,899.
For comparison, Lenovo's recently released Yoga Portal packs an i7-14700 CPU and a desktop RTX 4070 GPU in a similarly sized package. However, it is likely much louder, currently only available in China, and priced around $2,500.
Meanwhile, the Souyo S9, featuring the latest AMD APU, is expected to deliver impressive 1080p performance. With a Strix Point Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 and Radeon 890M integrated GPU, it will likely power the next generation of handheld gaming PCs.