Introduction

The GMKtec NucBox K16 is an interesting little Mini-PC because it mixes older AMD hardware with a feature set that is strong for something this small. GMKtec uses the Ryzen 7 7735HS and Radeon 680M here, so this is not one of the newer Radeon 780M or 890M systems that have shown up in many of the AMD-based Mini-PCs I have reviewed. However, it still has enough CPU and graphics performance to handle general desktop work, media use, lighter gaming, and emulation reasonably well.

The K16 comes with 32 GB of onboard LPDDR5-6400, which is around the usual amount for Mini-PCs at this level now, though the use of LPDDR5 means the non-upgradeable design is still not ideal. For storage, there is the main bundled M.2 SSD plus support for one additional M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 x4 drive, with the wireless card using its own separate slot. That still gives the K16 more local storage flexibility than a lot of compact desktops this size. It does, unfortunately, ship with a PCIe 3.0 drive, likely to keep costs down, and that is something buyers should know, since it is much slower than the PCIe 4.0 or even 5.0 drives now common in newer premium Mini-PCs.

GMKtec includes USB4, HDMI, DisplayPort, dual 2.5GbE LAN, Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2, and an OCuLink connection for external GPU support. OCuLink is a useful addition on a system like this because it gives users the option to go beyond the Radeon 680M if they ever want more graphics performance. That said, it is still a fairly niche feature, since taking advantage of it means buying an external GPU dock and a desktop graphics card, and even then, performance will not be on the same level as running that GPU directly inside a full tower. There are still real use cases for it, especially for someone who wants a tiny everyday PC now with the option to add more gaming or GPU horsepower later.