Geekom is a manufacturer of mini PCs with an extensive catalog. After discovering the Geekom AE7 a short while ago, here comes the Geekom XT13 Pro, which sets the bar very high, this time with an Intel Core i9 processor, 32GB of memory, and no less than 2TB of SSD storage! All in a case that fits in your hand. Impressive! Suffice to say, it will meet a wide range of diverse needs. Let's find out more…
Unpacking the Geekom XT13 Pro mini computer
Geekom has taken great care with the packaging of its XT13 Pro, making it a top-of-the-range product from the outset, with a black case and gold lettering. Very classy!
The mini PC is revealed like a jewel in its case, perfectly wedged in its protective foam:
And the experience doesn't end there, as the box contains a drawer with all the accessories:
Unpacking the box is already very appealing, with the manufacturer setting the bar very high to show off its device.
The Geekom XT13 Pro comes with everything you need to get up and running quickly: AC adapter, HDMI cable and even a VESA mount for those who want to attach it to the back of a screen.
From the moment you unpack it, you can tell you're dealing with a quality product. The device is compact (117 x 111 x 38.5mm), with a sober, elegant design (it will find its place on any desk without looking out of place).
The unibody aluminum chassis makes it highly resistant to scratches and fingerprints. It's a far cry from the cheap plastics sometimes found on some mini PCs. Only the front panel is made of white ABS, to let Wifi and Bluetooth waves pass through.
In terms of connectivity, the Geekom XT13 Pro is well supplied. On the front we have two Usb 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports, as well as a headphone socket and the power button.
At the rear, a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port, a USB 2.0, two USB 4 Gen3 Type-C ports (for fast data transfers up to 40Gbps!), two HDMI ports for connecting multiple screens, and even a 2.5Gbps Ethernet port for a fast, stable Internet connection, perfect when you've got fiber optic :) With all this connectivity, you can connect up to 4 4K screens!
No SD drive on the side here, although it seems to be available on the motherboard. But we do appreciate the honeycomb cooling system, which looks great!
The underside is easily removed by simply unscrewing the 4 screws:
Storage and memory are then easily accessed. Here we have a 2GB M2 PCIe Gen 4 x 4 SSD (to which it will be possible to add another 1TB M2 SSD), accompanied by 32GB of dual-channel 3200MHz DDR4 Ram, expandable up to 64GB! So much to look forward to!
These components will be very easy to replace if you wish to upgrade them.
In terms of configuration, the Geekom XT13 Pro is powered by a 13th-generation Intel Core Raptor Lake i9-13900H processor (14-core, 24 MB level 3 cache, 20 threads and a maximum clock speed of 5.4 GHz), and an Iris Xe graphics card. A rather muscular configuration for such a small PC!
And let's not forget the integrated Wifi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2. All in all, a state-of-the-art mini PC!
Geekom XT13 Pro: in use
Theoretical figures are all well and good, but what does it actually do in use? With an i9-13900H processor and integrated Iris Xe graphics card, the Geekom XT13 Pro packs a punch. Whether you're editing video, retouching photos, creating 3D, or playing your favorite games, this mini PC keeps up with the pace without flinching.
Delivered with a version of Windows 11 Professional, even integrating the Copilot AI assistant, it's perfect for working.
Its system leaves over 1.7TB of storage available on its hard disk, leaving plenty of room to install numerous applications and store numerous files!
As with its little brother, I tested demanding software such as Adobe Premiere Pro and Photoshop, and frankly, I was impressed. Loading times are short, multitasking is fluid and the device doesn't heat up. What's more, it comes with “IceBlast 1.5” developed by Geekom, an active cooling system featuring a highly efficient cooling fan, a large heatsink, two heat pipes and best-in-class thermal grease. The cooling fan and heatpipes are strategically placed to rapidly remove heat from key internal components, keeping the XT13 Pro cool and stable when running heavy workloads. And in use, the system does indeed perform well, even in today's heat!
I put the Geekom XT13 Pro mini PC through its paces with PCMark 10, achieving an overall score of 5916. PCMark 10 is benchmarking software used to evaluate the overall performance of computers by simulating a variety of real-life tasks. It measures the efficiency and responsiveness of systems in key areas such as office automation, digital content creation and productivity applications.
Detailed results reveal balanced and robust performance in different aspects of daily use. In terms of essentials, the Geekom XT13 Pro achieved a score of 10,440, reflecting excellent performance in areas such as application startup (14,152), video conferencing (8,078) and web browsing (9,954). For productivity, it achieved a score of 7,195, standing out particularly in spreadsheet tasks with a score of 7,541, although a little behind in writing with 6,865.
Digital content creation also scored well, with a score of 7,483. This includes photo editing (11,342), rendering and visualization (5,611) and video editing (6,585). These results show that the mini PC is capable of handling multimedia tasks with reasonable efficiency. The performance graph reveals fluctuating CPU activity, showing significant variations in GPU frequency, CPU temperature and GPU utilization, indicating dynamic resource management according to the tasks performed.
Additional tests show that the system uses the Intel Quick Sync Video H.264 codec for video encoding, and exploits Intel Iris Xe Graphics for graphics tasks in most tests. Word processing and spreadsheet tasks appear to be disabled for graphics, indicating less dependence on the GPU for these activities.
In summary, the Geekom XT13 Pro, equipped with an Intel Core i9-13900H processor and Intel Iris Xe Graphics, shows impressive performance in a variety of tasks, confirming its ability to be a reliable solution for demanding users in terms of productivity and digital content creation.
For gamers, it won't be a war machine dedicated to ultra AAA games, but for e-sport games and less demanding titles, it does the job very well. I put it through 3DMark's Time Spy benchmark, a DirectX 12-based graphics performance test designed to assess the ability of computers to handle modern graphics workloads and next-generation video games. This test provides a comprehensive measure of GPU and CPU performance across realistic and complex 3D game scenes.
When the Geekom XT13 Pro mini PC passed the Time Spy benchmark, the system achieved an overall score of 1926, slightly above the average of 1913 for the same type of hardware. This result shows a solid performance, albeit far from the best scores recorded. The mini PC's graphics score was 1695, highlighting its limited capabilities in graphics-intensive tasks, with refresh rates of 11.03 FPS and 9.74 FPS for the two respective graphics tests. The CPU scored an impressive 8513, demonstrating robust processing power with a refresh rate of 28.60 FPS in the CPU test.
The performance graph shows marked variations in frame rate, CPU and GPU temperature, and resource utilization, indicating dynamic workload management during the test. CPU and GPU temperatures remained relatively stable throughout the test, despite occasional load peaks.
In terms of configuration, the test was carried out using Intel Iris Xe graphics, displaying results on a connected monitor with 3840 x 2160 resolution at 125% DPI scaling. These details reinforce the idea that the Geekom XT13 Pro, while powerful for a mini PC, finds its limits in graphics-intensive applications, but excels in tasks requiring high CPU computing power.
All in all, the Geekom XT13 Pro proves to be a well-balanced machine for professional applications and certain creative tasks, but may be less suited to video games or very demanding graphics applications. In fact, the AE7 model with an AMD Radeon 780M GPU fared better, scoring 3389 points, compared with just 1926 points here.
In real-life use (gaming sessions), gaming sessions were pleasant, with no noticeable lag, and graphics are up to scratch if you adjust the settings correctly. If you're looking for a PC for occasional gaming, it can hold its own. Unlike the AE7, however, it proves too fair in my case to stream games like Half Life Alyx on my Quest 3 virtual reality headset. Yet strangely enough, the VRmark benchmark runs flawlessly on this XT13 Pro, but refuses to launch on the AE7 for lack of video memory 🤔
VRMark Orange Room is therefore a performance test designed to assess the ability of systems to handle virtual reality (VR) applications. It measures graphics performance and refresh rate to determine whether a system is capable of delivering a smooth, comfortable VR experience.
The Geekom XT13 Pro mini PC achieved a score of 2480. While this score is valid, it shows that the average refresh rate of 54.05 FPS is well below the target of 109 FPS, and even below the minimum requirement of 81 FPS for the Oculus Rift, for example. This indicates that the VR experience with this system could be disappointing and uncomfortable, with notable latency and stutter effects that cannot be fully compensated for by VR headsets.
Comparatively, the Geekom XT13 Pro is well below the scores of modern gaming PCs, which often reach scores well over 20,000 for high-end machines and around 8,500 for gaming laptops. It is, however, fairly close to the scores achieved by standard 2023 desktop laptops, underlining its positioning as a versatile but limited tool for intensive VR use.
Analysis of the monitoring data shows relatively stable GPU and CPU temperatures, with GPU and CPU clock frequencies remaining constant throughout the test. This indicates that the system is well cooled and that the components are operating efficiently, but this is not enough to compensate for the inherent limitations of the Intel Iris Xe integrated graphics card for demanding VR applications.
Although the Geekom XT13 Pro performs well in many aspects of everyday computing and even in some advanced productivity applications, it therefore shows its limitations when subjected to graphics-intensive tasks, such as virtual reality. This mini PC is therefore clearly better suited to light-to-moderate content creation and professional uses rather than immersive VR experiences.
On the other hand, its read-write performance on the SSD is impressive, and much faster than that of the AE7:
Connectivity is another strong point of the Geekom XT13 Pro. Wi-Fi 6E guarantees a fast, stable Internet connection, even when several devices are connected to the same network. Its 2.5Gbps ethernet port lets you take full advantage of a fiber connection. Even my Mac Mini doesn't benefit from this connection speed (2020 model).
Bluetooth 5.2 makes it easy to connect all your wireless peripherals, whether mouse, keyboard or headphones.
In short, this is a mini PC that really does meet a wide range of needs. And as we've seen on previous models, it lends itself effortlessly to use as a multimedia box, a home automation server (with or without Proxmox), a Docker server for hosting numerous services, or as a video surveillance solution with Frigate, for example. Its power will easily support all these uses, and its 32GB + 2TB of storage will already give you a certain latitude. And in the worst case, it will be very easy to upgrade to 64GB of Ram for those with big needs, unlike models seen previously that capped at 16GB. This model may be a little weaker on the graphics side, but its processor has more cores, threads and cache memory, which will be particularly interesting if you want to use it as a server hosting virtual machines, whether under Proxmox or Docker, for example.
Conclusion
On paper, the Geekom XT13 Pro looked quite exceptional, with its Intel I9 processor. In use, the results are more mixed, and I confess to being rather surprised by the processor's performance. In day-to-day use, for administrative work, media production, 3D printing, etc., it performs perfectly. It performs perfectly. Delivered with a professional version of Windows 11, it is clearly aimed at this type of use. As we've seen, gaming and VR are clearly not its strong points.
In fact, for more versatile use, I'd prefer the AE7 model I saw recently, which, for a more affordable price, fared better in the various benchmarks, thanks to its Ryzen 9 processor and Radeon 780M video card.
On the other hand, if your goal is to turn it into a mini Proxmox or Docker server, for example, the XT13 Pro's Intel i9 processor will probably be a better choice. In fact, that's what I'll be using it for, given its performance. The choice will therefore depend on your own needs!
It's available on the manufacturer's official website, at €949 with the code MDXT13:
Geekom XT13 Pro
You can also find it on Amazon, with a 5% discount thanks to code A3242JN4:
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