A recipe for disaster? New mini PC with Linux-compatible open GPU slot design looks great on paper but could be a costly mistake for owners of adventurous cats
My custom-built desktop is large, but the Corsair H100 RGB AIO liquid CPU cooler doesn’t actually fit comfortably inside, so it sits on the top of the case. It looks good there, and the pump and dual 120mm fans keep my system cool. Unfortunately, for unknown reasons, my cats occasionally compete with one another to see who can sit in the stupidest place. As I type this, one is sat on the back of my office chair and another is curled up comfortably behind one of my monitors.
It is not unheard of for them to squeeze into the space on top of my PC case, essentially jamming their furry bodies against the fans. They also find the spinning of the blades entertaining, which isn’t great either.
Beelink, which makes a range of superb mini PCs, has a new model, the GTi14, which comes with a PCIe 8x slot on the bottom of the computer, allowing for the addition of a dedicated external GPU, enhancing graphics performance significantly. That inevitably sounds like a bad idea to me.
Ports galore
The GTi14 measures 158 x 158 x 56mm and supports up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H processor with Intel Arc Graphics, up to 96GB of DDR5-5600 RAM, and dual NVMe PCIe 4.0×4 SSD slots.
For connectivity, the GTi14 supports Wifi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. Ports on offer include one Thunderbolt 4 port capable of 40 Gbps, one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port at 10 Gbps, five USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports also at 10 Gbps, an HDMI 2.1 port, a DisplayPort 1.4a, two 3.5mm audio jacks, two 2.5 GbE Ethernet ports, and an SD card reader.
The system is ready to run Windows 11 Pro and is also compatible with Linux, offering versatility for different user preferences. The device comes with built-in speakers, four microphones, an integrated 145W power supply, and a fingerprint reader.
There’s no word on global pricing at the moment, but in China it retails for from $672.
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My custom-built desktop is large, but the Corsair H100 RGB AIO liquid CPU cooler doesn’t actually fit comfortably inside, so it sits on the top of the case. It looks good there, and the pump and dual 120mm fans keep my system cool. Unfortunately, for unknown reasons, my cats occasionally…
