Minisforum GN34 Review
Minisforum has been no stranger to this website and has consistently released great mini PCs in recent times, Most recently is it Minisforum GN34 mini PC. Each time Minisforum releases a mini PC the improve on compatibility and performance. In this model the improved in three areas, 4K video playback, expandable storage vis M.2, and graphics rendering. In this review, I performed my usual test for hardware performance, and I also tested it for media playback. In addition, I also installed a second OS (Android X86) as a personal project.
GN34 Hardware
- CPU – Intel Celeron J3455 2.23GHz
- GPU – Intel HD Graphics 500
- RAM – 6GB LPDDR3
- Storage – 64GB eMMc on board
- Expandable storage – M.2 NGFF 2242 SSD 1TB max
- WiFi – IEEE 802.11ac Dual Band 2.4GHz + 5.8GHz
- Bluetooth – 4.2
- LAN – 1000Mbps
- HDMI – x1 2.0
- VGA – x1
- USB – x3 3.0
- SD – x1
Operating System Experience
The GN34 runs on a licenses Windows 10 operating system and you can install any program you want on it once it does not exceed the minimum requirements of this PC. I installed Microsoft Office, antivirus program, Winrar, Chrome browser, photo editor program, and they all worked great. YouTube play up as high as 8X but 4K is my recommended quality for this PC. Netflix also plays in HD and 4K quality on Windows. Sound quality is great through the HDMI port, and you also have audio via the headphone jack. Gaming is also really on this mini PC and temperatures remain stable with the included CPU fan.
Windows Benchmarks
RAM copy – 7162MB/s
Disk Speed – 80 MB/s read | 78 MB/s write
Geekbench4 – 1450 single-core | 4344 multi-core
Ice Storm extreme – 15,825
Cloud Gate – 3021
WiFi – Max speed on 5.8GHz and on LAN. 2.4 GHz fell slightly below
Expandable Storage Feature
Using the included expandable storage feature, you can install a second operating system like Android X86 and convert this MIni PC into an Android TV box. When applied to this PC Android X86 installed without issues. However, there were some issues in getting the audio via HDMI, 4K videos had playback issues, and gamepad key mapping did not work.
Conclusion
If you are this mini PC as a windows computer, then it does a very good job at that and I recommend it to buy. The M.2 internal slot is 2242 which is a shorter card than the regular size M.2 so be mindful of that if you intend on using it. If you want to purchase it to experiment on Android X86, then this may not want to be your first choice.
