The adorable mini PC form factor—cramming laptop guts into an itty-bitty, super-efficient desktop design—is getting popular for those who want to save space and money. Today, Walmart is offering a GMKtec model with an impressive 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage for just $327.99. That’s over $70 off the retail price.
Walmart’s listing calls the GMKtec NucBox M5 a “gaming mini PC,” which seems a little generous to me since it’s using a rather dated Ryzen 7 5825U laptop processor with an integrated RX Vega graphics system. Sure, it’ll handle some 2D indie games fine, but it’s not going to give you blistering frame rates on any newer 3D title. That said, the rest of this device is pretty great for a budget desktop.
The memory is maxed out for this processor at a roomy 32GB, even if it’s a little slower on the DDR4 standard. And if 1TB of storage out of the box isn’t enough for you, there’s an open M.2 2280 slot for you to slide in even more, for a maximum capacity of 4TB. The mini PC comes loaded with Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2, ensuring speedy connections to both your local network and wireless devices. And it’s running Windows 11 out of the box, not always a given with these devices.
Port selection is generous, too. On the front you get easy access to USB-C, double USB-A, and a headphone/microphone port. Around back are two more USB-A ports, plus dual display support with one HDMI and one DisplayPort. (The front USB-C port also supports display-out for triple screens, albeit a little awkwardly.) Two Ethernet ports can handle 2.5Gbps speeds each for speedy local networking. You can also mount it to the back of your monitor with the included VESA adapter.
Note that Walmart is only offering this discount on the brighter blue model of the GMKtec mini PC, as the black version is going for the full $400 list price. That seems like a more-than-fair trade to me.
Get a mini PC with 32GB RAM and 1TB of storage for just $328