GEEKOM AS 6 mini PC review – Part 3: Ubuntu 22.04 Linux

We’ve already checked out GEEKOM AS 6 (ASUS PN53) mini PC‘s hardware based on AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX CPU, have tested its performance and features in Windows 11 in the second part of the review, and we’ve now taken the time to review GEEKOM AS 6 (Ryzen 9 6900HX) with Ubuntu 22.04 Linux operating system.

We had to disable BitLocker disk encryption in Windows 11, before resizing the partition in the Disk Management program in order to install Ubuntu 22.04 from a USB flash drive. The installation went smoothly once we disable BitLocker.

GEEKOM AS 6 Ubuntu 22.04 Review

Ubuntu 22.04 system information with GEEKOM AS 6

The system information in Ubuntu 22.04 shows we have an AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX system with 32GB RAM and 2TB mass storage capacity (1TB from the included SSD, plus 1TB from a SATA drive we added for testing).

GEEKOM AS 6 ubuntu



The AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX is clocked to 4934 MHz, with the CPU temperature wrongly reported to be 20°C (in a room with a 28°C ambient temperature), and the GPU temperature at 45°C.

Ubuntu 22.04 performance and features testing

Let’s run some benchmarks starting with the server-focused sbc-bench.sh script:


The tool did not report any throttling, but the CPU temperature still went as high as 98°C in both 7-zip multithread and cpuminer benchmarks.

GEEKOM AS 6 PN53 Geekbench 6 Linux

We tested CPU performance with Geekbench 6.1.0 with the system settings 1992 points in the single-core score, and 9,535 points in the multi-core score.

The GPU was tested with Unigine Heaven Benchmark 4.0 with an average of 61.6 fps at 1600×900 resolution.

GEEKOM AS 6 Unigine Heaven Benchmark 4.0 Ubuntu 22.04 linux

For real-world testing of the internal GPU (iGPU), we played some YouTube videos in Firefox at 8K 60FPS, everything works fine without issues.

GEEKOM AS 6 YouTube 8K Linux

Speedometer 2.0 was used to evaluate web browsing performance.

GEEKOM AS 6 speedometer 2.0

The GEEKOM AS 6 mini PC reached 202 runs per minute in Speedometer 2.0 web browser benchmark using Firefox.

We tested the internal NVMe SSD using iozone3:


Read speed was up to 3,322 MB/s and write speed up to 2,476 MB/s, which compares to 3598 MB/s and 2777 MB/s respectively in CrystalDiskMark in Windows 11 Pro.

In order to test the speed of all five USB 3.2 Type-A ports, we connected an ORICO M234C3-U4 “USB4” M.2 NVMe SSD enclosure and formatted the drive with EXT-4 file system.

lsusb speed ASUS PN53


The two front USB 3.2 ports achieved relatively low 299 MB/s and 326 MB/S read and write speeds confirming the 5 Gbps USB speed.

GEEKOM AS 6 USB rear speed


While the three rear USB ports are also rated at 5 Gbps, the read and write speeds were higher at 344 MB/s and 380 MB/s respectively, which confirms the behavior in Windows where the rear USB ports deliver higher performance with our external NVMe SSD.

If we connect the NVMe SSD to the front or rear USB Type-C/Thunderbolt port, it is detected as an NVMe SSD instead of a USB drive, and the speed is much higher.

usb-c front boltctl


The front USB Type-C port has a sequential read speed of approximately 1,567 MB/s and a write speed of 2,055 MB/s.

USB-C Rear boltctl Ubuntu


The rear USB Type-C port has a sequential read speed of approximately 1,612 MB/s and a write speed of 2,071 MB/s. Note that in both cases, the boltctl utility will end with a segmentation fault, but it does not seem to impact the performance of the drive.

Network performance (2.5GbE and WiFi 6)

We’ve measured network throughput using ‘iperf3’ through the 2.5GbE Ethernet port and UP Xtreme i11 Edge mini PC.

Download:


Upload:


Full-duplex (both directions at the same time):


2.5GbE performance is perfect in Ubuntu 22.04 Linux.

Let’s now repeat the download and upload tests with WiFi 6 (5 GHz) using Xiaomi AX6000 router.

Download:


Upload:


WiFi 6 performance is disappointing in Linux, as in Windows 11, we could achieve up to 710 Mbps upload speed, and 784 Mbps download speed with the same setup.

Stress test and CPU temperature

We’ve already run a stress test on all sixteen threads of the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX processor while checking out the CPU temperature (Tctl).

GEEKOM AS 6 Linux CPU stress test temperature

The CPU temperature appears to stabilize at 88°C thanks to cooling by the fan in the system.

Power consumption of GEEKOM AS 6 in Ubuntu 22.04

We’ve measured the power consumption with a Watt meter as follows.

  • Power off – 0.8 – 1.4 W
  • Booting up – 30.7 – 49.0 watts
  • Idle – 12.0 – 17.9 W
  • Video playback – 50.5 – 62.4W (Youtube 8Kp60 in Firefox)
  • Stress test on 8 cores – 14.4 – 15.4 watts
  • CPU Miner (part of sbc-bench.sh) – 30.0 – 76.8 watts

Conclusion

The main takeaways in Ubuntu 22.04 are the same as in Windows 11, with the GEEKOM AS 6 (Ryzen 9 6900HX) being a mini PC with good build quality, excellent performance, and everything we’ve tested worked without tweaks. With plenty of RAM (32GB by default), fast NVMe storage, and plenty of ports, it can be used for all sorts of tasks from watching movies to playing games, office work, or even video editing. The two main downsides also remain the same with the fan noise under heavy loads and the relatively high power consumption of this type of system. One downside in Ubuntu 22.04 Linux that we did not experience in Windows 11 is the relatively poor WiFi 6 performance. It’s still stable and relatively fast, but over twice as slow as in Windows using iperf3.

We’d like to thank GEEKOM company for sending us the AS 6 mini PC for review. The AS 6 model reviewed here is now available on GEEKOM’s online store for $709 with the coupon code as640a.

This review is a translation – with some further insights – of the original review initially published on CNX Software Thailand by Suthinee Kerdkaew

 

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9 Comments
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Linuxium
1 year ago

Can you try moving the existing NVMe drive from its current slot to the one on the daughterboard or top PCB and then boot Ubuntu and try running Heaven several times to see if it crashes?

Linuxium
1 year ago

Many thanks.

persondb
persondb
1 year ago

Kinda wish I had the money to get one of those.

Anyway, great article.

Jagan
1 year ago

How comparable with NEPTUNE HX99G? any statistics?

Frédéric
Frédéric
1 year ago

Did you install Ubuntu alongside with Windows (dual boot) or did you format the SSD first and install Ubuntu alone?

Jean-Charles OLLAT
10 months ago

Hi, thanks for this review. Do you know why this PC is not available any more ?
Is there somethings wrong with Asus or with the Ryzen 9 ?

Boardcon Rockchip and Allwinner SoM and SBC products