What it is

The Geekom IT13 Max is Geekom’s 2025–2026 refresh of the IT-series chassis: same 4×4-inch NUC-style 0.9-liter footprint, but the silicon and the radio stack have both been swapped out. The 13th-gen Core i9-13900H of the original Mini IT13 is gone. In its place sits an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H — Meteor Lake, 16 cores (6P + 8E + 2 LP-E), 22 threads, Intel Arc integrated graphics, and a dedicated NPU under the “Intel AI Boost” branding.

Wi-Fi 6E gives way to Wi-Fi 7 (Intel BE200, Bluetooth 5.4), and the chassis now ships with dual 2.5 GbE instead of a single port. It is, on the spec sheet, one of the more interesting NUC-class machines on the market in early 2026.

What it’s good for

Home and office work. The Core Ultra 9 185H is overkill for spreadsheets and browser tabs, but the point of putting it here is sustained-load comfort. A productivity workload — Office, Teams, twenty Chrome tabs, Slack, a Zoom call, a VS Code window with the language server running — never makes the fan spin up enough to be intrusive in published reviews of the same chassis family.

On-device AI experimentation. The integrated NPU plus Intel Arc graphics deliver useful — if not Copilot+ tier — local inference. Smaller LLMs (3B–8B class) run cleanly via OpenVINO or LM Studio. Stable Diffusion-class image models are slow but workable. The dual SO-DIMM design that allows up to 96 GB of DDR5 is the differentiator here: the AI-class mini PCs that compete on TOPS scores typically solder memory at 32 GB.

Light creator workflows. Lightroom, Photoshop, Premiere at 1080p, DaVinci Resolve for non-color-critical work — Intel Arc handles all of it. 4K editing is feasible but not enjoyable; this is not the machine for full-feature timeline work.

Build and connectivity

Aluminum top, plastic-lined sides, perforated base. The chassis volume is the same 0.9 L as the original IT13, and the thermal stack is the same closed-loop blower design.

Port layout is generous:

  • USB4 (40 Gbps) ×2 — both rear, with DP-Alt mode and USB-PD
  • USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A ×5
  • USB 2.0 Type-A ×1
  • HDMI 2.0 ×2
  • 2.5 GbE Ethernet ×2 (Intel I226-V)
  • 3.5 mm combo jack, SD 4.0 card reader

Two USB4 ports on a sub-1-liter machine is unusual at this price point and useful — eGPU on one, Thunderbolt dock on the other, no juggling.

Memory, storage, and upgrades

The headline upgrade story is genuine. Two SO-DIMM slots take up to 96 GB of DDR5 (officially supported; some users have reported 2×48 GB working). The primary M.2 2280 slot is PCIe Gen4 NVMe, and the secondary M.2 2242 slot is SATA — useful for cheap bulk storage rather than a second fast tier. A small Phillips screwdriver ships in the box, and Geekom’s service documentation explicitly walks users through opening the unit without voiding the warranty.

This matters. Most “AI PC” branded mini PCs in this price band ship with soldered LPDDR5x at a fixed 32 GB, which kills the machine’s longevity for anyone who wants to run larger local models in 2027. The IT13 Max is one of the few that can grow.

Pricing and where to buy

As of April 2026, Geekom lists the IT13 Max at $949 (down from a $1,299 launch price), typically with a 16 GB / 1 TB base configuration of the Core Ultra 9 185H. Higher-tier configurations (32 GB / 2 TB) trend toward $1,099. Amazon listings from Geekom’s official store track the same ranges, with periodic 5–10% coupons.

The 3-year warranty applies to both retail paths. Geekom’s own store offers slightly faster replacement turnarounds in our reading of customer reports; Amazon offers the cleaner 30-day return.

What we’d flag

  • IT13 Max-specific long-form reviews are still thin as of April 2026. Most published mini-PC reviews of this chassis cover the predecessor “Mini IT13” with the i9-13900H. Performance figures for the Core Ultra 9 185H in the same case have to be inferred from reviews of Geekom’s GT1 Mega, which uses the same SoC in a larger thermal envelope.
  • Sustained thermals in 0.9 liters with a 45 W chip plateau in the high 80s °C, in line with mini-PC norms for this class. The unit throttles gracefully; no crash patterns have surfaced in the reviewer reports we’ve read.
  • The NPU is around 11 TOPS — well below Microsoft’s 40-TOPS Copilot+ bar. If you specifically want a Copilot+ PC, this is not it.
  • DDR5 SO-DIMM, not LPDDR5x — meaning slightly lower memory bandwidth than soldered alternatives. The trade is upgradability for raw throughput. For most workloads, the trade is the right one.

Verdict

The Geekom IT13 Max is the kind of mini PC that quietly does most things right. Core Ultra 9 silicon, Wi-Fi 7, dual USB4, dual 2.5 GbE, two SO-DIMM slots that take 96 GB of DDR5, two M.2 bays, a 3-year warranty, and a sub-$1,000 street price. It is not the fastest mini PC of 2026 — but at this size and this price, almost nothing matches its combination of upgradability and modern connectivity.

If you want an AI-capable workstation in a NUC footprint that you intend to keep for five years, the IT13 Max belongs on the short list.