Geekom IT15 Review: Arrow Lake Power With Room for Three Drives
The IT15 is the Intel counterpart to Geekom's AMD flagships, and its distinguishing trait is not raw AI throughput but flexibility. The Core Ultra 9 285H brings 16 cores and Arc 140T graphics with ray tracing and XeSS, which is enough for 1080p gaming and fast 4K encoding, and Geekom pairs it with three separate storage bays: an M.2 2280 NVMe slot, an M.2 2242 SATA slot and a 2.5-inch SATA bay, so a boot drive, a fast scratch disk and bulk storage can all live inside. Dual USB4 at 40Gbps and Wi-Fi 7 keep the connectivity current. What it does not have is much AI acceleration: the NPU is rated at 13 TOPS, far behind the Ryzen AI parts.
- Home lab and NAS builds
- Multi-display productivity
- 4K media encoding
- Storage-heavy setups
Pros
- Core Ultra 9 285H with 16 cores and a 5.4 GHz boost
- Intel Arc 140T graphics with ray tracing and XeSS
- Three internal storage bays: M.2 2280 NVMe, M.2 2242 SATA and 2.5-inch SATA
- DDR5 SODIMM expandable to 128GB
- Two USB4 ports at 40Gbps plus dual HDMI for four displays at 8K
- Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 and 2.5G Ethernet
- Fast SD Card 4.0 reader, Kensington lock and VESA mount included
- Three-year warranty on a chassis rated for continuous use
Cons
- NPU rated at only 13 TOPS, far behind Ryzen AI alternatives
- Single 2.5G Ethernet port rather than dual
- No dedicated DisplayPort connector and no Thunderbolt branding
- Weight and HDMI cable inclusion are not published
- Memory speed is not stated on the spec sheet
Who is the Geekom IT15 for?
This is the model to choose when storage matters more than AI benchmarks. Three internal bays, an M.2 2280 NVMe slot for up to 4TB, an M.2 2242 SATA slot for up to 2TB and a 2.5-inch SATA bay for another 2TB, make it unusually well suited to home servers, Proxmox hosts and NAS-style builds where you want separate fast and bulk volumes in one box. It also fits multi-display desks: two HDMI outputs plus two USB4 ports drive four screens, with 8K support, and the Arc 140T GPU handles the encoding work that used to need a discrete card. Geekom builds it around a metal frame it rates at 440 lb load bearing, aimed at 24/7 duty.
What stands out on paper
The Core Ultra 9 285H is Intel's Arrow Lake mobile flagship, 16 cores with a 5.4 GHz boost and 24MB of cache, and the integrated Arc 140T is genuinely capable for an iGPU, with ray tracing and XeSS upscaling. Memory is DDR5 SODIMM, shipping at 32GB and taking up to 128GB. Connectivity is current rather than conservative: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, 2.5G Ethernet, two USB4 ports at 40Gbps that support power delivery and external GPUs, plus a 312MB/s SD Card 4.0 reader on the chassis. Cooling is IceBlast 2.0, and Geekom ships a VESA mount and backs it with a three-year warranty. Windows 11 Pro is preinstalled and Linux compatibility is stated.
What to know before you buy
The NPU is the weak point. At 13 TOPS it is well short of the 50 TOPS in AMD's Ryzen AI chips, and while Geekom quotes 99 TOPS across CPU, GPU and NPU combined, that is not the same thing as a dedicated AI accelerator: if local model inference is your goal, an AMD-based model is the better buy. Networking gives you a single 2.5G Ethernet port rather than the dual ports on the A9 Max, which matters for router or firewall duty. There is no dedicated DisplayPort connector, so DP monitors need a USB4 port in DisplayPort Alt mode, and Geekom does not publish the unit weight or confirm whether an HDMI cable is in the box.
Is the Geekom IT15 worth it?
It is a strong pick if the three storage bays and the four-display output match what you are building, and the three-year warranty on a machine designed for continuous operation is worth something. If your priority is AI acceleration, the same money buys far more NPU performance on the AMD side. If you only need office work and browsing, this is more machine than the job requires and a mid-range mini PC will feel the same day to day.
Frequently asked questions
How much storage can the IT15 hold internally?
Up to 8TB across three bays: an M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4 x4 NVMe slot for up to 4TB, an M.2 2242 SATA III slot for up to 2TB and a 2.5-inch SATA bay for another 2TB. That combination is unusual in this form factor.
How many monitors can it drive?
Four, using two HDMI outputs and two USB4 Type-C ports in DisplayPort Alt mode, with 8K supported.
Is the IT15 good for local AI models?
Less so than AMD's Ryzen AI mini PCs. Its NPU is rated at 13 TOPS, and the 99 TOPS Geekom advertises is the combined CPU, GPU and NPU figure. For dedicated on-device inference an AMD Ryzen AI machine with a 50 TOPS NPU is the stronger option.
Can it run Linux?
Yes. It ships with Windows 11 Pro 24H2 preinstalled and Geekom states Linux compatibility, which suits it to Proxmox and home server use.
Does it support external GPUs?
Yes, over either of the two USB4 ports, which run at 40Gbps and support power delivery and DisplayPort 1.4.
What power adapter does it use?
A 19V 120W external adapter with a geo-specific AC cord. There is no internal power supply, so the brick sits outside the case.
