Kingdel NC860 fanless mini PC is Smart in Design with full metal case, silent working, high speed CPU & SSD. It comes with Intel 8th Generation i7-8550U CPU, 4 Cores, 8 Threads; Kaby Lake R; 8MB Cache, Base Frequency: 1.8GHz; Max Turbo Frequency: 4.0GHz. It has Integrated Intel UHD Graphics 620, 4K: 4096×2304@24Hz; Full Gigabyte LAN, HD Port, DP, 4 USB 3.0, 4 USB 2.0, Audio in/output. Kingdel NC860 fanless mini PC also has 16GB DDR4 2133MHz RAM, 256GB MSATA/NGFF M.2 SSD; Intel 300M Dual Band 2.4/5GHz Wireless Network Card.
Kingdel NC860 fanless mini PC – Pros & Cons
Pros
- PC makes zero noise. We put it to power a home theater streaming and it’s fantastic for this purpose
- PC is cool under normal load. Under full load it gets quite hot to touch, but CPU temps never went above 60’C.
- Solid built, all ports accessible and lots of them.
- Impressively fast CPU and HDD. Like really impressive speed.
- Allows to install an extra HDD. Cables are provided, and all it takes is to unscrew the back cover.
Cons
- PC came with Win 10Pro pre-activated for ‘Kingdel’ user with admin rights. User can’t be deleted.
- ZoneAlarm Firewall right upon installation started blocking outgoing packets to 180.76.5.18:8000. IP lookup shows it’s a Baidu’s server at “baiduspider-180-76-5-18.crawl.baidu.com” for w/e reason.
- Blocking didn’t stop pings showing up blocked in ZA logs, so I decided to skip the trouble weeding out any potential security issues and just returned Win10 to factory settings from MS’s bootable ISO.
- New installation went fine, all drivers installed on their own. But because the initial license was digital, there was no product code supplied with PC and I couldn’t activate the windows upon restore completion. HDD doesn’t have a restore partition. MS support was useless.
Kingdel NC860 fanless mini PC comparison
| Kingdel NC860 Fanless Mini PC, Slim Desktop Computer | Msecore Mini Desktop PC/HTPC, Fanless Computer with Intel i7-8565U | Intel NUC NUC8i7BEH Mini PC/HTPC, Intel Quad-Core i7-8559U | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Computer Memory Size | 16 GB | 16.00 GB | 16 GB |
| CPU Model | Intel Core i7 | Intel Core i7 | Intel Core i7 |
| CPU Speed | 1.80 GHz | 1.80 GHz | 2.70 GHz |
| Graphics Coprocessor | Intel UHD Graphics 620 | Intel UHD Graphics 620 | Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655 |
| Hard Disk Size | 256 GB | 256 GB | 256 GB |
| Hardware Platform | PC | PC | PC |
| Operating System | Windows 10 | Windows 10 Professional | Windows 10 Professional |
| Processor Count | 4 | 4 | 4 |
Kingdel NC860 fanless mini PC customer reviews
I was skeptical but this PC has been great
I’ve been building PCs since… geez, I guess 1989. I usually buy all the components individually but I needed a Linux server that was small and didn’t make any noise so decided to buy something prepackaged. I’d never heard of Kingdel before – just discovered them randomly when looking through the Amazon listings – so I was skeptical but decided to buy it anyway since the price and features were both pretty great.
The PC was solidly made and as promised it has no moving parts at all. The case is quite small, but when I opened it, I discovered the case was mostly empty. It’s pretty amazing how small everything’s gotten. I first plugged it in to my 4K TV using HDMI and played with it under Windows for a little while and was really impressed by how smooth and fast it was. It drove the 4k display effortlessly. I logged into my Microsoft account and it verified the copy of Windows 10 Pro that came pre-installed was genuine.
Then I deleted Windows and installed Ubuntu, which went easily. The Kingdel PC has been very fast under Linux, with 4 cores and 8 threads (i.e. 8 virtual cores). And what’s also impressive is that it stays cool. I was replacing an older machine that was similarly in a microcase with no moving parts, but I always had to keep the top of the case off because it would overheat. The new Kingdel has stayed quite cool; according to the lmsensors Ubuntu package, the CPU core temp doesn’t go over 35c even when I have all the cores busy compiling software.
I don’t usually leave reviews, but decided to review this Kingdel because I was so nervous buying it since it didn’t have any reviews and it seemed too good to be true – 8th gen CPU, 16GB RAM, 256GB flash and a genuine licensed copy of Win 10 Pro all for $650??! But it seems to be the real deal, so I hope the next person agonizing over “Should I buy this?” might find this review useful.
By Amazon Reviewer on Kingdel NC860 fanless mini PC review
Good value for money
Delivery was within the time stated, it was well packed and arrived in good condition.
Pros and Cons.
Pros Silent operation, which is also a con, very fast.
Cons The power LED is virtually impossible to see as either the mounting board or the front panel whole is way off, so that the led is effectively doing nothing. There is also a second LED on the same board which I assume is meant to be a drive activity indicator, but as I have said, there is only one hole on the front panel which is way off from the LED so what use the second LED is escapes me.
The unit runs very hot, Crystal Disk Info show that the system SSD when playing a video or doing a large download has reached 70 degrees C. Not having had a fanless PC before, I have no idea if this is normal, but it is 40 degrees above that of my desktop, so I have it running with the base plate removed and that has reduced the temperature down by about 30 degrees, which should increase it’s life.
Another con is the almost complete absence of detailed paperwork which I suppose is not an overwhelming thing but I do like to know what is what when I buy a piece of kit, eg there is a red LED in the middle of the board, what is that supposed to indicate, bearing in mind that with the base plate on, I probably wouldn’t have even seen it.
I upgraded the M.2 drive with a PCIe drive and added another 500Gb 2.5in SSD, this is used in a small music studio and works well.
On the whole I am pleased with my purchase, just wish a little more care was taken in it’s design and more information given about it’s operation.
A word about the company KIngdel, very very swift replies to queries, allowing for time differences have received replies to queries the same day. My PC was advertised as having an i7 8550 chip but this had been upgraded to the 8650 which runs a bit faster, so very pleased with that. All in all this is a good company to do business and I have no hesitation in recommending it.
by Amazon Reviewer on Kingdel NC860 fanless mini PC
Excellent bit of kit
Runs silent and cool. Comes with activated Windows 10 Pro which I assume is OEM and tied to the hardware, but that’s fine for the price.
By Amazon Reviewer on Kingdel NC860 fanless mini PC
256GB m.2 Sata card is quite fast and 1TB HHD is as expected.
Dual 4k monitor is great with 1 x HDMI and 1 x Display port
Watch out as if your are connecting the Display port to a DVI monitor you will need an active cable: Benfei Active DisplayPort to DVI Adapter worked for me. Very pleased