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ESXi on GMKtec NucBox K11

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The GMKtec NucBox has been growing in popularity amongst the VMware community as a modern AMD Ryzen-based alternative to the Intel/ASUS NUC, offering many of the same advantages while avoiding some of the drawbacks of Intel's Hybrid CPU architecture.

In preparation for my upcoming session at the inaugural VMUG Connect Conference in April, I have been experimenting with several modern hardware options, with the goal of deploying the full VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) solution for use within a lab environment, while still staying budget friendly!

I know several folks have had great success with the GMKtec NucBox K8 Plus and it just so happens, while browsing the GMKtec website, I noticed an additional NucBox has just been released called the K11.


While the differences between the K8 Plus and K11 is pretty minimal, I was interested in validating some new hardware add-ons, so getting the latest hardware would hopefully give me the best chance!

In collaboration with the VMware {Code} team, I was able to get hands on with the latest GMKtec NucBox K11!

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ESXi on ASUS NUC 14 Performance (Scorpion Canyon)

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In addition to the ASUS NUC 14 Pro (which I recently reviewed), ASUS has also released the ASUS NUC 14 Performance (formally known as Scorpion Canyon) as part of their Intel 14th Generation (Meteor Lake) lineup.


Compared to the ASUS NUC 14 Pro and Pro+, the ASUS NUC 14 Performance offers more powerful CPU options and an additional NVIDIA discrete (mobile) graphics that can be used for a variety of use cases and workloads including the hot topic of AL/ML exploration.

Thanks to the SimplyNUC team who provided me access to the ASUS NUC 14 Performance kit for this review! Let's dive right in 😀

UPDATE (02/20/25) - 128GB (2x64GB) DDR5 SODIMM memory is fully functional with PN64-E1, please see this blog post for more information.

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ESXi on ASUS NUC 14 Pro (Revel Canyon)

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The ASUS NUC 14 Pro (formally known as Revel Canyon) is the first ASUS-based NUC since the acquisition of the NUC Division from Intel last fall. I know many of my readers have been requesting a review of the new ASUS NUCs, but to be honest, it has been pretty difficult to get samples directly from ASUS, which was not the case when I had worked with Intel.

In fact, it was thanks to the folks over at SimplyNUC who was kind enough to provide access to the ASUS NUC 14 Pro, so that I could do a proper review 🙏

In case you are reading this ASUS, I hope this was simply due to the initial integration of the NUC Division and in the future, getting early samples will be possible to help support our shared community of users.


At first glance, the exterior chassis of the ASUS NUC 14 Pro has minimal changes, it is the same classic 4x4 design that we have all come to love. The only noticeable change is the raised bevel on the top of the chassis and the removal of the etched Intel NUC brand which was located on top.

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