Vzmore AX9 mini PC: The cooling marvel the Geekom A9 Max needed?

The market for compact desktop systems has a new challenger: manufacturer Vzmore is entering the fray with the AX9 Max, its most ambitious mini PC to date. The goal is clear: to take market share from the industry's established heavyweights - with the powerful Geekom A9 Max as its primary target.

A look under the hood quickly reveals closely related DNA: both manufacturers use largely the same motherboard platform for their flagship systems. At its heart, Vzmore uses AMD's powerful Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 with integrated Radeon 890M graphics. In terms of memory specifications and connectivity - including two full-featured USB4 ports and dual 2.5G LAN—the two competitors' motherboards are naturally almost identical.

While the underlying hardware is largely identical, Vzmore takes its own approach to chassis design and cooling in particular. In our previous tests, Geekom devices often struggled with fairly pronounced fan noise under full load despite their excellent build quality. Vzmore addresses precisely this criticism: the so-called "V-Cooling" system uses a large vapor chamber combined with an optimized 360° air intake on the bottom of the chassis. The manufacturer's promise is bold: sustained system power of up to 65 watts with a noise level of just 38 dB(A) under full load.

Whether the newcomer can deliver on this ambitious promise in practice or whether thermal throttling kicks in during sustained workloads is something we will examine in detail in our upcoming review. Over the next few days, we will put the Vzmore AX9 Max through our usual test suite. Alongside extensive benchmarks covering CPU performance and the Radeon 890M's gaming performance, you can expect precise measurements of emissions, noise levels, and energy efficiency.