Gigabyte’s New BRIX Mini PC Packs Panther Lake Power And 128GB DDR5 Support

Gigabyte is expanding its lineup of Brix mini PCs with a new model built around Intel's Panther Lake platform. We'll likely see multiple configurations over time, but the one that's been added to Gigabyte's website is Brix model GB-BRU9-386H. If the model name isn't a big enough clue, the specifications sheet reveals the Panther Lake model that's underneath the tiny hood.

It's the Core Ultra 9 386H, which is the second-highest SKU in Intel's Panther Lake processor lineup, below only the the Core Ultra X9 388H.

The Core Ultra 9 386H is also one of four Panther Lake parts with 16 total cores and threads (the others being the Core Ultra X9 388H, Core Ultra X7 368H, and Core Ultra 7 366H). It's comprised of four performance cores clocked at 2.1GHz to 4.9GHz, eight efficient cores clocked at 1.6GHz to 3.7GHz, and four low power efficient cores clocked at 1.6GHz to 3.5GHz.

Other specs include 18MB of L3 cache, integrated Intel Graphics clocked at up to 2.5GHz, and a dedicated NPU capable of up to 50 TOPS. The iGPU adds another 40 TOPS and the CPU cores up to 10 TOPS, for up to 100 TOPS of AI muscle for the chip as a whole.

Panther Lake supports up to 128GB of LPDDR5X-8533 or DDR5-7200 memory. Gigabyte's new Brix takes almost full advantage of the Core Ultra 9 386H's capabilities with two SO-DIMM/CSO-DIMM slots (no LPCAMM2 memory here, folks) supporting up to 128GB of DDR5-6400 (CSO-DIMM) or up to 96GB of DDR5-5600 (SO-DIMM) memory.

CSO-DIMMs, or Clocked Small Outline Dual In-Line Memory Modules, sport a built-in client clock driver (CKD) to improve signal integrity and ultimately enable faster speeds. In this instance, CSO-DIMMs enable more memory and faster clocks, though it falls slightly short of Intel's 7,200MT/s ceiling.

For storage, the newest Brix serves up a pair of M.2 2280 slots, one of which supports PCIe 5.0 x4 SSDs and the other one supporting PCIe 4.0 x4 SSDs.

A Realtek Wi-Fi card (RTL8922AE) delivers support for Wi-Fi 7. On the front of the Brix, there are two USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A ports, a USB4 port (DisplayPort 2.1), and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Several more ports can be found in the rear, including 2x HDMI (FRL and CEC), 1x USB4 (DisplayPort 2.1), 1x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C (PD IN), 1x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A, 1x USB 2.0, and 1x LAN (2.5Gbps). There's also a Kensington Lock slot on the left side.

As of right now, the Brix GB-BRU9-386H is just a simple product listing on Gigabyte's website (as spotted by the folks at Videocardz) that outlines the system's specs. There is no mention of when it will be available or how much it will cost.