Gigabyte Brix PC/Projector Review

These are the days of form factors. The PC market is changing rapidly as tablets supplant some laptops, new players such as the Chromebook disrupt the old WIntel model, and innovations in processors and graphics allow for ever-smaller PCs such as Intel’s NUC. Here’s a new one for you: a tiny NUC-style PC that doubles as a video projector.

It's an interesting combination and that’s we have for you today with the Gigabyte Brix Projector. The little PC ships as a barebones unit without storage or memory, but it actually has some solid specs under that diminutive hood and capabilities not found in virtually any PC product on the market to date.

Gigabyte Brix Projector Specifications & Features

The Brix Projector measures 4.24 x 4.5 x 1.93 inches (WxLxD) but manages to fit in an Intel Core i3-4010U (1.7GHz) processor with built-in Intel HD 4400 graphics and support for up to 16GB of 1600MHz RAM (in two SO-DIMM slots). Finally, an mSATA slot inside the chassis also supports up to a 256GB SSD.

There’s also a Gigabit LAN port, Realtek ALC269 audio, and WiFi with BT provided by an included half-size mini-PCIe card. As mentioned above, the Brix Projector doesn’t ship with storage or RAM, so our friends at Kingston hooked us up with some just for this review. Kingston sent a pair of SO-DIMMS (HyperX DDR3-1866MHz, 16GB total, $175.74) as well as a 120GB mSATA SSD (Kingston SSDNow mS200 mSATA [6Gbps], $94.61). Take these items into consideration when evaluating benchmark scores. To get the same numbers, you’d need to purchase the same memory kit and mSATA SSD Kingston sent us.
Gigabyte also fit a surprising number of ports into such a small device, and they include a pair of USB 3.0 ports and a headphone jack with S/PDIF on the front of the unit, next to the projector lens, as well as HDMI out, HDMI in, mini DisplayPort, another two USB 3.0 ports, an Ethernet LAN jack, DC in, and a Kensington lock around back. The power supply is a smallish brick--more or less what you’d expect to see with a standard notebook.

The system's DLP (LED backlight) projector itself offers a resolution of 864x480 with an aspect ratio of 16:9 and a purported image size of 7-85 inches. It promises 75 ANSI lumen brightness, a contrast ratio of around 900, and 3LED (RGB) technology.

You can plug in a number of other devices to the projector with the mini HDMI in port, and there are 1.5W built-in speakers, to boot.