Items tagged with mini-PC
Intel has embraced small form factor systems for many years. Whether it be high-end mini-PCs like the Hades Canyon NUC, complete with discrete graphics for gamers, or ultra-tiny devices like the Compute Card, Intel has consistently pushed small form factor markets forward, for just about as long as ‘performance per watt’ has been a thing. The Hades Canyon NUC and Compute Card target some rather niche markets, however. For more mainstream, everyday computing applications, Intel’s standard 4"x4” NUC (Next Unit of Computing) systems are much more apropos, and the Intel NUC8i7BEH we’ll be showing you here may just be the best all-around unit yet. The Intel NUC8i7BEH...
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MINIX offers a wide assortment of ultra small form factor (SFF) systems targeting an array of use cases, from home theater PCs and digital signage to other industrial applications. Despite their diminutive size, the machines are typically full-featured and come with memory, storage, and an operating system – either Windows or Android depending on the model. The new MINIX Neo N42C-4 we’ll be showing you here today is a Windows-based system, but unlike previous models in its class this one includes Windows 10 Professional, rather than the more common Windows 10 Home. The Window 10 Pro upgrade will allow the machine to join a domain and offer Group Policy Management, Bitlocker,...
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As longtime enthusiasts, we tend to get most excited for the latest, big, bad, benchmark-busting specimens of PC hardware to hit the lab. However, there’s something about ultra-small form factor devices that’s intriguing as well. The focus on power efficiency and performance-per-watt from virtually all semi-conductor manufacturers over the last few years has enabled some pretty impressive hardware in fairly tiny form factors, and it’s now possible to have a fully-functional – and rather quick – desktop PC that literally fits in the palm of your hand.Take the Gigabyte Brix S (model number BSi5HT-6200) we’ll be showing you here, for example. This tiny machine is packing a Skylake-based Intel Core...
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One of the many benefits of Intel’s strong focus on power efficiency in recent years is that relatively high performance processors are now able to fit into tiny form factors. Case in point, the recently released Intel Compute Stick for 2016. That little gizmo has a quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, 802.11ac Wi-Fi and a handful of ports in a package that’s not much bigger than a thumb drive.Although we dug the latest Compute Stick, it’s not without some drawbacks. 2GB of RAM is essentially the bare minimum needed to run Windows 10 semi-smoothly, and the device’s diminutive enclosure means the CPU inside must be actively cooled. There’s just not enough space in there for a...
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In addition to ushering in a tidal wave of new notebooks and mobile devices, Intel’s Broadwell microarchitecture has also found its way into a plethora of recently introduced small form factor systems. We have already taken a look at a couple of them, like the excellent Intel NUC NUC5i5RYK and Gigabyte Brix S BXi7H-5500.The low-power characteristics of Broadwell simply make it well suited to the tight spaces and constrained thermal envelopes of small form factor systems. But another side benefit of Broadwell is that it also allows manufacturers to cram higher performing parts into the same (or smaller) spaces than previous-gen, Haswell-based parts.Take the Intel NUC5i7RYH we’re going to show...
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Intel is readying its latest generation of NUC small form factor systems, based on the company’s recently-released Broadwell-U processors. We got our hands on a Core i5-powered version dubbed the NUC5i5RYK. To be more specific, this little machine is packing a Core i5-5250U processor with on-die Intel HD 6000 series graphics. The system also sports built-in 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Gigabit Ethernet, USB 3.0 and USB 2.0, M.2 SSD support, and a host of other features. We’re still readying our full review, but in the meantime we thought you’d like to take a peek at the diminutive Intel NUC5i5RYK to get a sense of what the system can do. As you’ll see, not only is the machine nice and small, but it packs...
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ZOTAC has a number of new products it's anxious to show off at next week's CES, with its ZBOX series getting quite a big share of the love. Of course, it wouldn't be a ZOTAC showing without some graphics cards on hand, so those can be expected as well. The product that stands out most to me is the refreshed ZBOX E-series, as these little router-sized PCs boast some lofty features. Would you believe, for example, that NVIDIA's G-SYNC is fully supported? That's made possible with the inclusion of NVIDIA's GeForce 860M. And while G-SYNC might not matter to you too much, 4K might, and fortunately, this same PC supports that resolution no problem up to 60Hz. Also worthy of note is the ZBOX CI321 'nano'...
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The small form factor market has seen a ton of innovation as of late, and while it’s quite nice to have so many tiny PC options that offer generally impressive performance in a package that you can stick just about anywhere (often with price tags that make these machines affordable enough as your second PC), system builders need to work harder than ever to differentiate their products. Zotac has decided to take a stab at a radical chassis design with its Zbox OI520 Plus “Sphere”, and indeed, the black orb will make you do a double-take when you see it. It’s small. It’s spherical. It’s certainly different. And it has an icy blue LED light band around its entire...
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The small form factor market has seen a ton of innovation as of late, and while it’s quite nice to have so many tiny PC options that offer generally impressive performance in a package that you can stick just about anywhere (often with price tags that make these machines affordable enough as your second PC), system builders need to work harder than ever to differentiate their products. Zotac has decided to take a stab at a radical chassis design with its Zbox OI520 Plus “Sphere”, and indeed, the black orb will make you do a double-take when you see it. It’s small. It’s spherical. It’s certainly different. And it has an icy blue LED light band around its...
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Zotac is busy on the mini PC front, and the company has a quartet of the little buggers to show off at Computex. The four fanless systems all bear the C-Series moniker and run either AMD A6 APUs or Intel Core i3, i5, or i7 chips. “Many users demand a completely silent PC for audio production, video and audio editing, content playback and other tasks,” said senior director of Zotac International Carsten Berger. “After many years of engineering to fine tune power and heat requirements, ZOTAC is able to deliver passive cooled mini-PCs.” The C-Series ZBOX nano machines have a honeycomb chassis design with a large internal heatsink for maximum heat dissipation. The regular...
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Zotac is starting off its CES 2013 by announcing a pair of new ZBOX mini-PCs, with the 3rd-generation ZBOX (ID42) leading the way and packing revamped specs. “After many years of research and development, ZOTAC is able to integrate desktop components and discrete graphics into our award-winning ZBOX mini-PC for greater flexibility and performance capabilities,” said Carsten Berger, marketing director, ZOTAC International. Upgrades included dual Gigabit Ethernet ports that support teaming, dual external WiFi antennas, and an improved cooling system that boasts triple the ventilation area of the previous generation. It also sports an Intel dual-core processor and an NVIDIA GeForce 610...
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Stealth.com is pumped about its latest mini PC, calling it “the most powerful and advanced small form PC we have offered to date.” There’s a case to be made there, as the tiny LPC-680 LittlePC (6.5 x 6 x 2 inches) supports Intel Core i3/i5/i7 Sandy Bridge processors and sports 8GB of DDR3 memory, and a 2.5-inch 750GB HDD or SSD. The machine doesn’t lack in the I/O department with two USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, DVI-I, DisplayPort, Gigabit LAN, optional WiFi 802.11n, RS232, and audio in/out jacks. Somehow, Stealth.com also squeezed in a slim optical drive, which comes stock as a DVD/CD-RW drive but can be upgraded to a Blu-ray burner. For power, the LPC-680 LittlePC...
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MSI added two new energy-saving, low-noise, entertainment-oriented models to its Wind Box mini-PC series: the Wind Box DE220 and Wind Box DC220. Both mini-PCs use the latest Intel Pine Trail platform for low energy consumption. Thanks to MSI’s noise reduction technology, the positioning of the system components, the fan and the direction of air-flow in the units, overall system noise is under 24dB. The units can be attached to the back of any LCD to create an All-in-One PC. The Wind Box DE220 features an ATI Radeon HD 4300 graphics processor with support for Full-HD 1080p video playback and a HDMI output. No word yet on pricing or availability. Ultra-Low Energy Consumption, Ultra-Effective Noise...
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This morning HardOCP checks in with an interesting piece on the real benefits of SLI in gaming. After that, there are a couple of mini-PCs worth checking out from Shuttle and Soltek. Rounding things out is Gigabyte video card that got Hardwarezoom so excited, they posted a preview. Check It! HardOCP has an editorial questioning whether SLI is falling short in gaming: "The bottom line is NVIDIA is going to have to kick it up several notches on the driver side if they want SLI to impact the marketplace. The optimal solution is to make it so SLI is completely transparent to games so they don't have to create a profile for each game allowing SLI to "just work." Unfortunately,...
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