Items tagged with SFF
PC enthusiasts and hardcore gamers are passionate about their hardware. We all lust after expensive, high-performance CPUs, GPUs, monstrous RAM kits, and ultra-fast solid state storage devices. But for many of us, top of the line PC components may be overkill, and in some situations, a more mainstream rig will do just fine. That’s the crux...
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Intel's successful line of NUC (Next Unit of Computing) mini PCs have done well for the company, for various use cases where an ultra-small form factor computer might come in handy. In areas where a PC either needs to stay out of sight, blend in with its surroundings or squeeze in places where other, larger computers...
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Face the facts: if you want a pre-built PC that can play virtually any game at high resolutions with high-quality settings, you're going to have to pay a princely sum. While you could probably build your own PC for less than a pre-built system, boutique builders typically offer a number of benefits in the form of guaranteed overclocks or custom...
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One of the myriad 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...
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We dug the original Intel Compute Stick that launched last year. If you recall, the original Compute Stick was a tiny, Atom-powered device that could turn any HDMI-equipped display into a basic PC. The low-power nature of the Compute Stick meant it was ideally suited for every-day, less-demanding computing tasks, and...
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It’s been a while since we gave away a full-fledged gaming PC. And since Spring is finally here, we thought what better way to say good-bye to the terrible weather and usher in the spring season than to give away an awesome gaming rig? We have teamed up with our friends at CyberPower’s Syber Gaming division and have...
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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...
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We first got an official look at the Intel Compute Stick earlier this year, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. In one of those “But wait! There’s more!” kind of moments common at trade shows, one of the good folks at Intel that was previously showing off a few upcoming NUC systems pulled a tiny device from his...
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Gigabyte's Brix line-up of small form factor systems is the company’s answer to the teeny, tiny NUC from Intel. These ridiculously small PCs pack all the power of a laptop, or a budget desktop, into a box small enough to fit in your palm. These wee PCs are marketed to non-gamers and people who need a basic, no-nonsense PC with a tiny footprint....
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As Intel (and other chip makers) have been able to shrink its processors, integrate more features, and reduce power requirements over the years, manufacturers have been able to fit them into smaller and smaller form factors. That means notebooks and tablets have gotten thinner, lighter, faster and more portable over the years, of course, but...
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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...
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Valve’s Steam Machine was all the rage at CES 2014 in Las Vegas, but as we enter 2015, the SteamOS gaming platform (and Valve’s tantalizing Steam Controller) are still works in progress. SteamOS hasn’t been written off, but Dell, which was one of the first PC makers to build a custom console-sized system for SteamOS...
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SFF (small form factor) rigs can be tricky; depending on the configuration, they can be decent if underpowered machines or performance beasts, and although many system builders are putting out whole lines of the compact computers, you’ve in some cases only been able to configure them so much, often limited by...
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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...
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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...
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Small form factor PCs are all the rage these days, and the boutique builders are no exception. Increasingly, companies are looking for ways to push the envelope in terms of what they offer in a compact rig, and to that end Maingear built a liquid-cooled system called the Epic Torq. The system offers closed-loop liquid...
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There are lots of SFF PCs floating around these days, but the Zbox Sphere from Zotac is an odd duck among them. Instead of a tall and slim chassis or a tiny square-ish thing like a NUC, this PC is a sphere. (Er, hence the name.) It’s not just a gimmick to hear Zotac tell it, either; in a press release, Zotac actually calls it a “sphere...
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CyberPowerPC isn’t the only boutique gaming PC maker building tiny PCs this week. iBuypower announced a new rig of its own called the HEXA Ultra Compact Performance System, which is available in both Intel and AMD flavors. On the Intel side, the HEXA will come with the Intel Core i7-4770R with Intel Iris Pro 5200 graphics while the AMD...
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The SFF gaming PC craze is in full swing, and CyberPowerPC has lent the “Fang” moniker to a pair of the little beasts. The company is rolling out the Fang Mini R9 (which is based on an AMD platform) and the Fang Mini Pro (which is based on Intel), both of which are available today. How small is small? The...
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Intel's Haswell 4th generation Core series processors with Iris Pro Graphics (formerly known by the code name Crystal Well) offered the promise of more robust integrated graphics performance, since we first laid eyes on the Gigabyte-built device we're showcasing here today, back at CES 2014 in Las Vegas earlier this year. The Gigabyte BRIX...
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Mini PCs are big business these days, whether you consider devices like Valve's Steambox initiative, ASUS' Chromebox, Zotac's ZBox line or Intel's own NUC (Next Unit of Computing) mini PC. In fact, Intel has gone on record, projecting mini PCs like this have shipped over a million units in 2013 and are projected for strong growth this...
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Zotac has a new lineup of mini PCs that alternately rock Intel Core CPUs and AMD A8 APUs, and some of them are aimed at mainstream gamers. The Zotac Zbox E-Series offer Intel Iris Pro 5200 graphics with 128GB of EDRAM and Intel Pixel Sync technology and have quad-core Intel Core i7-4770R (3.2GHz) or Intel Core...
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