Test Methodology
Comparison Systems - Part One |
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| System Name | ASRock BeeBox | DinoPC Primal GT2 | Gigabyte Brix Gaming UHD | Gigabyte Brix | Gigabyte Brix S (2016) |
| Model | N300 | Primal GT2 | GB-BNi7HG4-950 | GB-BSi5T-6200 | GB-BKi5HA-7200 |
| CPU | Intel Celeron N3000 | Intel Core i5-6500 | Intel Core i7-6700HQ | Intel Core i5-6200U | Intel Core i5-7200U |
| CPU Base Clock | 1.04GHz | 3.2GHz | 2.6GHz | 2.3GHz | 2.5GHz |
| CPU Turbo Clock | 2.08GHz | 3.6GHz | 3.5GHz | 2.8GHz | 3.1GHz |
| CPU Cores / Threads | 2 / 2 | 4 / 4 | 4 / 8 | 2 / 4 | 2 / 4 |
| CPU TDP / SDP | 4W / 3W | 65W | 45W | 15W | 15W |
| Motherboard | ASRock N3000-NUC | Gigabyte Z170N-WiFi | Gigabyte MKHM17P | Gigabyte MKLP5BP | Gigabyte MFLP5AP |
| Memory | Team Group 4GB DDR3 (2x2GB) | Crucial 16GB DDR4 (2x8GB) | Crucial 16GB (2x8GB) | Samsung 32GB (2x16GB) | Kingston HyperX 16GB (2x8GB) |
| Memory Speed | 1,600MHz | 2,133MHz | 2,400MHz | 2,133MHz | 2,133MHz |
| Graphics | Intel HD Graphics | Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 ITX 4GB | Gigabyte GeForce GTX 950 4GB | Intel HD 520 | Intel HD 620 |
| Primary Storage | Team Group 128GB mSATA SSD | 240GB Kingston SSDNow V300 SSD | 512GB Samsung 950 Pro NVMe M.2 SSD | 256GB Toshiba NVMe M.2 SSD | 240GB Kingston HyperX Predator M.2 SSD |
| Secondary Storage | - | 1TB Seagate SSHD | - | - | - |
| PSU | Asian Power Devices (36W, external) | FSP FSP500-60HHN (500W, internal) | Delta Electronics (180W, external) | FSP Group (90W, external) | Asian Power Devices (65W, external) |
| Chassis | ASRock BeeBox | Fractal Design Core 500 | Gigabyte Brix Gaming UHD | Gigabyte Brix | Gigabyte Brix S |
| Operating System | Windows 10 (64-bit) | Windows 10 (64-bit) | Windows 10 (64-bit) | Windows 10 (64-bit) | Windows 10 (64-bit) |
| Date Reviewed | January 2016 | October 2015 | October 2016 | March 2016 | November 2016 |
| Cost As Reviewed | £270 | £899 | £1,300 | £665 | £630 |
Comparison Systems - Part Two |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| System Name | Gigabyte Brix S (2015) | Intel Compute Stick | Intel NUC Kit | MSI Cubi 2 |
| Model | GB-BXi5H-5200 | STCK1A32WFC | NUC5i5RYH | 014UK |
| CPU | Intel Core i5-5200U | Intel Atom Z3735F | Intel Core i5-5250U | Intel Core i3-7100U |
| CPU Base Clock | 2.2GHz | 1.33GHz | 1.6GHz | 2.4GHz |
| CPU Turbo Clock | 2.7GHz | 1.83GHz | 2.7GHz | - |
| CPU Cores / Threads | 2 / 4 | 4 / 4 | 2 / 4 | 2 / 4 |
| CPU TDP / SDP | 15W | - / 2.2W | 15W | 15W |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte MQLP5AP | Intel Compute Stick reference | Intel NUC5i5RYB | MSI MS-B1421 |
| Memory | Adata 8GB (2x4GB) | Soldered 2GB DDR3 (1x2GB) | Corsair Vengeance 16GB DDR3 (2x8GB) (added) | SK hynix 4GB DDR4 (1x4GB) |
| Memory Speed | 1,600MHz | 1,333MHz | 1,600MHz | 2,133MHz |
| Graphics | Intel HD 5500 | Intel HD Graphics | Intel HD 6000 | Intel HD 620 |
| Primary Storage | 120GB Kingston SSDNow mSATA SSD | 32GB eMMC | 240GB Crucial M500 SSD | 128GB Transcend MTS400 SSD |
| Secondary Storage | 1TB Seagate Momentus HDD | - | - | - |
| PSU | Asian Power Devices (65W, external) | Asian Power Devices (10W, external) | Intel NUC (65W, external) | Delta Electronics (65W, external) |
| Chassis | Gigabyte Brix S | Intel Compute Stick | Intel NUC | MSI Cubi 2 |
| Operating System | Windows 8.1 (64-bit) | Windows 8.1 (32-bit) | Windows 8.1 (64-bit) | Windows 10 (64-bit) |
| Date Reviewed | March 2015 | May 2015 | April 2015 | April 2017 |
| Cost As Reviewed | £665 | £130 | £535 | £450 |
CPU Benchmarks |
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| HEXUS PiFast | Our number-crunching PiFast test is used to benchmark the computational power of each system's CPU. | |||||||||||
| Cinebench | Using Cinebench's multi-CPU render, this cross-platform benchmark stresses as many cores as possible. | |||||||||||
| HandBrake | Free-to-use video encoder that stresses all CPU cores. | |||||||||||
| Memory, Storage and System Benchmarks | ||||||||||||
| AIDA64 | Benchmark that analyses memory bandwidth and latency. | |||||||||||
| CrystalDiskMark | Popular free-to-use storage benchmark, used to gauge sequential performance. | |||||||||||
Miscellaneous Benchmarks |
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| Power Consumption | Noted for system idling and under HandBrake video-transcoding load. | |||||||||||
| Temperature | Noted for CPU under HandBrake video-transcoding load. | |||||||||||
