Review: Gigabyte Brix Pro (GB-BXi7-4770R)

Conclusion

As has been the case with most micro PCs, Gigabyte's Brix Pro is a sign of things to come. At some point in the not-too-distant future, high-performance PCs with bags of CPU speed and laudable game-playing ability will be delivered in small, table-top packages.

Upcoming Steam Machines offer a glimpse at the form factors of tomorrow, but if our time with the Brix Pro has taught us one thing, it's that going too small, too quickly won't necessarily deliver the best results.

Gigabyte has endowed its pint-sized box with a level of performance we've never seen in a system of this size. That much is certain, and the system really is ludicrously quick when outfitted with an SSD, however there are obvious provisos attached. The barebone price tag of £515 is expensive, the system clearly struggles to keep the 65W chip running cool under loud, and perhaps most vexing of all, fan noise is a real frustration.

Our admiration of what's possible in a palm-sized PC hasn't diminished, but Gigabyte has moved the goalposts and, right now, we're not convinced this level of performance is suited to a chassis as small as this. The current iteration is too compromised to tick all of the right boxes, but looking ahead, a refreshed Brix Pro with a lower-power, fifth-generation Intel Broadwell processor may well be worth waiting for.

The Good

Outstanding micro-PC performance
Intel Iris Pro integrated graphics
Will play games (at low quality)
Incredibly-small chassis
Sleek, stylish design

The Bad

CPU can get very hot under load
Fan noise is a frustration
Expensive for a barebone

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The Gigabyte Brix Pro barebone PC is available to purchase from Scan Computers*.

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