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Review: Gigabyte Brix Gaming (GB-BXi5G-760)

by Parm Mann on 17 July 2014, 16:30

Tags: Gigabyte (TPE:2376), Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA)

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qacgpn

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Test Methodology

Comparison Systems
System Name Gigabyte Brix Gaming Gigabyte Brix Pro Intel NUC D54250WYK PC Specialist Magma A10 PC Specialist Vanquish Mini 130 Zotac Zbox Nano ID69 Plus Zotac Zbox Sphere OI520
CPU Intel Core i5-4200H @ up to 3.4GHz Intel Core i7-4770R @ up to 3.9GHz Intel Core i5-4250U @ up to 2.6GHz AMD A10-7850K @ up to 4.0GHz Intel Core i3-4130 @ 3.4GHz Intel Core i7-4500U @ up to 3.0GHz Intel Core i5-4200U @ up to 2.6GHz
CPU Cores / Threads 2 / 4 4 / 8 2 / 4 4 / 4 2 / 4 2 / 4 2 / 4
CPU TDP 47W 65W 15W 95W 54W 15W 15W
CPU Cooler Gigabyte Brix Gaming reference Gigabyte Brix Pro reference Intel NUC reference AMD reference Intel reference Zotac Zbox Nano reference Zotac Zbox Sphere reference
Motherboard Gigabyte M4HM8AP Gigabyte M4HM87P NUC QS87 reference Asus A88XM-Plus Asus H81I-Plus Zotac reference Zotac reference
Memory G.Skill 8GB DDR3 (2x4GB) (added) G.Skill 8GB DDR3 (2x4GB) (added) Corsair 8GB DDR3 (2x4GB) (added) Kingston Hyper-X Beast 8GB DDR3 (2x4GB) Kingston Hyper-X Genesis 8GB DDR3 (2x4GB) Crucial 4GB DDR3 (1x4GB) Crucial 4GB DDR3 (1x4GB)
Memory Speed 11-11-11-28-1T @ 1,600MHz 11-11-11-28-1T @ 1,600MHz 11-13-13-30-2T @ 1,600MHz 11-1211-30-1T @ 2,133MHz 11-11-11-28-1T @ 1,600MHz 11-11-11-28-1T @ 1,600MHz 11-11-11-28-1T @ 1,600MHz
Integrated Graphics - Intel Iris Pro 5200 Intel HD 5000 AMD Radeon R7 - Intel HD 4400 Intel HD 4400
Dedicated Graphics Nvidia GeForce GTX 760 6GB - - - Palit GeForce GTX 660 2GB - -
Sound Card Onboard audio Onboard audio Onboard audio Onboard audio Onboard audio Onboard audio Onboard audio
Storage 180GB Intel mSATA SSD (added) 180GB Intel mSATA SSD (added) 128GB Plextor M5M mSATA SSD (added) 1TB Seagate ST1000DX001 SSHD 1TB Toshiba HDD 500GB Samsung ST500LM012 HDD 500GB Samsung ST500LM012 HDD
Optical Drive - - - Samsung DVD Writer Lite-On DVD Writer - -
PSU Delta Electronics (180W, external) Gigabyte (135W, external) Intel NUC (65W, external) Corsair VS350 (350W, internal) Corsair VS450 (450W, internal) Delta Electronics (65W, external) Delta Electronics (65W, external)
Chassis Gigabyte Brix Gaming Gigabyte Brix Pro Intel NUC Aerocool DS Cube Red Edition Cooler Master Elite 130 Zotac Zbox Nano Zotac Zbox Sphere
Operating System Windows 8.1 (64-bit, added) Windows 8.1 (64-bit, added) Windows 8.1 (64-bit, added) Windows 8.1 (64-bit) Windows 8.1 (64-bit) Windows 8.1 (64-bit, added) Windows 8.1 (64-bit, added)
Standard Warranty Two years Two years Two years Three years (one-year collect-and-return, one-year parts, three-year labour) Three years (one-year collect-and-return, one-year parts, three-year labour) Two years Two years
Approx. Build Cost £800 £750 £450 £469 £550 £600 £420

CPU Benchmarks
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 and Storage Benchmarks
AIDA64 Benchmark that analyses memory bandwidth and latency.
CrystalDiskMark Popular free-to-use storage benchmark, used to gauge sequential performance and aggregated 4K QD32 speeds.

System and Gaming Benchmarks
PCMark 8 System-wide examination that uses the Home preset, run with OpenCL acceleration.
3DMark DX11, run at the Firestrike default test.
Aliens vs. Predator 1,920x1,080 resolution, 2xAA, 4xAF, medium quality.

Miscellaneous Benchmarks
Power Consumption Noted for system idling, under HandBrake video-transcoding load, and for GPU playing Aliens vs. Predator.
Temperature Noted for CPU idling, under HandBrake video-transcoding load, and for GPU playing Aliens vs. Predator.

Notes

We have the Brix Gaming mini-PC outfitted with 8GB (2x4GB) of G.Skill DDR3 memory, an 180GB Intel mSATA SSD and a 64-bit install of Windows 8.1, taking total build cost up close to £800. The same components were used to benchmark the Brix Pro, and we have a range of other mini-PCs available for comparison, as well as a couple of small-form-factor desktops.


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