Mini-PC
One of the perks of modern mobile CPUs is that, being designed for laptops and their very limited cooling capacity, they can be placed in a NUC-sized (or smaller) miniature desktop PC with little difficulty. Better still, with desktops providing room for proper heatsinks (i.e. fins), even passively cooled mini-PCs using laptop-grade silicon are more than viable. The only real drawback to these mini-PCs has largely been the niche nature of the market – leading to high prices and limited choices for higher-performing systems – which is why Topgro has been turning heads as of late with the release of their aggressively priced Intel 12th Gen Core-based K3 Mini PC. Topgro is not a household name, but it sells a collection of compact desktop PCs...
Zotac Updates ZBOX mini-PC Lineup at CES
Zotac had announcements in multiple segments at CES. Obviously, the SSD entry was the big talking point with the PCIe variant boasting good performance numbers. Zotac also had a...
14 by Ganesh T S on 1/16/2016
CES 2016: MSI’s Vortex Gaming PC on Display and It Looks Almost Like a Mac Pro
One of the most interesting PC designs to come out in recent years was that of the Mac Pro. Sure, it looked like a cylinder into which one might...
28 by Ian Cutress on 1/14/2016
CES 2016: GIGABYTE’s Double Length Gaming BRIX
The BRIX mini-PC line from GIGABYTE is an odd internal mashup within the company whereby the server business unit designs it, but the consumer arm does the marketing and...
12 by Ian Cutress on 1/12/2016
Intel Expands Compute Stick Family with Cherry Trail and Core M Models
The desktop PC market is seeing growth only in two areas - the gaming high-end and the mini-PCs (in the NUC form factor). Intel has been strengthening its offerings...
34 by Ganesh T S on 1/11/2016
Zotac ZBOX MAGNUS EN970 Review - A Gaming mini-PC Done Right
In the course of our coverage of mini-PCs, we have seen offerings from vendors such as ASRock, GIGABYTE and Zotac targeting the gaming market. Usually, 'mini' doesn't fit the...
88 by Ganesh T S on 9/28/2015
ECS LIVA x2 Review: A Compact & Fanless Braswell PC
The popularity of the NUC form factor has led to a resurgence in the nettop category. Thankfully, the core computing performance of the new systems have been miles ahead...
30 by Ganesh T S on 8/24/2015
Intel Launches New Socketed 5x5 mini-PC Motherboards
Over the last couple of years, the ultra-compact form factor (UCFF) has emerged as one of the bright spots in the troubled PC market. Kickstarted by Intel's NUC (Next...
44 by Ganesh T S on 8/24/2015
ASRock Beebox Review: A Fanless Braswell UCFF PC
ASRock had taken an early lead in serving the mini-PC market, thanks to its Core / Vision series units. Based on motherboards meant for the notebook market (smaller than...
45 by Ganesh T S on 7/14/2015
The MSI Gaming Booth Tour with dGPUs in AIOs and Notebooks plus Motherboards
It has been held as fact that for the past couple of years, gaming is helping to prop up a slowly decreasing desktop PC market. While many casual PC...
50 by Ian Cutress on 6/29/2015
ASUS GR Series Goes Broadwell i5-5200U: The GR6
At Computex last year ASUS formally announced its mini-PC platform in the shape of the GR8. It was designed to fit within a bookcase on a shelf and act...
25 by Ian Cutress on 4/15/2015
GIGABYTE GB-BXi7H-5500 Broadwell BRIX Review
Over the last couple of years, the ultra-compact form factor (UCFF) has emerged as one of the bright spots in the troubled PC market. Intel's NUC and GIGABYTE's BRIX...
53 by Ganesh T S on 1/29/2015
ASRock VisionX 471D Review - Evolutionary Upgrades for a Powerful mini-PC
ASRock has been one of the few motherboard vendors to focus on mini-PCs targeting the HTPC and portable gaming markets. Starting from the ION-based nettop days, they have consistently...
30 by Ganesh T S on 1/26/2015
ECS LIVA X Review: A Fanless Bay Trail-M mini-PC
Over the last couple of years, mini-PCs in the ultra-compact form factor (UCFF) have emerged as one of the bright spots in the troubled PC market. ECS first took...
35 by Ganesh T S on 1/16/2015
Zotac Updates ZBOX mini-PC Lineup at CES 2015
Zotac's ZBOX series of mini-PCs has been receiving lots of updates over the last year or so. In addition to the traditional ZBOX (which, in itself, was small enough...
12 by Ganesh T S on 1/14/2015
Intel Updates the NUC at CES 2015 with Broadwell-U
The big topic going in to CES was the launch of Broadwell-U, Intel’s 14 nanometer 5th generation Core products for laptops, mini-PCs and all-in-ones, with rated TDPs of 15W...
32 by Ian Cutress on 1/12/2015
GIGABYTE BRIX Gaming BXi5G-760 mini-PC Review
GIGABYTE's BRIX Pro (using an Intel Iris Pro part) has made a big splash in the market, particularly as a Steam machine. Enthused by its success, GIGABYTE has introduced...
36 by Ganesh T S on 9/15/2014
ECS Reveals LIVA Product Roadmap
The PC market is warming up to the ECS LIVA 'nettop' that we reviewed back in July. The fanless nature and low cost, as well as 'good-enough' performance serve...
3 by Ganesh T S on 9/4/2014
VisionX 420D Review: ASRock's mini-PC Lineup Continues to Impress
ASRock has been one of the few motherboard vendors to focus on mini-PCs targeting the HTPC and portable gaming markets. Starting from the ION-based nettop days, they have consistently...
30 by Ganesh T S on 9/1/2014
Zotac ZBOX EI750 Plus: A Feature-Rich Iris Pro mini-PC
Intel's Crystal Well parts (-R series) with integrated eDRAM have arguably been the most interesting products in the Haswell line-up. In the early stages, only Apple had access to...
34 by Ganesh T S on 8/25/2014
ECS’ LIVA Mini-PC, now in 64GB White
Ganesh recently reviewed the ECS LIVA, a mini-PC aimed at the nettop market to replace basic office machines, library computers coming out of XP support and digital signage, among...
1 by Ian Cutress on 8/4/2014
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