Quite a few companies have jumped onto the mini PC bandwagon in the wake of Intel’s NUC form factor. Most motherboard manufacturers, for instance, have a presence and we saw Asus’ Core i5-4210U-based VivoMini. Gigabyte is certainly no stranger to tiny PCs either, and its BRIX range of bare bones units has even included a GTX 760 GPU before now. This month, we’re looking at its latest Intel Broadwell-based BRIX S GB-BXi5H-5200. As its name suggests, this model uses an Intel Core i5-5200U, which launched earlier this year and is identical to the mobile CPU found in the latest laptops and ultrabooks.
It has a base frequency of 2.2GHz butit also supports Turbo Boost, so it can ramp up to 2.7GHz when under load. Similarly, it can drop down to just 600MHz under light loads, dropping the TDP from a maximum of 15W to just 7.5W. The BXi5H itself comes in barebones form with no storage or memory, although mini PC specialistwww.ambros.co.uk provided our customised sample, which comes with 8GB of RAM, a 1TB Samsung hard disk and a 120GB Kingston mSATA SSD. The bare bones option costs £324 inc VAT, while our sample, which includes Windows 8.1 pre-installed along with an M.2 (Type 2230/30mm) Intel Wireless-AC 3160 card, will set you back £630, but you can customise the system to use less RAM or just include an SSD for example. The full system price also includes a oneyear parts and labour warranty from Ambros. Apart from the plastic lid, the case is made from steel and aluminium. Like Intel’s NUC systems, there’s a U-shaped fan for cooling, which exhausts air through the rear of the case. There are plenty of ports too, with a full-sized HDMI port along with a mini-DisplayPort, and four USB 3 ports split between the front and rear of the case. There’s also a combined headphone/microphone mini-jack and Gigabit Ethernet port. The only noteworthy omission when compared to the VivoMini is an SD card reader.
It has a base frequency of 2.2GHz butit also supports Turbo Boost, so it can ramp up to 2.7GHz when under load. Similarly, it can drop down to just 600MHz under light loads, dropping the TDP from a maximum of 15W to just 7.5W. The BXi5H itself comes in barebones form with no storage or memory, although mini PC specialistwww.ambros.co.uk provided our customised sample, which comes with 8GB of RAM, a 1TB Samsung hard disk and a 120GB Kingston mSATA SSD. The bare bones option costs £324 inc VAT, while our sample, which includes Windows 8.1 pre-installed along with an M.2 (Type 2230/30mm) Intel Wireless-AC 3160 card, will set you back £630, but you can customise the system to use less RAM or just include an SSD for example. The full system price also includes a oneyear parts and labour warranty from Ambros. Apart from the plastic lid, the case is made from steel and aluminium. Like Intel’s NUC systems, there’s a U-shaped fan for cooling, which exhausts air through the rear of the case. There are plenty of ports too, with a full-sized HDMI port along with a mini-DisplayPort, and four USB 3 ports split between the front and rear of the case. There’s also a combined headphone/microphone mini-jack and Gigabit Ethernet port. The only noteworthy omission when compared to the VivoMini is an SD card reader.
The BXi5H sports a VESA monitor mount, allowing you to fix the case to the rear of compatible monitors to save space, although the base is equipped with small rubber feet so it’s equally at home on a desk. The actual PCB is devoid of SATA connectors, but there’s a proprietary connector that both powers and provides a data connection for 2.5in SATA hard disks or SSDs, with a 2.5in mount in the base, where the 1TB Samsung hard disk in our sample is located.
As per usual with this type of motherboard, there are two SODIMM slots that support up to 8GB of RAM per slot and these slots, as well as the mSATA slot, are all easily accessible by popping off the base section if you’re planning to install your own hardware. Performance As the first Broadwell-based CPU to come through our lab, the Core i5-5200U’s reputation preceded it. Thankfully, we weren’t disappointed. It was considerably faster than both Haswell Core i5 chips we’ve previously reviewed in similar mini systems, including the Core i5-4210U in the Asus VivoMini. The image editing test saw it add another 4,500 points to the score of the VivoMini and over 7,000 to the score of the Core i5-4250U – equivalent to 14 per cent and 26 per cent faster respectively. It was a similar story to the other tests, with the BXi5H’s system score being over 7 per cent quicker than that of the VivoMini. Of course, the main focus of Broadwell is improving power efficiency, and the BXi5H impressed here too. Despite having a 2.5in hard disk in tow compared to the other systems, it consumed just 1W more power at idle and its load power draw was 4W lower than the Core i5-4210Upowered VivoMini too. Sadly, when we disconnected the hard disk, the BXi5H failed to boot, so we couldn’t get into Windows to obtain results without the hard disk installed, but under load, it consumes nearly 13 per cent less power than the VivoMini. The Core i5-5200U doesn’t add much more gaming performance to the equation, though, as our Skyrim test
/SPECIFICATIONS
CPUIntel Core i5-5200U
Memory support2 x SODIMM slots: max 16GB DDR3 (up to 1,600MHz, 1.35V)
NetworkingGigabit LAN, 802.11ac Wi-Fi
Ports4 x USB 3, miniDisplayPort, HDMI
Storage2.5in drive bay, mSATA slot, M.2 Type 2230/30mm slot
Dimensions (mm) 114 x 108 x 47
