Gigabyte Brix Ultra Compact PC Kit

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geek4me

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#119328 28-May-2013 15:06

I see Gigabyte have just announced the release of their new Brix ultra compact PC kit here. I like the look of these and look forward to them being available in NZ. What price they will be asking with models in the Celeron, I3, I5 and I7 range? Do these appeal to other Geekzoner's? For me price will be an important factor in deciding whether to buy.

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#827134 28-May-2013 15:43

That looks remarkably like the Intel NUC...

Would be interesting to see how they differ in performance and price.

CYaBro

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#827141 28-May-2013 15:55

I see it has USB3.0 which the Intel NUC lacks and they include a wifi card so price will be interesting.

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#827144 28-May-2013 15:59

Yes. The Intel NUC comes with USB 2.0 and Thunderbolt (depending on model). Now to actually find a Thunderbolt device...

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#827226 28-May-2013 18:19

I saw the intel NUC the other day.
They have a cool thing on the box when you open it, it makes the intel sound.
But i didnt think the pricing was too great once you factor in the total cost of the build.

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chevrolux

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#827244 28-May-2013 18:37

Pretty much indentical to the NUC. Perhaps it is OEM'd off Intel or maybe another brand?

I really like the Intel NUC. I have used a couple now to run Unifi Controllers. Sure we can build a cheaper box but it is always cumbersome especially in a cafe or bar where the network gear might just be on a shelf. Lower power and capable of all sorts. The bracket is so awesome too!

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#827248 28-May-2013 18:57

I like the NUCs too, have sold about 20 of them so far to different clients and they all love them as well.
Just building three more as I type this.

I also just noticed that the BRIX only has 2xUSB ports, that's too low, even the three on the NUC was a problem in a few installs for me.
Yes you can add a hub but that kind of defeats the purpose of the tiny size.

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#827267 28-May-2013 19:41

I think I'll pick up an i5 model to test with. These make the perfect XBMC machines for attaching to the back of a television.

USB 3.0 is a nice tough.

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geek4me

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#827729 29-May-2013 13:59

Please post pricing here when it becomes available. Look forward to any test results as well.

geek4me

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#955974 21-Dec-2013 20:53

It's been 7 months since I started this thread on the Gigabyte Brix mini PC. Has anyone bought one of these and are you happy with it? Did you buy the bare bones PC or get one with Memory and mSATA SSD? Appreciate any comments or review you can give.

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#1004231 12-Mar-2014 14:00

geek4me: It's been 7 months since I started this thread on the Gigabyte Brix mini PC. Has anyone bought one of these and are you happy with it? Did you buy the bare bones PC or get one with Memory and mSATA SSD? Appreciate any comments or review you can give.

Got my i3 version last week, and the memory/mSATA SSD just arrived. Going to put it together tonight, with Windows 7 Media Center/HDHomerun...

lchiu7

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#1006899 16-Mar-2014 21:19

Well I bought one of these when I was in the US in January but had it shipped home because I didn't want to carry it and anyway, Amazon had free shipping.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FYKNCTC/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1This is the lowest spec model they have with the Celeron.

I also bought this drive for it

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ELQZCSE/ref=oh_details_o01_s01_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1and 2GB of used SODIMMS from Trademe.

I thought 64GB would be fine since this is for a PVR and the rest of the drive can be USB (2.0). Note the lower end models cannot take SATA drives, even SSD's.

I installed Windows 8 on it first and it runs very fast, booting up in about 15 seconds and running apps pretty snappily.

I have since then put XP (!) on it by cloning my current PVR running GBPVR and XP and putting the (Acronis) clone directly onto the mSATA drive. Surprisingly it booted up fine. I can't easily upgrade to Windows 7 or 8 for the PVR since the latest version of GBPVR viz. NPVR doesn't seem to have a built-in IR learning and emitter feature whic I need to control the cable box.

About the only issue I have with it is the lack of USB ports. There are only two USB ports on it. One is for keyboard and mouse and the other has to serve a USB drive, USB UIRT, USB DVB-T tuner and USB MPEG2 capture device for Vodafone cable TV.

I drive a 1080P 6-in plasma using HDMI and it looks fine. I have no audio with it since audio is only available over HDMI and I am sure there are no audio drivers for XP.

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#1006901 16-Mar-2014 21:22

Installed Windows 7 Media Center on mine this weekend. So much quieter than the Dell Zino HD and what difference four years make in speed (plus 4GB and mSATA SSD).

Running pretty well here.