Brix GB-BPCE-3455

[hojnikb]

Any ideas on when it's going to be available in Europe ?

Also, i can't seem to find anything regarding whether it's passive or active cooled.

 

[hojnikb]

Just got back from gigabyte support, it's actively cooled, so it's off my list

 

[VirtualLarry]

I'm looking forward to this Brix unit too. It's good that it's actively-cooled. My J1900 Brix units are also actively-cooled, and I can't even really hear them. (Unlike the AMD mobile Richland quad-core Brix, that generated quite a windstorm trying to keep it cool.)

I have passively-cooled Bay Trail Atom quad-core Compute Sticks, and a passively-cooled Cherry Trail Z8300 Atom "TV box" with Win10; both are unreliable, mostly due to passive cooling.

IMHO, the active cooling on my J1900 Brix is done right. There's the problem with Linux on those boxes, that require you to essentially disable the power-saving C-states, so active cooling is essential for those boxes.

http://techreport.com/news/30892/gigabyte-builds-brix-on-apollo-lake-socs

"Given the 10W-or-less nature of the SoCs inside the new Brixes, we'd expect them to be fanless. Update: Alan from Gigabyte tells us that the quad-core 3455 model has a fan, while the dual-core 3350 model is fanless."

According to that article, the quad Atom has a fan, while the dual is fanless. I still want the quad.

 

[hojnikb]

those small fans are just a no go for me. I'm pretty annoyed by any fan noise, especially whines, that some of those smaller fans produce.
So when i'm using this on my couch i want _absolute_ silence which passive cooling is the way to go.
Currently have a Z3735F box, which is also passively cooled. It works ok (only throttles when there's lots of load on it) but cpu is just too weak for comfortable multitab browsing and it only has 2GB of ram (chromium doesn't like that).

So looks like i'm gonna have to pull a trigger on the CI523 (i3 6100u, fanless) unless they come up with kaby lake models sometime soon.

>"Given the 10W-or-less nature of the SoCs inside the new Brixes, we'd expect them to be fanless. Update: Alan from Gigabyte tells us that the quad-core 3455 model has a fan, while the dual-core 3350 model is fanless."

According to that article, the quad Atom has a fan, while the dual is fanless. I still want the quad.


If they can do 6W tdp passivly, than something like n4200 or n3450 is a possibility, since they have the same tdp as dual cores. Hopefully they will include them soon.

 

[you2]

What you want is an itx thin form factor. This is specifically design for fanless systems and can be found with faster processors than the worthless atom. The catch is that they are a bit larger (tend to be 8x8x2); the idea is that the case becomes a giant heat-sink for the cpu. last year there were a few for sale on amazon (up-to mobile i7) but i haven't looked in a while as the nuc size fans don''t bother me that much.

 

[hojnikb]

What you want is an itx thin form factor. This is specifically design for fanless systems and can be found with faster processors than the worthless atom. The catch is that they are a bit larger (tend to be 8x8x2); the idea is that the case becomes a giant heat-sink for the cpu. last year there were a few for sale on amazon (up-to mobile i7) but i haven't looked in a while as the nuc size fans don''t bother me that much.

This seems interesting. Have any links to such combos ?

 

[you2]

caveat I am not recommending this computer; I just did a google search and took the first one I found to give you some ideas of components; I have NOT veted this specific build or company:
http://www.cappuccinopc.com/Mica_T8...puter_PC.asp?gclid=CIWDzNzHkdACFQYHhgodNfwIew

 

[JeffMD]

I think any UCFF with an i3 ULV active cool should be fine. They may need a fan but they run quiet and don't need to ramp up to much on load. That skylake passive UCFF is crazy. Case temps of 72c, and it throttles on load. So what you gain in fan silence is replaced with the need for better ventilation and heat stress on your components.

 

[cbn]

caveat I am not recommending this computer; I just did a google search and took the first one I found to give you some ideas of components; I have NOT veted this specific build or company:
http://www.cappuccinopc.com/Mica_T8...puter_PC.asp?gclid=CIWDzNzHkdACFQYHhgodNfwIew

That looks like it uses the Akasa Euler S case:

http://www.akasa.com.tw/update.php?tpl=product/product.detail.tpl&no=181&type=Fanless Chassis&type_sub=Fanless Thin Mini ITX&model=A-ITX10-A1B

These are known to cool up to a 35W processor like this one.

EDIT: SPCR found this case to work well with a 55W Ivy Bridge Pentium:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1321-page5.html

The cooling capability of the Euler is good enough for a Pentium G2120's 55W TDP, so anything in that range or lower would be perfectly good.

I suspect part of this has to do with most 55W Pentiums not really having a 55W TDP whereas a Ivy Bridge Core i3 (which is a higher bin with more features enabled) would be much closer to 55W.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1321-page4.html

The 55W TDP of the Pentium G2120 turned out to be a false alarm. Since the AC power draw never exceeds 55W, there's no way it could possibly pull 55W by itself, at least not with our torture test apps.

 

[you2]

Yep, I've read up on the akasa euler case (there are others as well as pico psu for use with it); was merely providing a link to a complete build so the op could get some ideas. There are alternatives to the akasa case (silverstone has one for example). There was a chinese company selling complete systems at a reasonable price on amazon last year but they no longer do so. It is not a common form factor and thin itx boards can range from close out $70 to scarce $400 beast depending on the phase of the moon.

 

[hojnikb]

Those cases are too big for my use case. Need a NUC type deal, like brix, but passively cooled. Obviously small case and passive cooling usually doesn't play well, but something like N4200 could easily be cooled passively.


So what i'm looking is quad core (or big core 2 core like i3),passive cooling and small footprint.

 

[cbn]

ASUS might have a fanless quad core Apollo lake for you based on this fanless Vivo Mini PC with N3700:

https://www.asus.com/Mini-PCs/VivoMini-UN45/specifications/

ASRock too (but they didn't list Pentium for the Braswell generation, so I don't know if there would be a Apollo Lake Pentium version):

http://www.asrock.com/microsite/beebox/

P.S. I found those PCs from the following fanless tech roundup---> http://www.fanlesstech.com/2016/10/fanless-nuc-roundup-2016.html

 

[hojnikb]

ASUS might have a fanless quad core Apollo lake for you based on this fanless Vivo Mini PC with N3700:

https://www.asus.com/Mini-PCs/VivoMini-UN45/specifications/

ASRock too (but they didn't list Pentium for the Braswell generation, so I don't know if there would be a Apollo Lake Pentium version):

http://www.asrock.com/microsite/beebox/

P.S. I found those PCs from the following fanless tech roundup---> http://www.fanlesstech.com/2016/10/fanless-nuc-roundup-2016.html

Vivo is active cooled on quad cores, only n3000 is passive cooled.

I think the only realistic option is Zotac with their C series. They got up to i5 passive cooled (with some throttling). But still unsuitable for future proof media device, give how it doesn't have hdmi 2.0 or hardware hevc 10 bit (only via gpu).

 

[cbn]

Vivo is active cooled on quad cores, only n3000 is passive cooled.

I think the only realistic option is Zotac with their C series. They got up to i5 passive cooled (with some throttling). But still unsuitable for future proof media device, give how it doesn't have hdmi 2.0 or hardware hevc 10 bit (only via gpu).

My mistake, I missed that detail on the ASUS (and the ASRock). N3000 is 4W while the others are 6W.

P.S. Later on, I will make a thread on passive and HDMI 2.0 to see what future options would be.

 

[hojnikb]

http://www.fanlesstech.com/2016/11/ecs-liva-z-apollo-lake-coming-soon.html

this looks like the first potential candidate. Hopefully esc releases it soon.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Any availability update on these Apollo Lake Brix units?

 

[VirtualLarry]

That was Nov. 2016, now it's Feb. 2017, still no show?