Shortly after unveiling two tiny, fanless computers with low-power Intel Apollo Lake processors, Gigabyte is expanding the lineup with a slightly larger model featuring a significantly more powerful Core i3-7100U Kaby Lake chip.
It’s called the Gigabyte BRIXÂ GB-EKi3A-7100 Â and it’s basically a computer with the guts of a decent laptop, but crammed into a small box with a big heat sink for passive cooling and silent operation.
You could use the computer for commercial, industrial, or home applications. For the right price, I’d totally be tempted to pick up something like this for use in my office, since a silent PC would be great for recording podcasts and videos. Unfortunately, the pricing hasn’t been announced yet.
The new BRIX mini PC measures about 7.1″ x 4.6″ x 1.4″ and supports up to 32GB of DDR4-2133 memory (with 2 SODIMM slots) and features an M.2 2280 slot for solid state storage.
Other features include:
- HDMI 2.;0
- Mini DisplayPort 1.2
- 1 USB 3.1 Type-C port
- 1 USB 3.1 port
- 2 USB 3.0 ports
- 802.11ac WiFi
- Bluetooth 4.2
- Gigabit Ethernet
- Headset jack
- RS232 COM port
With a 15 watt, dual-core processor, the GB-EKi3A-7100 isn’t exactly a speed demon. But it should be better suited for general purpose computing than the Apollo Lake models with their cheaper, less powerful 6 watt quad-core chips.
via Fanless Tech
Damn… if they’re push something similar out with the new APUs I might just fall in love.
RS232 COM port? Huh?