ASRock Industrial has unveiled a bunch of new products powered by Intel Processor N97 chips based on Intel’s 12th-gen Alder Lake-N architecture.
The ASROCK NUC Box-N97 is a mini PC with a fan for active cooling, the iBOX-N97 is a fanless, passively cooled model, and the company is also launching bunch of NUC-N97 motherboards including mini-ITX, Pico-ITX, and 3.5″ single-board computer-sized models.
The Asus subsidiary says all of the new systems offer support for up to three 4K/60Hz displays, dual 2.5 GbE Ethernet connections, and dual storage thanks to M.2 and SATA 3.0 connectors for solid state storage and/or hard drives.
At the heart of these new systems is an Intel N97 processor, which is a 12-watt, 4-core, 4-thread chip with support for CPU speeds up to 3.6 GHz and 1.3 GHz Intel UHD integrated graphics with 24 execution units.
It’s not the most powerful or energy-efficient chip in the Alder Lake-N family, but I suspect it’s one of the cheaper options available to manufacturers, and it should offer better all-around performance than an entry-level chip like the Intel N50 or N100 processors.
The ASRock NUC BOX-N97 mini PC measures 118 x 110 x 48mm and features an M.2 2280 slot, 2.5 inch drive bay, and a single 260-pin SODIMM slot for up to 16GB of DDR4-3200 memory.
Other features include an AMD RZ608 wireless module with support for WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2, two HDMI 2.0b ports, two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C ports (with DisplayPort Alt Mode), three USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports, a headset jack, and two 2.5 GbE Ethernet ports. The BOX-N97 has a plastic-and-metal chassis.
The fanless ASRock iBOX-N97 is a little larger, measuring 135 x 110 x 45mm and includes fins in the chassis, presumably to help dissipate heat. Specs are largely the same, except this model has one more USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port than the BOX-97 and an all-aluminum chassis.
Both systems come with 65W power supplies.
ASROCK motherboards with Intel N97 chips include:
- NUC-N97 (most likely the mainboard used in the iBOX-N97)
- SOM-P104J (Pixo-ITX board)
- IMB-1005J (Mini-ITX board)
- IMB-1006J (Another Mini-ITX board)
- SBC-260J (Described as a 3.5″ SBC, but it actually measures 5.8″ x 4″ x 1″ or 147 x 102 x 26mm)
It’s a bit odd that Intel system uses AMD-branded wireless card. Usually it was the other way around (until AMD licensed Mediatek’s one)