Disclosure: Some links on this page are monetized by the Skimlinks, Amazon, Rakuten Advertising, and eBay, affiliate programs, and Liliputing may earn a commission if you make a purchase after clicking on those links. All prices are subject to change, and this article only reflects the prices available at time of publication.
At the start of the year we noticed that a handful of Chinese PC makers were selling small, fanless mini PCs with 12th-gen Intel Alder Lake-U chips and six 2.5 GbE Ethernet ports as “Firewall Micro Appliance” systems.
Now it looks like they’ve gotten a spec bump, because you can pick up models with 13th-gen Intel Raptor Lake-U chips from AliExpress for $327 and up.
One of the first models to arrive is branded as the Topton X6C, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw similar devices from other companies in the future.
The $327 starting price is for a barebones system with a 15-watt, 5-core, 6-thread Intel U300 processor, but there are also Intel Core i3-1315U, Core i5-1335U, and Core i7-1355U processor options and Topton is selling models with up to 64GB memory and up to a 2TB SSD.
All models feature two SODIMM slots for DDR4-3200 non-ECC memory and support for multiple storage devices:
- 1 x M.2 2280 PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe SSD
- 1 x M.2 2280 PCIe 3.0 x1 NVMe SSD
- 1 x 2.5 inch bay for a SATA 3.0 HDD or SSD
There’s also an M.2 2230 slot for a wireless card, but you could also use it to connect an adaptor board that enables a fourth SSD, plus a microSD card reader for removable storage. Since you can boot the system from a microSD card though, you could also think of this as a potential fifth internal storage device.
Ports include:
- 6 x 2.5 GbE Ethernet (Intel i226-V)
- 1 x HDMI 2.1
- 1 x DisplayPort 1.4a
- 1 x USB Type-C
- 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A
- 2 x USB 3.0 Type-A
The computer supports up to three 4K displays (if you use the USB-C, DisplayPort, and HDMI ports), but it’s clearly designed first and foremost for networking applications and should have pretty broad software support due to its use of Intel processors.
The system is designed for passive, silent cooling, with dual copper heat tubes and an aluminum alloy shell featuring long fins to help dissipate heat. But while the Intel Raptor Lake-U chips inside the case have a processor base power level of 15-watts, they can hit 55-watts for brief periods under heavy load, so users that want extra cooling power can hook up an optional fan thanks to a connector on the motherboard.
Topton says the X6C measures 145.6 x 145.4 x 53.6 (5.73″ x 5.72″ x 2.11″) and comes in black or grey color options.
via AndroidPC.es