Gigabyte brings Alder Lake-N to its BRIX mini PC lineup

Gigabyte’s BRIX line of computers are compact desktop PCs powered by laptop-class processors. Last year the company released models with 12th-gen Intel Alder Lake-P chips, but it’s been nearly two years since the company launched a smaller, lower-power line of PCs with Intel Jasper Lake chips.

Now Gigabyte has introduced the follow-up to its Jasper Lake mini PCs, with three new models powered by Intel Alder Lake-N processors.

The new Gigabyte BRIX BNIP-N100, BNIP-N200, and BNi3-N305 should bring a significant performance boost thanks to the move from Celeron and Pentium processors based on Intel Atom architecture to Intel’s new Alder Lake-N chips with 12th-gen Intel Efficiency CPU cores and Intel UHD graphics.

Here are the processor options available for each of the new models:

Gigabyte has also updated the physical design of the BRIX mini PCs for 2023. The new systems measure 164 x 117 x 29mm (6.5″ x 4.6″ x 1.1″), making them wider (but shorter) than the 2021 models, which measures 117 x 103 x 56mm (4.6″ x 4.1″ x 2.2″).

But it seems like the new models might also be more power hungry: all of the 2023 models feature a fan for active cooling. That’s a changed from the 2021 lineup, which included one passively-cooled model (the GB-BMCE-4500C, with a Celeron N4500 processor).

All of the new 2023 models with Alder Lake-N chips feature :

• 1 x SODIMM slot for up to 32GB of DDR4-3200 memory
• 2 x M.2 2280 slots for PCIe x2 storage
• 1 x M.2 2230 slot for a wireless card
• 2 x HDMI 2.0 ports
• 1 x DisplayPort 1.4
• 1 x 2.5 GbE Ethernet port (Realtek RTL8125)
• 1 x USB .2 Gen 2 Type-C
• 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A
• 3 x USB 2.0 Type-A
• 1 x3.5mm audio
• 1 x DC power input

Gigabyte says the mini PCs should all support up to three 4K displays and they all come with an Intel AX203 wireless card with support for WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2.

The mini PCs can be mounted to the back of a display with a VESA mount kit. And while systems are actively cooled, Gigabyte describes them as “low noise,” which could make them decent solutions for home media centers or file servers as well as commercial applications like digital signage, point-of-sales, or kiosks.

Gigabyte hasn’t announced pricing or availability, but given how many Alder Lake-N mini PCs have hit the streets in recent weeks, I suspect we won’t have to wait too long for the new BRIX BNIP/BNi3 models to arrive.

thanks FanlessTech!