In our age, when it is no longer possible to work in an office without a computer and the Internet, in most companies employees use stationary PCs and laptops. In the first case, these are bulky systems with large system units and a bunch of extra wires in front of your eyes, and in the second, compact devices without wires, but with small screens. But what if you need a large display for ease of work with site layout, graphics or drawings and there is no extra free space for large blocks, and office laptops are not suitable for you? Here compact mini-PCs come to the rescue, and today we will talk about just one of the representatives of the line GIGABYTE BRIX S with 10th Gen Intel Core processor. In addition to the office focus, it is perfect as a miniature multimedia combine for home theaters, presentations, as well as use in commercial industries and educational institutions.
HOW IT LOOKS
What is a GIGABYTE Ultra Compact Mini PC? In fact, it is a square box with a small motherboard, which has a built-in processor with graphics and a bunch of connectors for the necessary devices. Usually, such solutions, as in our case, do not have RAM and any storage device installed, that is, an SSD or hard drive and RAM will have to be bought separately.
COMPLETE SET AND CHARACTERISTICS
We tested the model GIGABYTE GB-BRi3H-10110 Powered by 2-core Intel Core i3-10110U Comet Lake processor with a base frequency of 2.1 GHz and 4.1 GHz in Boost mode. The price for this solution, according to Yandex.Market at the time of this writing, ranged from 26 to 29 thousand rubles. In addition to this amount, you should count on at least 5-10 thousand additional spending on SSD / HDD-disk and RAM.
The PC comes in a white colorful cardboard box with information on the main features, which opens like a chest. Inside is the device itself, a power cable for a British outlet, a power cable for a Euro outlet, a power supply, an instruction manual, screws for a VESA mount, a VESA mount, and a driver disk.
As we said, the mini PC is quite compact and lightweight. The dimensions are 47 x 119 x 119 mm, the weight is about 400 grams, so it is very convenient to carry it with you. On the front side there is a 3.5 mm jack for connecting a headset, three USB-A connectors version 3.2, one USB Type-C connector version 3.2, a power button, as well as a sticker with the logo of the 10th generation Intel Core i3 processor. On the right side there is one RS-232 COM port for connecting the still widely demanded commercial devices and one Kensington lock connector to protect the device from theft. At the back you can find a lot of different outputs, including two more USB-A version 3.2 connectors, an RJ-45 port for connecting wired Internet, two HDMI 2.0 connectors with support for 4K 60 Hz displays, and a connector for connecting a power supply. The rear panel has a row of ventilation holes for hot air exhaust. On the right and left sides there are also openings for the outlet of convection flows of heated air masses.
On the top of the device is the GIGABYTE logo in the middle. Below there is a metal cover, which can be removed if you unscrew 4 long bolts screwed into the rubberized feet. Also on the bottom are various service stickers and two holes that are needed to install the mini-PC on a VESA mount.
Opening the lid, you will find two empty slots for DDR4 memory with the ability to install up to 64 GB, as well as an M.2 slot for installing NVMe 2280 SSDs (PCI-e x4 or SATA bus interface). In addition, there is a cable for connecting 2.5-inch SSD / HDD drives with a SATA 3 connector (bandwidth up to 6 Gb / s). The disc itself is attached to the lid with screws and double-sided tape already applied to the surface. Also under the place for installing the M.2 SSD is the M.2 2230 slot for extensions and the Intel Wireless-AC 3168 dual-band WiFi module already installed in it with an integrated Bluetooth 4.2 adapter.
For the test build, we installed a 128GB NVME SSD from GIGABYTE and 8GB of DDR4 RAM from ADATA. This is the minimum required for a working mini PC in 2023. Of course, the NVME SSD was not the top choice, but even its performance is more than enough for processing heavy files of office programs, as well as for Photoshop and even Adobe Premiere.
Since we have already mentioned graphics applications, it is worth saying a couple of words about the video subsystem. The integrated Intel UHD Graphics 620 video core, along with HDMI 2.0 connectors, supports 4K and 60 Hz resolution. We connected the computer to a 165Hz 2K monitor and had no problems with it. However, we didn’t have high-speed HDMI on hand, so we couldn’t get more than 60 Hz.
TESTS
In terms of benchmarks, we first ran the Cinebench benchmark. As a result, our computer was able to collect 754 points. This is not much, but here you need to understand why this device is made. The dual-core processor with 4 threads started with 100% load at 3.7 – 3.8 GHz with a declared 4.1 GHz boost and an average heat dissipation of 15 W, as stated in the official specifications from Intel. By the end of the test, the processor dropped the speed to 3 GHz from a minimum of 2.1 GHz, and the average heat dissipation remained at 15 W. The temperature practically did not rise above 80 ° C and remained at around 76-77 ° C, which is quite acceptable at a maximum operating temperature of 100 ° C.
This isn’t a gaming PC, but out of curiosity, we decided to try running a couple of old Game Pass games on it. They are Metro 2033 and Alan Wake. If the first one can somehow still be played at the minimum settings at 720p, then with “Alan” at the same settings everything is very bad. Wild brakes and tearing don’t give a chance for at least some playable experience. Although this is a project from the “optimization wizards” from the Remedy studio, there are no revelations here.
Let’s go back to more mundane tests. For example, Photoshop. A 112 MB TIFF image opened together with the application in just 12 seconds, and the application itself did not slow down when editing a 36 megapixel image, despite the often full CPU load. In terms of multimedia capabilities, the GIGABYTE GB-BRi3H-10110 does not cope with the playback of 4K movies or TV series, unfortunately. When watching a series with a video frame rate of 24.5 Mbps at a resolution of 3840 x 2160, the video stuttered, regardless of whether you choose software or hardware decoding.
CONCLUSIONS
The GIGABYTE BRIX S BRi3H-10110 is a perfectly adequate work machine that is perfect for those who work with office applications or graphic editors. Yes, for this money you can build a regular PC, perhaps with a slightly more powerful hardware, but it will not have the main advantages of this device – super-compact size and portability.
Thanks to the complete VESA mount, you can assemble a candy bar with any display, be it a monitor or a TV, simply by attaching the device to the back of the screen and hiding almost all the wires. The only frustrating thing is that this particular model cannot be recommended as a media player, since there is barely enough hardware to play the increasingly popular 4K video content. However, in the GIGABYTE BRIX S product line there are models based on more powerful CPUs, which are expected to pull 4K video content without much difficulty.
Author: Sergey Dyakonenko (Madnfs)
A photo: Sergey Dyakonenko (Madnfs) and Alexey Olkin…
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