Test Methodology
Comparison Systems |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| System Name | Gigabyte Brix Pro | Intel NUC D54250WYK | PC Specialist Vanquish Mini 130 | Zotac Zbox Nano ID69 Plus |
| Overclocked | No | No | No | No |
| Processor | Intel Core i7-4770R @ up to 3.9GHz | Intel Core i5-4250U @ up to 2.6GHz | Intel Core i3-4130 @ 3.4GHz | Intel Core i7-4500U @ up to 3.0GHz |
| Cooler | Gigabyte Brix Pro Reference | Intel NUC Reference | Intel Reference | Zotac Zbox Nano Reference |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte M4HM87P | NUC QS87 reference | Asus H81I-Plus | Zotac reference |
| Memory | G.Skill 8GB DDR3 (2x4GB) (added) | Corsair 8GB DDR3 (2x4GB) (added) | Kingston Hyper-X Genesis 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 | Crucial 4GB DDR3 (1x4GB) |
| Memory Speed | 11-11-11-28 @ 1,600MHz | 11-13-13-30-2T @ 1,600MHz | 11-11-11-28-1T @ 1,600MHz | 11-11-11-28-1T @ 1,600MHz |
| Graphics | Intel Iris Pro 5200 | Intel HD 5000 | Palit GeForce GTX 660 2GB | Intel HD 4400 |
| Sound Card | Onboard audio | Onboard audio | Onboard audio | Onboard audio |
| Storage | 180GB Intel mSATA SSD (added) | 128GB Plextor M5M mSATA SSD (added) | 1TB Toshiba HDD | Samsung ST500LM012 500GB HDD |
| Optical Drive | - | - | Lite-On DVD Writer | - |
| PSU | Gigabyte (135W, external) | Intel NUC (65W, external) | Corsair VS 450 (450W) | Delta Electronics (65W, external) |
| Chassis | Gigabyte Brix Pro | Intel NUC | Cooler Master Elite 130 | Zotac Zbox Nano |
| Operating System | Windows 8.1 (64-bit, added) | Windows 8.1 (64-bit, added) | Windows 8.1 (64-bit) | Windows 8.1 (64-bit, added) |
| Standard Warranty | Two years | Two years | Three years (one-year collect-and-return, one-year parts, three-year labour) | Two years |
| Approx. System Cost | £750 | £450 | £549 | £520 |
CPU Benchmarks |
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| HEXUS PiFast | Our number-crunching PiFast test is used to benchmark the computational power of each system's CPU. | |||||||||||
| Cinebench | Using Cinebench's multi-CPU render, this cross-platform benchmark stresses as many cores as possible. | |||||||||||
| HandBrake | Free-to-use video encoder that stresses all CPU cores. | |||||||||||
Memory and Storage Benchmarks |
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| AIDA64 | Benchmark that analyses memory bandwidth and latency. | |||||||||||
| CrystalDiskMark | Popular free-to-use storage benchmark, used to gauge sequential performance and aggregated 4K QD32 speeds. | |||||||||||
System and Gaming Benchmarks |
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| PCMark 8 | System-wide examination that uses the Home preset, run with OpenCL acceleration. | |||||||||||
| 3DMark | DX11, run at the Firestrike default test. | |||||||||||
| Aliens vs. Predator | 1,920x1,080 resolution, 2xAA, 4xAF, medium quality. | |||||||||||
Miscellaneous Benchmarks |
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| Power Consumption | Noted for system idling, under HandBrake video-transcoding load, and for GPU playing Aliens vs. Predator. | |||||||||||
| Temperature | Noted for CPU idling, under HandBrake video-transcoding load, and for GPU playing Aliens vs. Predator. | |||||||||||
Notes
Comparisons against the Intel NUC and Zotac Zbox Nano are valid based on size alone, but we've also included benchmark results from PC Specialist's small-form-factor Vanquish Mini 130: it's admittedly a lot bigger than the Brix Pro, but it costs less and includes a dedicated discrete graphics card.
We're also using this opportunity to introduce a revamped benchmark suite for PC systems that, among other things, includes a more granular look at CPU, memory, storage and GPU performance.