Systems
Intel's Meteor Lake series of processors was launched in September 2023 with a focus on mobile platforms. Multiple mini-PC vendors have utilized these processors to market offerings in the SFF / UCFF desktop market. ACEMAGIC is an Asian manufacturer with products in multiple categories including micro-PCs, UCFF (ultra-compact form-factor) and SFF (small form-factor) PCs, and notebooks. They were one of the first to market with Meteor Lake-based desktop systems. The ACEMAGIC F2A 125H is the entry-level version of the F2A line, equipped with an Intel Core Ultra 5 125H processor. It is a bit larger than the traditional NUCs, slotting it in the SFF category. However, that allows for the processor to be operated at 65W (compared to the 28 - 40W adopted in the...
Computex 2021: MSI MPG Gaming Maverik Bundle with i7-11700K
At an all-digital rendition of Computex 2021, MSI has unveiled a new bundle designed for gamers looking for a comprehensive and optimized gaming system. Based on its performance gaming...
4 by Gavin Bonshor on 6/3/2021
Qualcomm Shows Off Snapdragon Dev Kit for Windows on Arm Development
Alongside today’s Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 SoC announcement, Qualcomm is also unveiling a new Windows 10-focused development kit. Collaborating with Microsoft, the two companies have put together the Snapdragon...
27 by Ryan Smith on 5/24/2021
Intel's Tiger Lake NUC11: Panther Canyon for Asia Alone
The electronics industry supply chain is facing a number of issues due to the ongoing pandemic. Companies are unable to meet product demand, and are being forced to fine-tune...
27 by Ganesh T S on 2/4/2021
OnLogic’s New Fanless Systems Contain Intel's Elkhart Lake (10nm Atom)
Earlier this year Intel indicated that it was launching its new Jasper Lake platform very soon, built on a foundation of 10nm manufacturing with the latest Tremont Atom cores...
18 by Dr. Ian Cutress on 2/1/2021
Intel Announces Phantom Canyon: Tiger Lake and Turing Tango in 3rd Gen Enthusiast NUC
As part of its CES 2021 announcements, Intel officially unveiled a number of NUCs based on their Tiger Lake SoCs. The NUC11 Performance lineup was covered earlier. This piece...
33 by Ganesh T S on 1/20/2021
Intel Unveils Panther Canyon NUC11 Family: Tiger Lake Comes to NUCs
As part of its CES 2021 announcements, Intel officially unveiled a number of NUCs based on their Tiger Lake SoCs. Intel's initial NUCs were all based on 100mm x...
43 by Ganesh T S on 1/18/2021
CES 2021: Zotac MAGNUS ONE Gaming mini-PC Flagship Charges Up Comet Lake with Ampere
Zotac's mini-PC lineup received a new flagship as part of its CES 2021 announcements - the MAGNUS ONE. It features a Comet Lake CPU (Core i7-10700) along with NVIDIA's...
13 by Ganesh T S on 1/14/2021
Zotac ZBOX CI662 nano Fanless mini-PC Review: Second Stab at Silencing Succeeds
Zotac is one of the major players in the SFF PC space, having marketed ultra-compact form-factor machines even before the NUCs took off. The growth in that segment has...
16 by Ganesh T S on 1/5/2021
ASRock DeskMini H470 Review: A No-Frills LGA 1200 mini-PC Platform
The mini-STX form-factor was introduced by Intel in 2015 to provide additional options in the burgeoning small form-factor (SFF) PC space. Since then, vendors such as ASRock, ECS, and...
26 by Ganesh T S on 12/29/2020
ECS LIVA Z3 Plus Review: Compact Comet Lake NUC Clone Cuts Corners
ECS is a well-known OEM in computing circles, known for building motherboards, computers, and industrial / embedded systems for other vendors. Some of their motherboards and small form-factor PCs...
15 by Ganesh T S on 12/22/2020
Hands On: ASRock 4X4 BOX-4800U Out-of-Band Management using Realtek DASH
Many computing use-cases require out-of-band management. For example, rack-mounted servers have dedicated LAN ports that connect to a baseboard management controller (BMC) chip for this purpose. PCs used in...
9 by Ganesh T S on 12/16/2020
Razer's First Modular PC, The Tomahawk: A Fully Custom NUC 9 Extreme
Razer, a company that styles itself as 'by gamers, for gamers', has today unveiled its latest product, a modular NUC dubbed the Tomahawk. Available as both a barebones package...
61 by Gavin Bonshor on 12/3/2020
ASRock Brings Zen 2 NUC : 4X4 BOX-4800U Renoir Mini-PC Reviewed
AMD-based ultra-compact form-factor (UCFF) systems are slowly gaining market acceptance, with the Zen architecture slowly catching up with Intel on both the performance as well as power consumption front...
53 by Ganesh T S on 11/25/2020
Akasa Turing Fanless Case Review: Unrivalled Noiseless NUC
Silent computing systems are preferable for a multitude of use-cases ranging from industrial applications (where dust and fans make for a troublesome configuration) to noiseless HTPCs (particularly for audiophiles)...
28 by Ganesh T S on 10/26/2020
Test Driving SPECviewperf 2020: A Look At The Latest In Workstation GPU Benchmarks
Over the years, the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation's SPECviewperf benchmark has become the industry standard for workstation GPU benchmarking. Owing to the fact that, unlike video games, there's little...
27 by Ganesh T S on 10/16/2020
ASRock Industrial's NUC 1100 BOX Series Brings Tiger Lake to UCFF Systems
Intel's introduction of the Tiger Lake U-series processors with support for a range of TDPs up to 28W has resulted in vendors launching a number of interesting systems with...
13 by Ganesh T S on 10/13/2020
GIGABYTE Unveils BRIX PRO Mini-PCs with Tiger Lake-U
Intel's Tiger Lake launch was focused on ultrabooks and notebooks, as various SKUs with TDP ranging from 7 to 28W were launched. The performance of Intel's low-power parts (U-...
43 by Ganesh T S on 9/29/2020
MinisForum Unveils EliteMini H31G: 65W CPU & 75W GPU in a Compact Mini-PC
MinisForum has been making some interesting moves in the last few months with their computing platforms, ranging from the DMAF5 based on the Ryzen 3000H-series SoCs to the Ice...
3 by Ganesh T S on 9/29/2020
ASRock Industrial 4X4 BOX-V1000M Ryzen Mini-PC Review: Finding Zen In The Small Things
The miniaturization trend triggered by the ultra-compact form factor NUCs from Intel has emerged as a key driver in the growth of the PC market. Processor power efficiency is...
37 by Ganesh T S on 9/28/2020
The Armari Magnetar X64T Workstation OC Review: 128 Threads at 4.0 GHz, Sustained!
Blitzing around a race track in a fast car only ever convinces you of one thing: I need to go around the track even faster. I need a better...
97 by Dr. Ian Cutress on 9/9/2020
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