Gigabyte BRIX Gaming UHD Mini-PC Review

1. Introduction2. Packaging and Bundle3. Gigabyte BRIX Gaming UHD4. Testing Methodology and Configuration5. SiSoft Sandra6. CinebenchR157. Handbrake Video Encoding8. Storage Bandwidth Testing9. 3DMark1110. 3DMark11. Grid Autosport12. Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor13. Grand Theft Auto V14. Doom (2016)15. 4K Gaming Capability16. Thermal Dynamics17. Acoustics Performance18. Power Consumption19. Closing Thoughts20. View All Pages

Above we can see overviews of the CPU and GPU, courtesy of CPU-Z and GPU-Z respectively.

The i7-6700HQ is a mobile processor I am now very familiar with, having used it in a number of different devices over the past year. It has 4 cores and 8 threads, with a base clock of 2.6GHz. However, its boost clock of 3.5GHz is where it spends most of its time.

The GPU is a 4GB version of the Nvidia GTX 950 – released towards the middle of last year. It is part of the Maxwell family, and we are yet to see a direct successor from the newer Pascal architecture. It has 4GB of GDDR5 memory, with an effective bandwidth of 80.2GB/s over the 128-Bit bus.

While it would be good to see a newer GPU in the BRIX UHD – the GTX 1060 would be very enticing – I can understand the decision to use a GTX 950. It is capable of good frame rates at 1080p, while it draws very little power – many models of the desktop chip draw all their power from the PCIe bus, negating the need for extra cables. This last point is critical, as less power = less heat, something which is important considering the size of the BRIX UHD.

Comparison Systems

Today I will be comparing the BRIX Gaming UHD with the following systems, where applicable.

Dell Inspiron 15 7559

• Intel Core i7-6700HQ
• Nvidia GTX 960M
• 16GB Dual-Channel 1600MHz DDR3 RAM
• 128GB SSD + 1TB HDD

ECS LIVA X

• Intel Bay Trail-M Celeron N2808 SoC
• Intel HD Graphics
• 4GB DDR3L RAM
• 64GB eMMc storage

ECS LIVA X2

• Intel Braswell N3050 SoC
• Intel HD Graphics
• 2GB DDR3L RAM
• 32GB eMMC storage

PCSpecialist Lafité

• Intel Core i3 i3-5010U
• Intel HD Graphics 5500
• 8GB Kingston SODIMM DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 8GB)
• 240GB Kingston V300 SSD

Dell Latitude 13 7370

• Intel Core™ m5-6Y57
• Intel HD Graphics 515
• 8GB LPDDR3 1866MHz Memory
• 256GB Solid State Drive M2 2280 PCIe

UK Gaming Computers Styx

• Intel Core i5-6500
• Asus Turbo GTX 960
• 8GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 2400MHz DDR4 RAM
• 500GB Samsung 850 EVO SSD

ASUS ROG GX700

• Intel Core i7-6820HK
• Nvidia GTX 980 (desktop)
• 32GB DDR4 2400MHz RAM
• 2x 256GB Samsung SM951 PCIe SSDs in RAID0

DinoPC Primal GT0

• AMD FX-8320
• AMD RX-480
• 16GB DDR3 2133MHz RAM
• 240GB Adata Premier SP550

PCSpecialist Defiance III 17.3

• Intel i7-6700HQ
• Nvidia GTX 1060
• 16GB HyperX DDR4 2133MHz RAM
• 512GB SanDisk X400 M.2 SATA SSD

And lastly my personal desktop with a Core i3-4160, 8GB 1866MHz DDR3 and a GTX 960.

Test software

• SiSoft Sandra
• Cinebench R15
• Handbrake
• CrystalDiskMark
• ATTO Disk Benchmark
• 3DMark 11
• 3DMark
• Prime 95 (version 26.6)
• CPUID HWMonitor
• AIDA64 Engineer

Test games

• Grid Autosport
• Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor
• Grand Theft Auto V
• Doom (2016)

All games are tested at 1080p and 4K. While we do not expect anything near playable framerates at 4K, with a name like ‘BRIX Gaming UHD' we simply could not write a review without including 4K benchmarks. All games were tested using the latest (at the time of writing) Nvidia GeForce 372.70 driver.

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