GIGABYTE BRIX s BXi5H-5200 Ultra Compact Mini PC Review

Introduction

A few years ago, GIGABYTE launched a new type of product into the market, a small form factor PC (SFF PC) called the BRIX. They teamed up with Intel to basically design and produce a desktop PC that you could hold in the palm of your hand. To achieve this, you need an extremely integrated system on chip (SOC), a separate CPU and chipset would require too much PCB space, and Intel's Broadwell microarchitecture is perfect for this very use.

The BRIX is smaller than a brick, yet much more interesting. The BRIX s BXi5H-5200 carries some of the latest technologies such as Wireless AC, yet also provides a limited but strong backbone for storage and connectivity. Today, I venture into GIGABYTE's latest iteration of their BRIX product line by taking a look at the BXi5H-5200. Let's get started.

Specifications

GIGABYTE is utilizing Intel's latest 5th generation Core i5 processor, the i5 5200u, which features 2 cores/4 threads and a 2.7GHz turbo clock all at only a 15W TDP. It supports 16GB of DDR3L at 1600MHz and uses Intel's HD5500 graphics with a boost frequency of 900MHz with DirectX 11.3 support.

GIGABYTE has added a wired NIC, provided support for mSATA, and even provided the ability to fit a 2.5-inch SSD or HDD for much larger storage. There is also a wireless AC card in a smaller M.2 slot that also supports Bluetooth 4.0. The BRIX s has four USB 3.0 ports, mini DisplayPort, and a HDMI port that supports 4K.

Pricing

The BRIX s BXi5H-5200 comes at $364.99 at Newegg at the time of writing. There is also the BXi5-5200 which costs $350, but doesn't have the extra space and SATA connector; meaning it lacks the support for a 2.5-inch storage device.