Performance Results
The Gigabyte BRIX S is our first access to a full Broadwell-U processor, and so I was very curious to see how it performed against our previous small form factor designs. The review unit is being compared to the our Intel NUC device based on a 15 watt Haswell CPU (dual core) along with a handful of Ultrabook hardware platforms running all the way back to Sandy Bridge. AMD is represented in its lower power segments by Kabini and the aging Trinity.
The most important comparison is still the Gigabyte BRIX with Broadwell and the Intel NUC with Haswell. In our synthetic CPU results, the Core i7-5500U is about 26% faster than the Core i5-4250U. Memory bandwidth remains unchanged between the two platforms (all the way back to Sandy Bridge really) but multimedia synthetic performance again shows a 26% advantage for Intel's 14nm Broadwell solution.
Our Cinebench results show gains for Broadwell in both single threaded and multi-threaded testing. Using just a single thread of the four available (dual-core, HyperThreaded), the Core i7-5500U is 20% faster than the Core i5-4250U. Switching to the multi-threaded capable test results in an advantage of 33% for Broadwell. Note that the 15 watt TDP Core i7-5500U is actually faster than the 100 watt TDP AMD A10-5800K from 2012!
Our Handbrake media encoding tests result in a performance advantage of 30% for the BRIX with Broadwell compared to the Intel NUC using Haswell's Core i5-4250U.
Our final CPU performance tests using the x264 HD benchmark show a 25% and 29% performance edge for Broadwell compared to Haswell in our SFF testing.
For a quick look at 3D graphics performance of Broadwell we'll compare the Core i7-5500U to the Core i5-4250U using 3DMark. Keep in mind that that Core i7-5500U uses Intel HD Graphics 5500 while the Core i5-4250U has HD Graphics 4400. As I discussed in our initial Broadwell overview, the GPU portion of the new architecture sees some substantial improvements.
A quick look at the Ice Storm results shows just that! The overall score of the Gigabyte BRIX is 47% better than the Intel NUC powered by Haswell and nearly matches the results from the 100 watt TDP AMD Trinity APU. The graphics score alone sees a 45% edge for Broadwell over Haswell and the physics (processor) score is 51% faster!
As these processor graphics solutions continue to get more powerful, more intense tests like the 3DMark Cloud Gate benchmark has increasing relevance. The overall score is 25% faster for the Broadwell BRIX than the Haswell NUC though the graphics specific result is only 15% faster. That graphics result on the Core i7-5500U is actually faster than the A10-5800K Trinity APU (admittedly from 2012), but that 8% edge is something that Intel has been working towards for years.
The Gigabyte BRIX S with the Core i7-5500U is clearly a powerful processor packed inside a small footprint. For general purpose computing (nearly) all users would be happy with with punch provided for everyday tasks and even some video encoding if necessary. Doing high resolution video editing? You should invest in a standard desktop. Looking to browse the web and manage your media library? Looks like a 15 watt processor might meet your needs.
Why is it none of these new
Why is it none of these new “NUC style” machines have dual gigabit NICs? Looking for a small/efficient/fast PFSense machine…
Unless you require Intel
Unless you require Intel NIC’s, one could simply add a USB 3.0 Gb ethernet adapter for $20-30. Driver support should be the only real hurdle.
id expect usb3 driver support
id expect usb3 driver support for nics to be pretty crappy in a tiny linux distro like pfsense
It’s even worse than a tiny
It’s even worse than a tiny Linux distro…it’s actually based on FreeBSD 😛 In the end, a similar mini ITX build is probably a more versatile and much less expensive option.
A couple of the Zotac boxes
A couple of the Zotac boxes do have dual NICs. The EN760 has them, and has been getting fairly good reviews. I think a couple of their other models have them. They aren’t cheap, though. I’ve also been considering one for a PFSense box, but I don’t know if I want to spend the $500+ that they run.
It would be nice if the
It would be nice if the “pricing and availability” section mentioned when these would be available 😉
Do you know? I don’t see any online as of yet.
Valid point – I’ll check!
Valid point – I'll check!
Just got the info: late Feb
Just got the info: late Feb or early March is the expected sale date in the US.
In the video you call the
In the video you call the power input ‘AC power input’.
Surely you mean DC.
Heh, yeah.
Heh, yeah.
I don’t understand this
I don’t understand this statement:
“Intel’s new Broadwell architecture is responsible for a lot of that but Gigabyte deserves credit for including the key input and output features like USB 3.0 and HDMI/DisplayPort”
I have 3 Intel Haswell NUCs, they all have “USB 3.0 and HDMI/DisplayPort”, how does Gigabyte deserve credit for including them?
Just curious if anyone makes
Just curious if anyone makes a NUC size unit with discreet graphics. I travel a lot and I’m looking for the smallest form factor possible on a gaming PC. I understand the limits of all this stuff, just curious if its been done yet.