Internals, Performance, and Conclusion
The bottom panel comes off easily and once inside we have a look at the system board and its expansion options:
In addition to a free M.2 storage slot the Byte3 offers a SATA port with included data and power cables to easily add either a 2.5-inch hard drive or SSD.
The bottom panel doubles as a home for the 2.5-inch drive, with the four screw holes providing a place to mount the drive.
Reaching the opposite side of the board is tricky and not technically user-accessible anyhow. CPU and RAM needs to be specified at time of purchase, so consider storage to be the only upgrade path for the end-user.
Performance Results
Running the common benchmarks on our Byte3's quad-core system running Windows 10, we saw some pretty impressive results for a low-cost fanless system.
Performance relative to other recent mini PCs on hand place it above the Apollo Lake LIVA mini PCs in multithreaded loads thanks to the quad-core CPU, though single threaded performance is lower than the dual-core mini PCs we tested last year due to lower clocks. During sustained CPU loads (all cores at 100%) the frequency was stable at 1.54-1.56GHz, and thermals were well controlled.
As to thermals, at idle I recorded a temperature of 37 C, and loads topped out at 57 C in my testing (18 C ambient for both readings).
Conclusion
The Byte3 was stable through all testing, provided snappy desktop productivity performance, solid wireless reception, and overall has a level of polish that surprised me at this price level. In the end it was the build quality and above average CPU power for a <$200 fanless mini PC that impressed me, and this looks and performs like a premium device in this category. Recommended!
I’d like a fanless 2400G
I’d like a fanless 2400G based mini-pc even if it has to be much larger than this thing.
The single threaded performance of this thing just doesn’t look acceptable for even moderate office use. I find even my i5-6300 frustrating at times; especially when Outlook, OneDrive or Dropbox are syncing
Oh Man, That Intel has the
Oh Man, That Intel has the dosh to buy their way into so many design wins! And AMD needs to hopefully get enough Epyc based revenues going to have some extra dosh available to do likewise.
All these divice OEMs are so dependent on their CPU and GPU parts suppliers for the funds to create their products in this Superman Bizzaro Comic World where parts suppliers dictate to the Device OEMs on what will be done.
This kind of market did not exist as much until about the last few decades in the PC/Laptop world.
I too am looking for a Raven Ridge APU based option like this as well as many others if an when AMD gets the funds to purchase some OEM clout of its own!
I would love a 2400g version
I would love a 2400g version that can run Linux. I recently built a 2400g itx system which flies.
It looks like Intel’s ability
It looks like Intel’s ability to fund all these OEM design wins is forcing all of use to eat Intel’s dogfood graphics once again. I for one will not forget that Intel has forced it’s dogfood graphics down on the entire market’s throats for more than a decade now and no matter what graphics Raja cooks up for Intel I’m not in a forgive and forget mood.
Folks better start asking Zotac and others if they are ready for some serious angry consumer boycotting if they don’t make with at least one Mini-Desktop sort of option that uses those Zen/With Vega Graphics RR desktop, or even mobile(For Fanless), mini sorts of SKUs.
It’s still going to take Intel a good lomg time even with Raja’s/His Team’s working long hours to properly vett and certify any New GPU design and Intel does not have the IP/Patent rights to use unified shaders in any of its in-house GPU designs without licensing from either AMD, Nvidia, or others who have the patent IP for unified shaders.
Nvidia and AMD do not even attempt to challenge each others GPU patents for unified shader/Other GPU IP as they both fear any that any court may invalidate any of their current Patent IP.
Look what happend to Nvidia when it tried to strong arm Samsung/others in court over some overly broad GPU patents the courts invalidated one overly broad Nvidia GPU IP patent and Nvidia withdrew a few others from consideration for fear that they would also be invalidated by any cout review.
Folks Patents are usually not even scrutinized at a greater detail even by the USPTO compared to any patent that is brought before a court to scrutinized by opposing patent attorneys and courts can and do invalidate patens brought before the courts in any legal filings. The USPTO often times grants patents that they have no business granting in the first place!
I would have liked to see the
I would have liked to see the CPU/heatsink side of the board. Where there is a will, there is a way.
The antenna does not look
The antenna does not look like it can be unscrewed and replaced. I hope I’m wrong.