GIGABYTE BRIX GB-BXi7-4500 Review: Intel Core i7 in a UCFF PC
by Ganesh T S on October 9, 2014 7:00 AM ESTPerformance Metrics - I
The GIGABYTE GB-BXi7-4500 was evaluated using our standard test suite for low power desktops / industrial PCs. We revamped our benchmark suite earlier this year after the publication of the Intel D54250WYK NUC review. We reran some of the new benchmarks on the older PCs also, but some of them couldn't be run on loaner samples. Therefore, the list of PCs in each graph might not be the same.
Futuremark PCMark 8
PCMark 8 provides various usage scenarios (home, creative and work) and offers ways to benchmark both baseline (CPU-only) as well as OpenCL accelerated (CPU + GPU) performance. We benchmarked select PCs for the OpenCL accelerated performance in all three usage scenarios. These scores are heavily influenced by the CPU in the system as well as the clock speeds. The i7-4500U is clocked higher than the i5-4250U in the Intel NUCs, but it is not as powerful as, say, the i7-4770R in the BRIX Pro. This is understandable, given the wide gulf in the TDPs (15W for the i7-4500U vs. 45W for the i7-4770R and 47W for the i5-4200H).
Miscellaneous Futuremark Benchmarks
3D Rendering - CINEBENCH R15
We have moved on from R11.5 to R15 for 3D rendering evaluation. CINEBENCH R15 provides three benchmark modes - OpenGL, single threaded and multi-threaded. Evaluation of select PCs in all three modes provided us the following results. As expected, the units with powerful processors and dedicated / higher-end GPUs fare better than the BXi7-4500U. However, an interesting aspect to note is that the single-threaded performance of the i7-4500U seems to be a tad better compared to the i5-4200H (which has a much higher TDP). However, multi-threaded rendering looks to be TDP-constrained, as the i5-4200H pulls ahead.
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dakishimesan - Thursday, October 9, 2014 - link
One other thing – even though the Mac Mini is 7.5 in.² as opposed to the 4.5 in.² of this computer, the Mac Mini has an integrated power supply.Samus - Friday, October 10, 2014 - link
I do agree the mobile i7 is a waste of money. It always has been. It's super shady how Intel promotes their ultramobile i5 and i7; they're nothing like their desktop equivalent.It's funny that Baytrail is the only true quad-core (physical) ultramobile CPU Intel has.
dakishimesan - Thursday, October 9, 2014 - link
Over the last couple of years, the ultra-compact form factor (UCFF) has emerged as one of the bright spots in the troubled PC marker.dgingeri - Thursday, October 9, 2014 - link
Most importantly: can it run WoW and STO at a decent framerate?Wilco1 - Thursday, October 9, 2014 - link
So how is it possible for a CPU with a claimed 15W TDP to use 30W extra from idle to full load???MrCommunistGen - Thursday, October 9, 2014 - link
I assume there are a number of factors involved. In no particular order:1. Power measurements are at the wall so we're accounting for PSU efficiency as well
2. With Intel's Turbo, as long as the thermals aren't out of control, the CPU can exceed its TDP
3. The CPU isn't the only component that can draw more power when the system is under heavy load. The obvious component that comes to mind is the system fan. In a system with power consumption this low, fan power draw becomes relevant.
MrCommunistGen - Thursday, October 9, 2014 - link
I meant to explicitly state that I did not intend for my 3 bullet points to be taken as an exhaustive list...Mentally ballparking the numbers, these factors seemed to add up well enough to account for the extra 15W over TDP. My thought process basically stopped there.
Wilco1 - Thursday, October 9, 2014 - link
You're right there are other aspects besides the CPU but eg. the D542050WYKH also has a CPU with a claimed 15W TDP and it also has a fan, memory, turbo, power supply inefficiencies etc, and yet it manages to use 10W less. So how do you explain the difference?mmaenpaa - Thursday, October 9, 2014 - link
It would be nice to see review of GB-BXA8-5545 with the same components. I believe the barebones version (no memory & no SSD) is about 250$.http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx...
Markku
bleomycin - Thursday, October 9, 2014 - link
Maybe I missed it but there was no mention of fan noise or bios fan control options? I have a 2nd generation i5 brix and would never buy one again due to the non-existent bios fan controls. I have to use speedfan under windows or fancontrol under linux to keep this thing within reasonable audible limits just for running xbmc. My nuc systems handle all of that just fine in the bios.