UCFF

Intel's Meteor Lake series of processors has had a drawn-out launch since its details were officially presented in September 2023. The series marks Intel's foray into the consumer market with a tile-based chiplet configuration held together with Foveros packaging. Similar to Tiger Lake, the focus of Meteor Lake has primarily been on the mobile market - ultraportables and notebooks. However, this has not prevented Intel and its partners from introducing it as a follow-up to Raptor Lake-P and Raptor Lake-H in the SFF / UCFF desktop market. ASRock Industrial has consistently been the first to market with ultra-compact form-factor motherboards and mini-PCs, with product announcements coinciding with Intel's launch of its latest and greatest mobile processors. Meteor Lake has not been any different, with the...

ASUS Unveils NUC 14 Pro and Pro Plus Meteor Lake Mini-PCs

As part of its 2024 CES announcements, ASUS officially unveiled a number of NUCs based on Intel's Meteor Lake platform. The company had earlier released the NUC 13 Rugged...

8 by Ganesh T S on 1/10/2024

ASRock Industrial 4X4 BOX-7840U mini-PC Review: AMD Phoenix in an UCFF Avatar

AMD's Phoenix line of low-power processors for the notebook market has been lapped up by various second and third-tier mini-PC vendors in the Asian market. The platform's value proposition...

15 by Ganesh T S on 12/28/2023

ASRock Industrial 4X4 BOX 8040 and NUC(S) Ultra 100 BOX Series Bring Accelerated AI to Mini-PCs

ASRock Industrial maintains a lineup of ultra-compact form-factor machines in the NUC BOX (Intel-based) and 4X4 BOX (AMD-based) series. These systems have gained significant market acceptance (evidenced by the...

10 by Ganesh T S on 12/23/2023

GEEKOM A5 mini-PC Review: Affordable Cezanne Zen 3 at 35W

Ultra-compact form-factor (UCFF) desktops have gained significant market share over the last decade. Processors with TDPs ranging from 6 - 15W formed the backbone of this segment in the...

35 by Ganesh T S on 12/8/2023

GEEKOM Mini IT13 Review: Core i9-13900H in a 4x4 Package

The performance of ultra-compact form-factor (UCFF) desktops has improved significantly over the years, thanks to advancements in semiconductor fabrication and processor architecture. Thermal solutions suitable for these 4in. x...

9 by Ganesh T S on 10/16/2023

ASRock Industrial NUC BOX-N97 and GMKtec NucBox G2 Review: Contrasting Compact ADL-N Options

Intel has been maintaining a low-power / low-cost x86 microarchitecture since the introduction of the Silverthorne Atom processors in 2008. Its latest iteration, Gracemont, made its debut in the...

20 by Ganesh T S on 10/6/2023

ASRock Industrial NUC BOX-1360P/D5 Review: Raptor Lake-P on the Leading Edge

ASRock Industrial has been a key player in the ultra-compact form-factor PC space over the last few years. They have managed to release 4"x4" systems based on the latest...

21 by Ganesh T S on 7/18/2023

Intel Set to Exit NUC PC Business - Pushes Partners to Develop More SFF PCs

Intel has disclosed today that it will halt further development of its small form factor Next Unit of Compute (NUC) PCs. The tech giant expects its partners to take...

39 by Anton Shilov on 7/11/2023

Palm-Sized Minisforum EM680 Desktop PC Packs AMD's Ryzen 7 6800U and USB4

We've seen AMD's Ryzen Mobile 6000 series chips show up in several mini-PC devices thus far, and now a recently-released mini-desktop from Minisforum is the smallest yet. The Mini-PC...

19 by Anton Shilov on 6/8/2023

Topgro's $499 Fanless PC Packs Core i7-1255U 'Alder Lake' CPU

One of the perks of modern mobile CPUs is that, being designed for laptops and their very limited cooling capacity, they can be placed in a NUC-sized (or smaller...

10 by Anton Shilov on 5/5/2023

Zotac’s Zbox Edge MI351 Packs Alder Lake-N and Offers Upgradeability

Introduced back at CES 2023, Intel’s Alder Lake-N platform is the company's newest and latest budget platform for entry-level PCs. With the hardware now shipping, Zotac is among the...

16 by Anton Shilov on 4/14/2023

ASRock Industrial 4X4 BOX-7735U UCFF PC Review: Zen 3+, RDNA2, and USB4 in a Potent Platform

ASRock Industrial is one of the few vendors with a lineup of ultra-compact form-factor (UCFF) computing systems based on the latest Intel and AMD platforms. Their lineup of NUC...

36 by Ganesh T S on 4/6/2023

Intel NUC 13 Pro Arena Canyon Review: Raptor Lake Brings Incremental Gains

Ultra-compact form-factor PCs have emerged as bright spots in the PC market over the last decade after Intel introduced the NUC. The company celebrated the 10-year anniversary of its...

48 by Ganesh T S on 3/27/2023

ASRock Industrial's 4X4 BOX 7000/D5 Series Brings Zen 3+ and USB4 40Gbps to UCFF Systems

ASRock Industrial's lineup of ultra-compact form-factor machines in the NUC BOX (Intel-based) and 4X4 BOX (AMD-based) series has gained popularity over the last couple of years. Being the first...

40 by Ganesh T S on 2/10/2023

ASRock Industrial NUCS BOX-1360P/D4 Review: Raptor Lake-P Impresses, plus Surprise ECC

Low-power processors have traditionally been geared towards notebooks and other portable platforms. However, the continued popularity of ultra-compact form-factor desktop systems has resulted in UCFF PCs also serving as...

31 by Ganesh T S on 1/29/2023

Intel NUC 12 Pro Wall Street Canyon Kits Review: Alder Lake in UCFF Avatar

Intel introduced the ultra-compact form-factor in 2012 to reinvigorate the PC market. The incredible success of the product line has now resulted in the brand name propagating to other...

26 by Ganesh T S on 1/26/2023

ASRock Industrial's NUC(S) 1300 BOX Series Brings Raptor Lake to UCFF Systems

Intel recently updated their low-power processors lineup with the Raptor Lake U- and P- Series 13th Gen Core mobile SKUs. Supporting a range of TDPs up to 28W, these...

1 by Ganesh T S on 1/4/2023

ASRock Industrial NUC BOX-1260P and 4X4 BOX-5800U Review: Alder Lake-P and Cezanne UCFF Faceoff

The past few years have seen Intel and AMD delivering new processors in a staggered manner. In the sub-45W category, Intel's incumbency has allowed it to deliver products for...

34 by Ganesh T S on 8/5/2022

Intel NUC11TNBi5 and Akasa Newton TN Fanless Case Review: Silencing the Tiger

Intel's Tiger Lake-based NUCs have been shipping for well over a year now. Supply chain challenges have been impacting availability of different models in different regions, but that has...

18 by Ganesh T S on 7/22/2022

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