GIGABYTE BRIX Pro: A First Look at the Intel i7-4770R with Iris Pro HD 5200
by Ganesh T S on January 7, 2014 8:00 PM EST
We have had a quick glance at what the Core i7-4770R is capable of in the BRIX Pro. The initial look has given us various avenues to explore in the second part of the review. After getting back from CES, our first plan is to investigate whether any real-world workloads can cause the unit to throttle. The WLAN card is also pending investigation. At first glance it appears to be a 1x1 802.11ac card from Realtek, but more tests need to be done in order to get an idea of the WLAN performance.
The unit does offer the DIY crowd a little bit of flexibility in fine-tuning the performance. With judicious choice of DRAM and SSD / HDD storage, it is possible to adapt the BRIX Pro to one's requirements. The effect of the choice of DRAM modules can't be overstated in determining the performance of the system. We plan to benchmark the unit with a couple of additional DRAM modules (varying in size and speed). The Corsair Vengeance SODIMMs capable of running at 1866 MHz and the 8 GB per stick ADATA stick capable of running at 1600 MHz are already with us. The memory slots in the BRIX Pro are tuned for DDR3L (1.35V DRAM). It will be interesting to watch what speeds can be hit with these memory modules.
Additionally, as readers requested in our NUC review, we plan to add some basic gaming benchmarks to the mix. Anand has already covered the gaming performance of the Iris Pro HD5200 in detail before, but this will give some additional context for the BRIX Pro as a gaming machine.
Gigabyte's press release for the BRIX Pro went out yesterday. The product has two SKUs, one based on the i7-4770R, and the other based on the i5-4570R. Both CPUs have 65W TDPs, and hence there should really be nothing different between the two versions other than the CPU itself. One of the interesting aspects in the press release was the reference to 64 MB of eDRAM on the Iris Pro HD 5200. Anand's testing of the i7-4950HQ estimated the amount of eDRAM to be around 128 MB as per Intel's specifications. However, Gigabyte continues to hold on to the 64 MB eDRAM number for the i7-4770R and the i5-4570R even after a request for comment was sent. This is one additional aspect that we would like to evaluate in our second part of the review.
The final aspect that we are covering today is pricing. The i7-4770R and i5-4570R cost $392 and $288 respectively (as per the ARK pages). They are only available to OEMs. The MSRP for the GB-BXi5-4570R is $529, while the GB-BXi7-4770R comes in at $649. Considering that no other vendor has brought out a i7-4770R system, Gigabyte can charge a premium and still get away with it. Given the high price demanded by Intel for the CPU alone, the end pricing of the systems don't appear outrageous.
The BRIX Pro is a very exciting system and will definitely energize the NUC / UCFF category. The only worrying point is the thermal performance. Would it have been better for the 47W TDP version (i7-4950HQ) to come in this chassis, with the 65W TDP version sacrificing some of the compactness for a better cooling system? At this point, we don't want to jump to conclusions before digging more into the throttling behaviour. Stay tuned for further coverage towards the end of this month.
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ryrynz - Wednesday, January 22, 2014 - link
Will the Brix be able to run beyond 1600Mhz RAM speeds?ryrynz - Wednesday, January 22, 2014 - link
Seen on Gigabtyes website the G.skill F3-1866C10D-8GRSL is supported to run at 1866Mhz hope you guys manage to chuck something that speed or 2133Mhz in for testing.dwade123 - Thursday, January 23, 2014 - link
Yeah... I rather get a PS4 for less the price.ryrynz - Monday, January 27, 2014 - link
Please test the AMD based GB-BXA8G-8890 as well.luukp - Tuesday, January 28, 2014 - link
What I'm interested in is the difference in performance and noise between the 4570r and the 4770r. I notice that they have the same TDP, but the 4570R has lower clock speed, less features (no hyperthreading) and a higher maximum operating temperature. Based on that, in my mind the 4570r should be able to run much quieter and also be much less likely to throttle. Does that make sense, or am I missing something?ibex333 - Tuesday, January 28, 2014 - link
ummm... lol? For this much money I can build a computer that is only slightly larger and heavier but which will completely obliterate these boxes in gaming performance. Do you want to pay several hundred more just for smaller size and less weight or do you want to have MUCH more performance instead? Is that even a hard decision?DriesV - Wednesday, January 29, 2014 - link
I'm interested in CPU performance only.I need another quad core render node, but my office is cluttered as it is. I don't like to put systems on the floor and I don't have a spare 'server room'.
Then the Brix Pro is an extremely compelling solution. I'd happily pay (I already did actually...) for the much smaller desk real estate required.
DriesV - Wednesday, January 29, 2014 - link
There's always a market for everything. :-)Andresen - Friday, January 31, 2014 - link
"In the second part towards the end of the month...."I'm holding my breath now!
ryrynz - Tuesday, February 4, 2014 - link
And.. you're dead.