GIGABYTE GB-BXi5G-760 Mini PC

[Phrozen99]

So, I was looking at the brix pro's with the intel irs pro 5200 ([url=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856164011&cm_re=brix_pro-_-56-164-011-_-Product]GB-BXi5-4570R[/url] [url=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856164012&cm_re=brix_pro-_-56-164-012-_-Product]GB-BXi7-4770R[/url]) and they seemed to work pretty well.

I was skeptical, all the reviews said they got really hot and loud. Both of those basically use desktop processors, one of which uses 65w, I can see where the problems came from. I only really play cs:go, which isn't too demanding, but I wanted 120fps. I found an article about the GB-BXi5G-760, but no one knew when it would be released, then yesterday, I checked newegg, and there it was. Ordered it on the spot.

Here it what I ordered. I think this is going to be a pretty awesome little pc that will play most games decently.
[url=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856164018]GIGABYTE GB-BXi5G-760[/url]
[url=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147316]SAMSUNG 840 EVO mSATA 250GB [/url]
[url=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233621]CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8G) DDR3 2133 [/url]
[url=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236561]WD BLACK 750GB[/url]
[url=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829132022]ASUS Xonar U3 USB Soundcard (No mic in)[/url]
Edit:
Turns out there was a mic in, it came with a splitter. Oh well.

I will post more pictures, temp results, and perhaps a game review or two once it arrives.

[SocMinarch]

How the hell do they fit a GTX 760 in that?

[editline]10th July 2014[/editline]

Also doesn't that CPU only take up to 1600MHz RAM?

[Phrozen99]

[QUOTE=Adam.GameDev;45347426]How the hell do they fit a GTX 760 in that?

[editline]10th July 2014[/editline]

Also doesn't that CPU only take up to 1600MHz RAM?[/QUOTE]

Not sure, I had already order it for the i7, which says 1600 is the limit, but you can set it to 2133 in the bios. I'm assuming this is the same, if not, it'll downclock. I got the fast speed for the i7 cause it has an igpu, and it's like 10 bucks more so why not.

Edit:
I have them set to 2133, that is the max.

[SocMinarch]

Oh it's an iGPU, that makes sense

[Phrozen99]

Yea the GB-BXi5-4570R and GB-BXi7-4770R have the iris pro 5200, which is integrated, and really awesome. Integrated is finally becoming worthwhile. The one I ordered has a 760.

[Gtech]

The GIGABYTE GB-BXi5G-760 actually is just named Geforce 760 GTX but its actually a GK104M (Geforce GTX 870M Rev a1). its about 100W TDP for that sucker but runs quite well. I get about 110-130FPS (1920x1080) on BF4..quite impressive and not as loud as i thought but still could be a lot quieter since it has those 2 small fans inside.

If you are looking for something alittle bit larger and have patience for the release of - [URL="http://www.alienware.com/landings/alpha/"]http://www.alienware.com/landings/alpha/[/URL] ... then get that. It's about 550 according to their site and it guarentees 60fps for almost all games (I doubt ultra settings) and will be supporting SteamOS once it comes early next year.

[Phrozen99]

[QUOTE=Gtech;45349142]The GIGABYTE GB-BXi5G-760 actually is just named Geforce 760 GTX but its actually a GK104M (Geforce GTX 870M Rev a1). its about 100W TDP for that sucker but runs quite well. I get about 110-130FPS (1920x1080) on BF4..quite impressive and not as loud as i thought but still could be a lot quieter since it has those 2 small fans inside.

If you are looking for something alittle bit larger and have patience for the release of - [URL="http://www.alienware.com/landings/alpha/"]http://www.alienware.com/landings/alpha/[/URL] ... then get that. It's about 550 according to their site and it guarentees 60fps for almost all games (I doubt ultra settings) and will be supporting SteamOS once it comes early next year.[/QUOTE]

I just play cs:go, this will be perfect for me. A 870m is more than enough.

[Gtech]

[QUOTE=Phrozen99;45349354]I just play cs:go, this will be perfect for me. A 870m is more than enough.[/QUOTE]

Yes it's a very good GPU for sure. So far I had no issues with any games I throw at it.

[raborj]

Mind if I ask how demanding a game you tried on it? Is it able to handle the more modern games on ultra?

[Phrozen99]

Once I get it either tomorrow or Monday, I will let you know!

[Levelog]

Although the fact that you live in multiple cities poses a problem, you'd be hitting the ultimate SFF seeing as with the mounts you can attach it to the back of your monitor.

[editline]10th July 2014[/editline]

Although iirc your 120hz is on a mount already...

[Phrozen99]

[QUOTE=Levelog;45354006]Although the fact that you live in multiple cities poses a problem, you'd be hitting the ultimate SFF seeing as with the mounts you can attach it to the back of your monitor.

[editline]10th July 2014[/editline]

Although iirc your 120hz is on a mount already...[/QUOTE]

Totally. I could put this behind my vg248 and have a portable 120hz rig. I'm excited.

[Levelog]

I'm jealous and slightly regretting my water cooled full tower

[[EG] Pepper]

Could you post pictures of the motherboard when you're assembling it, I am wondering how they managed to cool that sort of setup.

[.Lain]

this thing throttles pretty badly and runs quite loud at idle

[editline]11th July 2014[/editline]

i don't think these mini pcs are really all there yet. maybe next gen with nvidia and intel

[birkett]

[QUOTE='[EG] Pepper;45359961']Could you post pictures of the motherboard when you're assembling it, I am wondering how they managed to cool that sort of setup.[/QUOTE]

Two boards, stacked. Motherboard on top, GPU on the bottom, copper cooler in between - contacting both main cores.

Watch out for the GPU downclocking to keep check of the temperature.

[MuThing]

[QUOTE=birkett;45360678]Two boards, stacked. Motherboard on top, GPU on the bottom, copper cooler in between - contacting both main cores.

Watch out for the GPU downclocking to keep check of the temperature.[/QUOTE]

Linus did a video about it, it got up to 92 degrees and downclocked to about 400Mhz.

[Sheep Clothes]

if this runs well for you i'd love to know, I'm thinking about getting one for myself seeing as I'm going to be traveling back and forth a lot between Hong Kong and boston for school.

Also, you don't need to pick up the sound card, the system comes with a splitter that makes the single headphone jack in the front into a headphone microphone jack.

[MuThing]

I'm imagining one with some kind of i3 (maybe with hyperthreading) and a 750Ti would be more awesome.

[Phrozen99]

Update!

[t]http://i.imgur.com/MFFcfmB.jpg[/t]

Ain't he cute?
[t]http://i.imgur.com/Rh0sSIP.jpg[/t]

mSata is tiny.
[t]http://i.imgur.com/A0MAKvd.jpg[/t]

[t]http://i.imgur.com/v3mblKn.jpg[/t]

Carried all this with two hands.
[t]http://i.imgur.com/uZN0ZXZ.jpg[/t]

I'm gonna go play some CS:GO and see the performance and noise

Edit:

Oh she runs hot.

[Phrozen99]

I really like this thing. It's kinda noisy, but it's manageable. At idle it's a low hum, but when you game or do some cpu intensive stuff, she makes noise, and gets hot. I played csgo all last night, 1080p, high, and it easily maintained 120fps, which was my fps_max. I'm sure it'd go to 150-200 had i let it. It got extremely hot, 95-100c sometimes, which is worrisome, but then the two turbines, I mean fans kick in and it goes down to 80-85c. The dual core processor struggled though. It was able to handle csgo fine, but alt tabbing and running other applications was difficult. Perhaps the i7 version will be better if they can keep the heat down. Overall, for a machine that is smaller than most graphics cards, it does surprisingly well, and I'm glad I bought it.

[Crunchman]

I'm considering getting one of these or the [URL="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883218042"]Zotac ZBOX EN760[/URL] for work and play. The ZBOX EN760 is $300 cheaper but has a weaker GPU (~30%+ difference) and a low-voltage i5 but is supposedly very quiet and doesn't have any of the thermal throttling issues I've been hearing of the GB-BXi5G-760.

I guess the thermal throttling could make benchmarking a bit tricky since you'll want to have a variety of applications/games running at length to simulate actual usage. It also seems that the thermal issues originate primarily from the GPU according to Linus Tech Tips' review, so different apps/games would get different results base on their GPU dependency.

Linus' review seemed pretty damning as far as how much thermal throttling affected this machine, but OP's and other anecdotal reports seem to be less so. A lack of benchmarking data is making it kind of difficult to judge this machine.

There should be a 'Turbo' mode for the fans in the BIOS options, which, according to the first review on [URL="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856164018"]Newegg.com[/URL], seems to mitigate thermal throttling pretty effectively but is apparently quite loud. If that's accurate, noise isn't too much of an issue for me.

I know OP only plays CS: GO, but if you could run some other game benchmarks, that'd be pretty helpful. And if you try the Turbo mode option for the fans, let us know how that goes.

In addition to the Alienware Alpha (Q4 release) there are these to consider from ASUS: [url]http://rog.asus.com/325082014/gaming-desktop-pcs/rog-gr8-console-pc-and-g20-small-form-factor-gaming-pc-faq/[/url]
They're each a little ways off with no clear pricing though.

[Sheep Clothes]

to be fair, linus was running it under extreme conditions, seeing as he was in 90 degree Fahrenheit or bit over 30 Celsius. things might preform better in a more climate controlled environment.

[MuThing]

I imagine having it possibly an additional square inch in size and a centimetre higher would probably do wonders for the cooling.

[Levelog]

[QUOTE=MasterFen006;45400023]I imagine having it possibly an additional square inch in size and a centimetre higher would probably do wonders for the cooling.[/QUOTE]

Yes, but the same could be said all the way up to it being the size of a normal ITX case. They probably have it at least near a point that moving it down is more detrimental than the increase of moving it up, so it's in a sweet spot.

[Phrozen99]

[QUOTE=Crunchman;45399669]I'm considering getting one of these or the [URL="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883218042"]Zotac ZBOX EN760[/URL] for work and play. The ZBOX EN760 is $300 cheaper but has a weaker GPU (~30%+ difference) and a low-voltage i5 but is supposedly very quiet and doesn't have any of the thermal throttling issues I've been hearing of the GB-BXi5G-760.

I guess the thermal throttling could make benchmarking a bit tricky since you'll want to have a variety of applications/games running at length to simulate actual usage. It also seems that the thermal issues originate primarily from the GPU according to Linus Tech Tips' review, so different apps/games would get different results base on their GPU dependency.

Linus' review seemed pretty damning as far as how much thermal throttling affected this machine, but OP's and other anecdotal reports seem to be less so. A lack of benchmarking data is making it kind of difficult to judge this machine.

There should be a 'Turbo' mode for the fans in the BIOS options, which, according to the first review on [URL="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856164018"]Newegg.com[/URL], seems to mitigate thermal throttling pretty effectively but is apparently quite loud. If that's accurate, noise isn't too much of an issue for me.

I know OP only plays CS: GO, but if you could run some other game benchmarks, that'd be pretty helpful. And if you try the Turbo mode option for the fans, let us know how that goes.

In addition to the Alienware Alpha (Q4 release) there are these to consider from ASUS: [url]http://rog.asus.com/325082014/gaming-desktop-pcs/rog-gr8-console-pc-and-g20-small-form-factor-gaming-pc-faq/[/url]
They're each a little ways off with no clear pricing though.[/QUOTE]

To be honest, the bottleneck here is the cpu, and the zotac has the same one.

I have tried the turbo mode, and yes it is loud, I will post back with results while gaming.

Got any games in mind you want me to test? I'll have to download them regardless since this is a new pc and it's not really a big deal.

I saw a lot of the other concepts like the alienware, but they were all too big for my tastes, and I'm an early adopter for everything. I'll probably sell this next year and buy the next mini-pc.

Edit:
Just turned on turbo mode, and probably for good. Everything runs better, the fan is a little louder at idle, and sometimes has a little spike for a couple seconds to cool it down. While gaming it does get quite loud, louder than before, but it's not really noticeable if you have headphones or ambient noise.

[Phrozen99]

It also came with a neat little bracket that you can mount on VESA mounts, kinda cool. However, I have a desktop mount and those mounts are being used :\

Where is it?
[t]http://i.imgur.com/cfreePo.jpg[/t]

Oh. I made a little bracket and it fits perfect!
[t]http://i.imgur.com/hqgl9Pn.jpg[/t]

[Levelog]

I'm jealous of how ridiculously clean and simple your setup is

[SpeedyHeart]

It looks cute.stick some eyes on it?