Gigabyte Brix Pro GB-BXi7-4770R: Review 2021 |Test| Specs| Pros & Cons| Set-up

Gigabyte Brix Pro GB-BXi7-4770R: Review 2021 | Test | Specs | Price | CPU Performance| Setup| Config | Advantage (Pros) and Disadvantages (Cons) and other important features that will help you make better

Specification: Gigabyte Brix i7 4770R

The world of mini-PCs has been exploding for some time and Gigabyte has decided to put its two cents in by offering its own, the Brix! The range is rather wide ranging from versions studied for low consumption and office use to the “gaming” version through the “Pro” model which is the guinea pig in today’s test, I named the GB-BXi7- 4770R.
Under this barbaric name hides a machine that has nothing to envy in terms of processor power to office machines because it is equipped with an Intel Core i7 4770R (more information here) which is a low-power version of the famous Intel Core i7 4770, enough to have power under the elbow when the need arises! Let’s take a closer look at the features.

The first thing that strikes you here is the size of the machine, a small cube of 11cm sides and 6.2cm high

The processor is therefore a Core i7 4770R (4 cores 8 threads and TDP of 65 Watts) running at a maximum turbo frequency of 3.9GHz (3.2GHz base) which should be a monster in this small machine. The graphics part is left to the Iris Pro 5200 chip clocked at 1.3GHz in turbo mode and 200MHz when the processors are used at 100% supposed to be much faster than the HD4xxx and to allow playing in good conditions, this may be quite difficult but the results will speak!
In terms of memory, it is possible to install 1333 or 1600 MHz SO-DIMM memory (the same as laptops) with a maximum voltage of 1.35V for a maximum of 16GB.
The storage part consists of an mSata port intended to accommodate an SSD and a Sata 3 6Gb / s connector for a 2.5 ″ hard drive or SSD.
Of course, the network part is very well supplied with 1 Gigabit RJ45 port and 1 150Mb / Bluetooth WiFi card which should allow everyone to connect the Brix Pro to their network.
The connection is not left out either with 2 USB 3.0 ports at the front as well as a 3.5mm / SPDIF jack output and at the rear 2 USB 3.0 ports, 1 HDMI port, 1 Mini DisplayPort, 1 port RJ45 as well as a Kensington slot, not bad for such a small device!

Well that’s all well and good but with a processor of this caliber the price should be accordingly, and it is! Offered at 659 € the Gigabyte Brix GB-BXi7-4770R is really not cheap, you also need to get an mSata disk (or 2.5 ″) and memory to have a functional machine.
Place the unpacking of the beast!

The front of the box is really very sober, a profile photo of the product on a black background with only the model and a small Intel Core i7 logo to announce the color!

At the back we find various photos highlighting the connections, the internal layout as well as the third-party components necessary for the operation of the Brix (2.5 ″ hard drive or mSata Drive, SO-DIMM memory and of course an operating system) .

Once the box is open (very rigid, however, the transport should not damage the precious!) There is a first compartment accommodating the tiny Brix in a foam bag.

Once the first compartment has been removed we come across the second housing the driver CD, the VESA plate (for mounting behind a screen) as well as the various screws and the power supply.

Here is everything that is in the box of the Brix Pro!
The bundle consists of:

• 1 Brix GB-BXi7-4770R
• 1 135 Watts power supply
• 1 mains cable
• 6 screws
• 1 rubber cover for the jack output
• 1 VESA plate
• 1 driver CD

The bundle is therefore rather basic with the essentials necessary for connecting and placing the Brix. The VESA plate will be particularly practical to hide the mini-PC behind a screen.

Here is the beast! All dark gray shiny metallic, the little one is very sober and very compact and robustness is essential. The power button is placed on the top and will therefore be easy to access. We can see the front connector consisting of 2 USB 3.0 ports and a 3.5mm jack output.

There are small ventilation grilles on both sides, they will be needed to evacuate the 65 Watts of the processor and the rest of the components.

The rear connection is rather well provided for a device of this type with 1 HDMI port, 1 mini DisplayPort port, 1 Gigabit RJ45 port as well as 2 USB 3.0 ports. Of course, ventilation grilles are present here!

Underneath there is once again a small ventilation grid as well as the various usage labels, we learn that the Brix is ​​made to work with a 19V and 7.1A power supply or 135Watts which should be more than enough for this small configuration.
Why not open the beast now!

Once the 4 screws below have been removed, remove the plate that accommodates the 2.5 ″ hard drive and here are the guts of the brix!

The motherboard! Everything is really miniaturized here, we see the 2 memory modules and the mSata SSD installed by Gigabyte for this test. Under the mSata SSD is the Wifi / Bluetooth card.

The hard drive in place in its dedicated 2.5 ″ bay.

The cooling is left to a copper radiator surmounted by a small “blower” type fan which, considering the size and the thermal release of the processor will be rather noisy under load at first, the tests will speak for themselves!

The test platform

The Brix Pro i7 4770R will be compared to the following configuration:

• Processor : Intel Core i7 4770K
• CPU Fan : Noctua NH-D15
• Motherboard : Gigabyte Z87X-UD5TH
• Memory : Kingston HyperX 4 x 2 GB 1600Mhz
• Hard Drive: WD Raptor 150 GB
• Ventirad Graphics Card : Arctic Cooling Accelero S1
• Food : be quiet! E9 580CM
• Case : Corsair Carbide 300R

Of course the results will necessarily be to the advantage of the test configuration, but it will be a good point of comparison! The graphics card has been removed in favor of the integrated Intel HD4600 chipset.
The temperature, consumption and noise tests were carried out under OCCT in order to push the machine to its limits.

Cinebench R15

In this benchmark the small i7 4770R really does not deserve and is not very far from the core i7 4770K, it is really an excellent performance.

SuperPI 32M

SuperPI 32M is finished in 8min29s by the Brix Pro, very close again to the Core i7 4770K which is only 14s ahead!

Aida64 4.60

Rather similar results under Aida 64, the Brix Pro is almost at the same level as the Core i7 4770K, whether on any test! The Brix Pro continues to impress with performance very close to a desktop core i7.

3DMark Fire Strike & Games

So this is the result of the evolution of the Intel Iris Pro 2, it simply buries the old HD4600 present in the core i7 4770K! With 1420 under 3DMark Fire Strike against 921 for the HD4600, 21 FPS under Battlefield 3 against 16 for the HD4600 and 20 FPS under Bioshock Infinite against 13 FPS there is no picture the Iris Pro 2 is really more efficient.
On the other hand, we should not expect to have a very powerful gaming machine, it will be possible to play games that are not too greedy and by lowering the graphic details as it should be to play in good conditions.

Sata Debits – CrystalDiskMark

CrystalDiskMark is only indicative, the performance between the test machine and the Brix Pro cannot really be compared because the SSDs used are not the same (Crucial m500 mSata for the Brix and Samsung 840 Evo for the test configuration).
The speeds are very good in reading on the other hand in writing we cap at 80MB / s, this is in no way the fault of the Brix Pro but rather of the SSD mSata Crucial 120GB which is not swift in writing (for this version) .

Network debits

The throughput was tested by transferring a 7GB iso file hosted on a machine running Debian Wheezy and all over a Gigabit network.

At the network level, the Brix Pro can have no problem keeping up with the rate with 970Mb / s in download and 960Mb / s in upload, the Intel chipset present on the Gigabyte Z87X-UD5TH is more efficient but nothing that changes from the ordinary here.

The Gigabyte Brix Pro GB-BXi7-4770R WiFi card has been tested in real conditions, and not glued to a high-end router specially purchased for the occasion, in fact in 99% of cases the PC is connected to the box so it will be the same for this test! The connection is made to a SFR NB6 box (optical fiber with a speed of 1Gb / 200Mb) and through a wall.
As we can see the Brix is ​​well exceeded here compared to the test configuration with a maximum speed of 23.05 Mb / s in download and 28.41 Mb / s in upload, even if the results are less good it does not will not clamp your connection (until you have a fiber optic connection).

Temperatures

We should not expect a miracle in terms of temperatures for a mini-PC equipped with a Core i7 but we approach the extreme limit with 97 ° for the average of the 4 cores loaded under OCCT, the motherboard as to it rises to 71 ° (impossible to know where the probe is). The temperatures of SSDs and HDDs tend to drop under load due to the increased ventilation, which is not a bad thing!
It should be noted that despite the very high temperatures of the processor, it remained at its frequency of 3.2Ghz throughout the test and no drop was to be recorded.

Consumption

At rest and with its 18 Watts at the socket, the Brix Pro behaves really well, in load and with 89 Watts this is a lot for such a small device and the noise pollution will most certainly take a hit, let’s see that:

Noise

Warning: Part to be taken with a grain of salt, unfortunately not having access to the appropriate equipment and using an android application to take the readings The measurements below are only indicative! The readings were taken 20cm from the machine.

At rest with 35dB the Brix Pro is very discreet with only the noise of the turbine motor being heard. On the other hand, the result is much worse, with 70 dB the Brix Pro really gives the impression of having a hair dryer next to you (6500 RPM !!!), the cooling system is clearly not very well designed to dissipate as much heat.

Here we are at the end of this test, what about the Brix Pro GB-BXi7-4770R?
To begin with, the small size of the machine is attractive and will make placement very easy, behind a screen for example with its VESA mount. The build quality as well as the robustness of the whole are really excellent, no worries at this level.
In terms of performance, the onboard core i7 4770R does wonders and easily rivals desktop PC processors, it is a real monster for such a small machine. The integrated Intel Iris Pro 2 graphics chip allows a significant gain compared to the Intel HD4600 chips, it will be able to run not too greedy games quite correctly if the graphics details are fine-tuned, however, do not expect to a racehorse, far from it!

However, all is not rosy in the land of Brix, the temperatures recorded for the processor and the motherboard are very high even if in the end I did not have the slightest problem during the tests, on the other hand we will have to see how the components at these temperatures over time. The noise nuisance can reach its peak if the processor is used at 100%, at this stage it will not be at all pleasant to stand next to the machine! On the other hand, in normal use (office automation, watching films, etc.) the Brix Pro was rather pleasant and the installed fan was not a problem.

Offered at around 640 € the Brix Pro GB-BXi7-4770R is on the other hand very expensive, due to the installed Core i7 4770R which alone is almost half the price of the machine, to which must be added memory and an SSD (easily 200 € for the 2) which also increases the bill. The Brix Pro is a little apart product mixing performance and miniaturization and is a preview of the PCs that we will have in the future, the price is therefore greatly affected and places it as a luxury product ahead of its time but showing some flaws of youth which will certainly be corrected for the next generations.

Advantages

• Cut
• Performance
• Build quality

A big thank you to Wilfried from Gigabyte who allowed me to do this test.

Where to find the Brix Pro GB-BXi7-4770R?

Related posts:

7-nanometer Nvidia GPU, TSMC will handle most of the production ASRock X299, a new BIOS allows you to install 2 TB of memory MSI Prestige X570 Creation Review: Test | Specs | Hashrate Radeon RX 5500 XT, PCI Express 3.0 castrates performance? An overclocker ran 1TB of RAM on an X299 motherboard limited to 256GB Best Review 2021: MSI MPG X570 Gaming Edge WiFi Under $250 ($200)