GIGABYTE BRIX Gaming GB-BXA8G-8890 AMD Bolton M3 Mini-PC Barebone

Pros: First off I didn't get this from Newegg I bought it on CL for $250 with a hard drive and 2gb ram already attached which at that price point it's FANTASTIC I knew not to expect much after reading reviews but I'm very surprised at the power to size ratio. This isn't a gaming PC in the sense of a traditional play anything tower, but that being said for the size of smaller then a gamecube it puts out some serious power! It plays WoW on high LoL flawlessly, Borderlands 2 on medium at 1440x900 with playable fps, and Skyrim on high with minor hickups and a few HD texture packs and a few other visual mods. Some games don't like it at all. for an HTPC it's amazing plays any video on 1080p flawlessly and gets good enough Wifi. I'm going to update it to 8gb of ram and go from there and hope this little cube lasts me a while.

Cons: It's hot and not silent. It runs hot, but in a cool room I personally haven't noticed throttling... yet... it might be and I'm just not noticing or not pushing it hard enough. It can get kind very hot and loudish at full gaming. I'm going to be looking for thermal workarounds such as adding two fans on the outsides to push in more air and exhaust more out, or making a new box for it to keep it smallish, but much more thermally sound.

Overall Review: It's cool. It's tiny. It does more then you would think something this size would do. If there are ever invaders you could throw it at them and it would hurt like a brick.

Pros: Itty bitty form factor. The most power you're going to get in this small of a package Great for throwing into a bag and taking to work, hotel etc with a couple controllers or even a pico projector hehe Maxes out quite a few new games that I've tried @ 25-30FPS such as Bioshock:Infinite

Cons: If you have this thing sitting at your desk, prepare to game on with headphones... The cooling system desperately needs to be redesigned. Both the CPU and GPU on this machine throttle down to around 60% due to overheating after only 5 minutes or so of heavy use. This has less to do i think with this system in particular but needs to be said, in Saints Row 4 I couldn't get playable framerates no matter what I tried. Low settings were just as bad as high settings, getting anywhere from 10-22FPS. I checked to make sure that it was actually utilizing the dedicated GPU and it was. This could just be an optimization issue but it still seemed ironic to me being that there is a "Optimized for AMD" screen shown before the game starts...

Overall Review: I wrote this because this machine doesn't deserve the lone one star review. I have personally not had a single crash on this machine. The previous reviewer could have had a bad SSD (I recommend the Crucial drives) In case anyone is considering the much more expensive Nvidia Brix over this one, I ran Unigine Heaven and got 22.6FPS at the same settings as LinusTechTips in his review of the machine. (The Nvidia machine got 22.4FPS. Old drivers maybe?) It really seems like heat is the killer of both of these machines, and gaming performance is likely very very similar due to the thermal constraints Here are some bits I've collected if anyone is interested >100C GPU begins throttling - takes 5 minutes to get there in furmark, losing ~30% FPS GPU 925mhz core 1125mhz memory In the "Operation Mode" from BIOS setting, the CPU runs at a maximum 1.9Ghz, and scores 4800 with AMD Overdrive's benchmark In "Turbo Mode" the CPU will boost one core to a max 3.1Ghz, or two cores to 3Ghz, or all four to 2.8Ghz and scores 7300 with AMD Overdrive's benchmark Don't rely too much on the high temperature reports from most software, they are wrong. So far the only programs I've found to have correct readings are Speedfan for the Dedicated GPU (shows 0C when it's inactive) and AMD Overdrive for the CPU (reads thermal margin and not actual temperature) AMD Overdrive only shows the temperature of the integrated GPU though The maximum fan speed is 7000RPM and is excruciatingly loud

Pros: +Can run games at 1080 +Good multi-core application compatibility +Runs great on Windows 8.1 +Portability

Cons: -Bad single-core application performance -Heat dissipation is mediocre -Wifi struggles when using VESA mount in an enclosed space -BIOS is a struggle to update -Don't expect to run "Ultra" quality settings

Overall Review: I bought this unit understanding that it won't be up to par with a traditional PC build. This, however, should not dissuade you from buying this as an HTPC or LAN gaming device. I was pleasantly surprised at the easy setup! Stripped my old laptop parts and popped it into this bad boy, making installation a seamless effort. Keep in mind that you will have to buy a product key with this method if you are using an OEM version of Windows 8.1. Most of my games ran at 30+ fps at relatively high settings, and that's all that matters to travelers. Another thing to note is that when you install the chipset drivers that your primary adapter is your 8550g graphics, whereas your linked adapter is your M275X. Since I've only owned this for a day, I can't tell which is used in my games, but will provide an update with more use of this little guy.

Pros: Win 8.1 SSD Full Size HDMI VESA Mount AC WiFi Bluetooth

Cons: Could use more memory 2Gb, as I have the Cyberpower Version.

Overall Review: This little thing is awesome as an HTPC. Bolts right up to back of the TV. Using a Logitech K830 backlit keyboard/mouse combo. Sounds quiet to me. Fast, constant AC WiFi at my house. Would not use it for a gaming PC

Pros: It runs TF2 at 60fps at 1920x1200. It boots fast with Windows 8.1.

Cons: It screams like a banshee, it crashes constantly. Plastic exterior shell components show hairline scratches and signs of wear.

Overall Review: This excitement at moving away from flaky, large, noisy custom-built PCs to custom designed Windows PCs that show Apple-like attention to detail has been put paid by this much louder machine that crashes virtually constantly, runs its CPU at idle around 90c, and screams like a angry banshee when doing anything intensive, such as tasks like copying files from a USB drive, booting up, or surfing the internet. Good luck if you try to play a game. Built like a rice burner on the outside with a super car engine inside the combination goes down like a house on fire. It just generates too much heat for the cramped shell to deal with. It maxes out over 80w at load, the fans scream at startup, and you count yourself lucky if they slow down to "irritating" speed during your session. The whole package is itself something of a black box and not even Catalyst drivers quite know what this thing is, and even GPU-Z can't identify anything about the graphics card itself. It seems to have been custom built by Gigabyte based on a reference design that it not at all common. Atlhough i did manage to install Steam and get a game running the OS promptly flaked out not a few minutes later and forced me to wipe all the drivers and programs and reinstall them all. Memtest86 shows no errors after 6 hours. I bought this review-unseen and greatly regret the purchase. There's a reason Mac Mini's have yet to be surpassed in the PC space.