Systems

Intel's Meteor Lake series of processors was launched in September 2023 with a focus on mobile platforms. Multiple mini-PC vendors have utilized these processors to market offerings in the SFF / UCFF desktop market. ACEMAGIC is an Asian manufacturer with products in multiple categories including micro-PCs, UCFF (ultra-compact form-factor) and SFF (small form-factor) PCs, and notebooks. They were one of the first to market with Meteor Lake-based desktop systems. The ACEMAGIC F2A 125H is the entry-level version of the F2A line, equipped with an Intel Core Ultra 5 125H processor. It is a bit larger than the traditional NUCs, slotting it in the SFF category. However, that allows for the processor to be operated at 65W (compared to the 28 - 40W adopted in the...

Origin PC Rolls-Out New Chronos SFF PCs with Enhanced Expandability

Boutique system builder Origin PC on Monday officially launched its new Chronos SFF gaming PCs. Initially announced at CES 2016, the new Chronos SFF is the latest design in...

12 by Anton Shilov on 3/7/2016

Voyo V3 Review - A Fanless Intel Atom x7-Z8700 (Cherry Trail) mini-PC

Intel transitioned their Bay Trail-T Atom lineup (targeting affordable 2-in-1s, tablets and Compute Stick form factors) to 14nm with the introduction of Cherry Trail-T. The Atom x5 and x7...

69 by Ganesh T S on 3/1/2016

ECS LIVA One Skylake mini-PC Review

The desktop PC market has been subject to many challenges over the last few years. However, the miniaturization trend (including the introduction of the ultra-compact form factor - UCFF...

30 by Ganesh T S on 2/1/2016

CES 2016: ASRock Shows mini-STX 5x5 for Business and Education

Ever since Intel announced their 5x5 platform (that’s 5-inch by 5-inch), we have had several requests from users saying ‘when?’. At the time of the announcement, it was difficult...

29 by Ian Cutress on 1/21/2016

ASUS Booth Tour at CES 2016: 10G Switches, External GPU Dock, USB-C Monitor and more

When ASUS emailed a couple of weeks before CES announcing that they had cancelled their press event for the show, we had a few question marks. Previous shows involve...

50 by Ian Cutress on 1/19/2016

ECS Goes Skylake with LIVA One

At CES 2016, ECS displayed their consumer-focused as well as OEM products to the press and business customers. On the direct-to-consumer side, ECS had some 100-series chipset boards on...

13 by Ganesh T S on 1/19/2016

Zotac Updates ZBOX mini-PC Lineup at CES

Zotac had announcements in multiple segments at CES. Obviously, the SSD entry was the big talking point with the PCIe variant boasting good performance numbers. Zotac also had a...

14 by Ganesh T S on 1/16/2016

The Intel Compute Stick (Cherry Trail) Review

The success of ultra-compact form factor (UCFF) PCs have made vendors realize that small and power-efficient computing platforms are here to stay. ARM SoC manufacturers, finding that the tablet...

81 by Ganesh T S on 1/14/2016

MAINGEAR Rolls-Out 34” All-in-One PC with 18-Core Xeon, GeForce GTX Titan X

The concept of the all-in-one desktop personal computer was created to save space and simplify design of PCs. While there have been a number of traditional AIO desktops available...

14 by Anton Shilov on 1/5/2016

Build-A-Rig Round 2, SilverStone vs. Crucial: The $800 PC Showdown

We’re back again for the final phase of our second Build-a-Rig competition. For this round we are doing a theme relevant to many a younger enthusiast: back to school...

43 by Daniel Williams on 11/12/2015

Apple Updates The iMac Line With a 21.5" Retina Model

Almost exactly one year ago Apple launched their first ever iMac with Retina display at their October 2014 event. The launch had a number of surprises, with one of...

46 by Brandon Chester on 10/13/2015

ECS LIVA Core Review: A Fanless Core M mini-PC

The desktop PC market has been subject to many challenges over the last few years. However, the miniaturization trend (including the introduction of the ultra-compact form factor - UCFF...

35 by Ganesh T S on 10/7/2015

Zotac ZBOX MAGNUS EN970 Review - A Gaming mini-PC Done Right

In the course of our coverage of mini-PCs, we have seen offerings from vendors such as ASRock, GIGABYTE and Zotac targeting the gaming market. Usually, 'mini' doesn't fit the...

88 by Ganesh T S on 9/28/2015

HDPLEX Unveils 2nd Generation H5 Passive PC Chassis

The advent of CPUs with low TDPs (but having enough power to handle HTPC duties) has resulted in passive HTPCs becoming more and more popular. There are a number...

16 by Ganesh T S on 9/15/2015

Asus Announces the VivoStick PC - A Cherry Trail Compute Stick

At IFA 2015, Asus is announcing their first PC in the 'compute stick' form factor, the VivoStick PC. As a recap, the Compute Stick form factor is the x86...

30 by Ganesh T S on 9/2/2015

ECS LIVA x2 Review: A Compact & Fanless Braswell PC

The popularity of the NUC form factor has led to a resurgence in the nettop category. Thankfully, the core computing performance of the new systems have been miles ahead...

30 by Ganesh T S on 8/24/2015

Intel Launches New Socketed 5x5 mini-PC Motherboards

Over the last couple of years, the ultra-compact form factor (UCFF) has emerged as one of the bright spots in the troubled PC market. Kickstarted by Intel's NUC (Next...

44 by Ganesh T S on 8/24/2015

Aleutia Updates R50 and T1 Fanless Industrial PCs with Partial Copper Chassis

Aleutia's fanless industrial PCs have seen deployment in a large number of developing countries as well as other extreme environments, thanks to their rugged nature and low power requirements...

8 by Ganesh T S on 8/10/2015

Build-A-Rig Round 1, Zotac vs. Corsair: The $1500 PC Showdown

We’re back again for the final phase of our inaugural Build-A-Rig Challenge, the performance showdown. For the showdown we have run the assembled Zotac and Corsair systems through our...

21 by Ryan Smith on 8/5/2015

ASRock Beebox Review: A Fanless Braswell UCFF PC

ASRock had taken an early lead in serving the mini-PC market, thanks to its Core / Vision series units. Based on motherboards meant for the notebook market (smaller than...

45 by Ganesh T S on 7/14/2015

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