Gigabyte adds quartet of Skylake and Thunderbolt 3 equipped BRIX

[HEXUS]

All include M.2 SSD support, but two taller 'HT' models also offer 2.5-inch drive capacity.

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[darcotech]

I was always thinking that AMD will be leader on this part of market with their APus.
They had advantage 2-3 years ago, but have failed to profit.
In the meantime, Intel have been agresive and here we are, AMD not so interesting anymore in APU market, as Intel has "Good Enough" product that is better.

[DanceswithUnix]

I was always thinking that AMD will be leader on this part of market with their APus.
They had advantage 2-3 years ago, but have failed to profit.
In the meantime, Intel have been agresive and here we are, AMD not so interesting anymore in APU market, as Intel has "Good Enough" product that is better.

I think AMD had a lead over Atom for a long time, but that didn't really help and I think the money Intel lost in that market shows why AMD haven't sold into tablets etc.

I'm not sure that E350 and FM1 platforms were really up to the job for making something like the Brix, and it is only quite recently with Carrizo that AMD really had something that would work well in that formfactor. Intel seemed to have the market fairly well sewn up by then. Gigabyte did make an AMD based gaming Brix, and people seemed to like the performance but complained the fan was too loud trying to get rid of all the heat.

Still, I doubt it is a big market. Let's hope the 15W AM4 cpus get a look-in.

I just can't believe Intel get away with calling a dual core CPU an i7.

[whatif]

"I just can't believe Intel get away with calling a dual core CPU an i7.[/QUOTE]"
I agree with DanceswithUnix.

It should really be a higher grade i5 with only 2C/4T.
From performance comparisons I have seen, my mini PC with a i5 5275u would perform quite well against both of these.
Quote "In terms of overall gaming performance, the Intel Core i5-5257U 2.7GHz is noticeably better than the Intel Core i7-6500U 2-Core 2.5GHz when it comes to running the latest games." (From Game Debate)
OK, these newer ones have a edge in certain areas (example Thanderbolt), but you would think that a next generation i7 should outperform my older i5 by a significant amount and it should have 4C/8T. Having more cores and threads is why I look at buying a i7 over a i5.
So this i7 6500 should really be classified as a higher performing i5 in my humble and amateur opinion.

[daddacool]

"I just can't believe Intel get away with calling a dual core CPU an i7.

"
I agree with DanceswithUnix.

It should really be a higher grade i5 with only 2C/4T.
From performance comparisons I have seen, my mini PC with a i5 5275u would perform quite well against both of these.
Quote "In terms of overall gaming performance, the Intel Core i5-5257U 2.7GHz is noticeably better than the Intel Core i7-6500U 2-Core 2.5GHz when it comes to running the latest games." (From Game Debate)
OK, these newer ones have a edge in certain areas (example Thanderbolt), but you would think that a next generation i7 should outperform my older i5 by a significant amount and it should have 4C/8T. Having more cores and threads is why I look at buying a i7 over a i5.
So this i7 6500 should really be classified as a higher performing i5 in my humble and amateur opinion.[/QUOTE]

I think i5s don't have hyperthreading but i7s do? That's presumably why it's called an i7?!

[DanceswithUnix]

I think i5s don't have hyperthreading but i7s do? That's presumably why it's called an i7?!

Yes, but i7's usually have more than 2 cores, and in the 15W part 2 cores is all you get.

The mobile i7 is 2 core 4 threads, on a desktop that would be called an i3. In a world where 8 core phone processors are old hat in a bid to save power, a dual core cpu just seems sad.

[whatif]

I think i5s don't have hyperthreading but i7s do? That's presumably why it's called an i7?![/QUOTE] - daddacool


If you check out this page from intel product details ( http://ark.intel.com/products/88193/...up-to-2_80-GHz ) on the i5 6200u, it lists under the heading "Advanced Technologies" that it does have hyperthreading.
Hyperthreading is enabling multiple threads to run on each core which is how there are 2 cores with 4 threads. Normally the i7 has 4 cores and 8 threads compared to only 2 cores with 4 threads of the i5. In this particular case they are both the same. The reason I would buy a i7 over a i5 is for the 4 cores and 8 threads, this is for software (example - certain Video editing programs) that is written to take advantage of the higher number of pathways.
I had also opened intel's product details on the i7 and compared them.
Apart from a slight increase in processor frequency and on-chip L2 + L3 cache (found this spec elsewhere), there is little to tell these apart when comparing both the specs. Even the comparison sites (examples - CPU Boss, CPU UserBenchmarks), only show a slight increase in performance (about 10%). Not really the difference I am looking for, especially when there is almost $200 difference in price (Gigabyte Brix i5 A$599 and the i7 A$795 from Mwave - other shops selling both here are similar ranging from over $150 to almost $200). In essence, the i7 should really be classified as a faster i5.

[excalibur1814]

Yes there's desktop i5s with 4 cores.

[whatif]

Yes there's desktop i5s with 4 cores.

I have a i5 5257u which has hyperthreading, and I looked into all this stuff back then.
The ones that are used in the Brix are the same "u" type processor (as in i5 6200u or my 5257u), which are dual cores.
The i5 quad cores are a different type (examples - H or S, et cetera, which can be dual or quad as well as other differences) - see websites like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...icroprocessors

In summary, it looks like the desire to have both of them run at a low 15W plus both of them having the same 2C/4T's is what is hampering any real performance gains between between either of the newer i5 6200u and i76500u, and also over the older 28w i5 5257u. Although with only 15w power usage means - less heat, less fan noise, and lower power bills, especially if run 24/7. And it does have the new Thunderbolt port.