STORE Selection Tools: Boards | CPUs | Cases | Cooling | NAS | PSUs | Servers | Storage | Find and Configure a Mini PC News October 08, 2021 The Turing Pi V2 July 21, 2020 AMD announce Ryzen 4000 "G " Series with Integrated Graphics June 11, 2019 ASRock built a Mini-ITX sized RX 570 April 26, 2018 ASRock fills out range of 8th Gen Mini-ITX boards October 09, 2017 Intel Atom C3958 gets benchmarked September 29, 2017 Intels next generation NUCs September 14, 2017 ZOTAC introduces two new ZBOX Mini PC September 08, 2017 pfSense to require AES-NI from 2.5 September 06, 2017 Gigabyte's GTX 1080 Mini ITX OC 8G Graphics Card September 05, 2017 ASRock launches DeskMini GTX/RX mini PC Buy stuff from us! Mini-ITX Online Store Archived News September 2017 October 2016 July 2016 April 2016 September 2015 August 2015 January 2015 October 2014 April 2014 February 2013 May 2012 June 2011 Full Archive The Turing Pi V2 October 08, 2021 Turing Pi have announced further details of their second Mini-ITX sized Compute Module cluster board. Compute modules are effectively tiny low power consumption computers. A module has a processor and memory, often flash storage and sometimes Wi-Fi, and not much else. Compute Modules lack connectivity, so are generally mounted on a carrier or IO board to provide a route to the outside world. The Turing Pi V2 is a carrier board which connects and powers up to 4 Raspberry Pi CM4 or Nvidia Jetson compute modules together. The board becomes a cluster when multiple modules are fitted, with each compute module functioning as a node within that cluster. The clever stuff happens underneath. 2x Gigabit LAN ports sit on the back panel, with an internal 7-port switch with VLAN support connecting all the modules together. A Baseboard Management Controller allows remote board diagnostics and cluster management. The BMC and its network run independently from the data plane. External storage is supported with 2 SATA 6Gbps interfaces. There are plenty of other interfaces to connect between the modules: HDMI, 2x Mini PCIe, 2x SATA, 4x USB 3.0, 3x 40-pin GPIO, Audio etc. With 4x Raspberry Pi CM4 pi4.8_x modules connected, a cluster would have 16 cores and 32GB of memory on tap. The Turing Pi V2 has a standard 24-pin ATX power connector and 17x17cm Mini-ITX form factor, meaning almost all Mini-ITX cases and power supplies can be used to house the cluster. Original announcement (Oct 2020) Recent announcement (August 2021) Permalink | mini-link AMD announce Ryzen 4000 "G " Series with Integrated Graphics July 21, 2020 AMD announced today their Ryzen 4000-series desktop processors with integrated graphics. These processors advance the designs of the already-released "Renoir" Ryzen 4000 mobile processors to 35W and 65W desktop power budgets. Ryzen "G" processors are of particular interest to Mini-ITX aficionados as they do not require a separate graphics card, and therefore can use a much smaller enclosure and power supply. The new CPUs include an 8 core 16 thread Ryzen 7 for the first time, whereas the previous generation only went to Ryzen 5. The range consists of the Ryzen 3 4300G, Ryzen 5 4600G and Ryzen 7 4700G. These are all 65W TDP desktop CPUs. OEMs will have more choice for their Mini PCs with the 35W TDP, slightly slower clocked variants: The Ryzen 3 4300GE, Ryzen 5 4600GE and (yep) the Ryzen 7 4700GE. Cores Threads Base Boost Cache GPU Cores TDP Ryzen 7 4700G 8 16 3.6GHz 4.4GHz 12MB 8 65W Ryzen 7 4700GE 8 16 3.1GHz 4.3GHz 12MB 8 35W Ryzen 5 4600G 6 12 3.7GHz 4.2GHz 11MB 7 65W Ryzen 5 4600GE 6 12 3.3GHz 4.2GHz 11MB 7 35W Ryzen 3 4300G 4 8 3.8GHz 4.0GHz 6MB 6 65W Ryzen 3 4300GE 4 8 3.5GHz 4.0GHz 6MB 6 35W "G" processors have been noticeably more powerful than their Intel equivalents recently and AMD's marketing materials suggest this trend continues, though they do rather sneakily compare against 9th generation Intel processors and not the latest 10th generation. A Ryzen 3 4300G looks to be broadly equivalent to an i3-9100 in single-threaded and an i5-9500 in multi-threaded operation. A Ryzen 5 4600G could b considered to be like an i5-9500 (single threaded) and i7-9700 (multi threaded). The Ryzen 7 4700G measures faster than the i7-9700 however many cores are tested. Graphic benchmarks are similarly impressive, with a Ryzen 7 4700G generating double or greater frame rates in popular games than an i7-9700. This is despite having fewer GPU cores than the previous generation Ryzen "G" - 6, 7 and 8 cores across the range instead of the previous 8 and 11. If you are in the market in a few weeks for the best integrated graphics possible in a Mini-ITX machine without a graphics card the Ryzen 7 4700G will be your CPU of choice - if you can get one. The downside is these processors are targetted at the OEM market, and will not be available very widely in retail. Permalink | mini-link ASRock built a Mini-ITX sized RX 570 with Thunderbolt 3 June 11, 2019 On display at Computex 2019 was a interesting Mini-ITX sized product (currently) in a brand new category of its own. The ASRock RX570TM-ITX/TBT comprises of a Mini-ITX sized motherboard with an RX570 GPU and various connectors on its IO panel. But this is not a Mini-ITX motherboard. There is no CPU socket. The key connector here is Thunderbolt 3. This board is designed primarily for manufacturers and integrators to build their own external Thunderbolt enclosure. Essentially - Thunderbolt from a laptop or PC goes in one end; graphics, storage and networking connectors come out of the other. ASRock displayed the unit in two formats. The first was a one-off Mini-ITX enclosure courtesy of Coolermaster, with a traditional IO shield on one side and power button on the other. This would fit between your monitor(s) and your laptop or PC. The second looked like an All In One PC with the board attached to the rear of a large Display. By connecting a laptop or PC through Thunderbolt you effectively get a monitor with built-in graphics acceleration and additional storage and connectivity. The unit is powered by an external AC Adapter, with Thunderbolt allowing power transfer back to keep a laptop charged up. The small size and Mini-ITX format has advantages. The RX 570 is a lower end GPU with relatively low (for a graphics card) power requirements at around 120W. It can be kept cool inside a relatively small space. If the unit makes it out into consumer territory as a standalone board - and there is no guarantee whatsoever that it will - it could be fitted into a standard Mini-ITX enclosure, perhaps next to another Mini-ITX enclosure housing the main PC. Provisional specifications Radeon RX 570 with 4GB or 8GB GDDR5 Thunderbolt 3 2x HDMI, VGA, LVDS 19V DC-In 4x USB 3.2 Gen1 Gigabit Ethernet SATA 6Gb/s Source: hermitage akihabara Permalink | mini-link ASRock fills out range of 8th Gen Core Intel 'Coffee Lake' Mini-ITX boards April 26, 2018 Recently, Intel announced 3 new 8th Gen Core chipsets aimed at the lower end of the market, sitting below the already established Z370. Those new chipsets are the H370, B360 and H310. Features such as the number of available PCI-E and IO lanes reduce as you step down through the range - although Intel did manage to bake in support for USB 3.1 Gen2 into the H370 and B360. For the uninitiated, USB 3.1 Gen1 is half the speed of Gen2, and is what we now have to call USB 3.0, according to the powers that be. Full chipset comparison on Intel ARK for nerds The cost of a chipset reflects on the cost of a motherboard and that way, we get a motherboard for every segment and price budget. ASRock has been working hard to produce motherboards for all these chipsets. Z370M-ITX/ac CPU and Memory Overclocking with 'K' CPUs 6 SATA III ports 1 Ultra M.2 (PCIe Gen3 x4 up to 32Gb/s) connector 6 rear & 2 header USB 3.1 Gen1 ports Maximum memory capacity of 32GB Dual Intel Gigabit LAN Intel 802.11ac WI-FI and BT 4.2 Z370M-ITX/ac at Mini-ITX Store H370M-ITX/ac 6 SATA III ports 1 Ultra M.2 (PCIe Gen3 x4 up to 32Gb/s) connector 4 rear USB 3.1 Gen2 10Gb/s ports 2 rear and 2 header USB 3.1 Gen1 ports Maximum memory capacity of 32GB Dual Intel Gigabit LAN Intel 802.11ac WI-FI and BT 4.2 H370M-ITX/ac at Mini-ITX Store B360M-ITX/ac 4 SATA III ports 1 Ultra M.2 (PCIe Gen3 x4 up to 32Gb/s) connector 2 rear USB 3.1 Gen2 10Gb/s ports 2 rear & 2 header USB 3.1 Gen1 ports Maximum memory capacity of 32GB Intel Gigabit LAN port Intel 802.11ac WI-FI and BT 4.2 B360M-ITX/ac at Mini-ITX Store H310M-ITX/ac 4 SATA III ports 1 M.2 (PCIe Gen2 x4 up to 20Gb/s) connector 2 rear and 2 header USB 3.1 Gen1 ports Maximum memory capacity of 32GB Intel Gigabit LAN port Intel 802.11ac WI-FI and BT 4.2 H310M-ITX/ac at Mini-ITX Store Permalink | mini-link Intel Atom C3958 gets benchmarked on GIGABYTE's MA10 motherboard October 09, 2017 By Aleksandar Kostovic We previously covered the release of GIGABYTE's MA10 motherboard and we were impressed by the features it offers. The Atom C3958 it uses is a fully fledged server-grade SoC with 16 cores each clocked at 2.0GHz with 1MB of L2 cache per core. It features Intel's QuickAssist Technology (QAT) which is their name for a whole range of hardware-assisted crypto acceleration and compression tools designed to secure and route internet traffic. Now, we have benchmarks under Linux OS thanks to the guys over at ServeTheHome. The test was done with the following setup: - GIGABYTE MA10-ST0 (with Intel Atom C3958 CPU) - 64GB of Micron Ram running at 2400MHz - Intel DC3710 400Gb SSD - Intel DC3700 200GB used as boot device After running eight different benchmarks, the Atom C3958 outperformed the last gen C2758 by a landslide. It managed to beat it due to increased instructions per cycle and the higher core count (from 8 to 16). If you want to see the full benchmarks and to read more info about Intel's QuickAssist functionality, we recommend you visit ServeTheHome. Permalink | mini-link Intels next generation NUCs September 29, 2017 By Aleksandar Kostovic The Mini PC space is heating up as we see more compact systems from manufacturers being released. The reduction in power consumption and heat output is allowing them to pack more powerful systems into small enclosures. It seems like Intel is trying to change a few things with their upcoming NUC family of products. According to a road map posted on nucblog.net there will be three main categories releasing at three different times and price points Those will be: June Canyon - Celeron or Pentium based, low cost NUC with Gemini Lake based processor releasing around New Year 2018. The processors that will be powering those PCs will be Celeron J4005 (10W TDP) and Pentium J5005 (10W TDP). Hades Canyon - A new type of high-powered NUC with both VR and Non-VR models. The non VR comes with 65W Kaby Lake-H CPU, while the VR model comes with *100W* Kaby Lake-H CPU. The roadmap suggests it supports dGFX which could mean Discrete Graphics. I will feature two M.2 slots, two Thunderbolt 3 ports and six display outputs. Hades Canyon will be available in Q2 2018. Bean Canyon - The most "ordinary" model of the bunch. It will feature either Core i3, i5 or i7 based on a Coffee Lake-U SoC. TDP of the processors will be kept to 28W. There will be a new type of HDMI connector called HDMI 2.0a. Available in H2 2018. Permalink | mini-link ZOTAC introduces two new ZBOX Mini PCs September 14, 2017 By Aleksandar Kostovic ZOTAC have introduced two variants of their ever-growing Mini PC lineup. The first one is called the ZBOX MI553. It features 7th Gen Intel core processor, Intel Optane memory support and Thunderbolt 3. This Mini PC is actively cooled and has large ventilating surface area. It is equipped with an i5-7300HQ, with Intel HD Graphics 630 and up to 32GB of DDR4 2400MHz RAM. The MI553 chassis measures 184 x 184 x 72mm, only slightly larger than a Mini-ITX motherboard. Inside the chassis is an interesting motherboard design with a 2.5in drive bracket and the large side blower fan mounted to the CPU. Next up we have the ZBOX PI225 with another new form-factor. Zotac advertises this one with the bold title of "world's smallest". And indeed it is. Measuring at a mere 0.05 litres (8 x 95.4 x 63mm) it is smaller than your average smartphone. Despite its miniature size it still packs a punch. The Apollo Lake Celeron N3350 is clocked at 2.4GHz and the 32GB onboard eMMC storage and 4GB of LPDDR3 RAM will be more than enough to handle everyday tasks such as web browsing, video streaming and content consumption. As far as connectivity inside this little marvel goes it has two USB 3.0 type C ports, 802.11/ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.2 and a Micro SD card slot. Links: Zotac MI553 Zotac PI225 Store Links: Zotac Mini PCs (when they arrive!) Permalink | mini-link pfSense to require AES-NI from 2.5: how it affects you September 08, 2017 March 2019 update - pfSense 2.5 will no longer require AES-NI. Earlier this year Netgate - the maintainers of pfSense, the popular open source firewall/router distribution based on FreeBSD - announced that they would be dropping support for CPUs without AES-NI starting from version 2.5. AES-NI is an extension to the x86 instruction set used to hardware-accelerate AES encryption and decryption. Desktop CPUs have supported AES-NI for several years, though the lower power consumption Atom and Celeron CPUs used in many Mini-ITX boards and appliances have not until more recently. Netgate plan to remove the monolithic PHP layer in pfSense 3.0 altogether and expose the configuration instead as a REST API. An all-new javascript based GUI will talk to the back-end of the local device or to a cloud-based back-end to orchestrate (potentially) multiple instances. This will absolutely require strong end-to-end encryption. When AES is implemented in software it is much more susceptible to side-channel attacks. From this point of view it makes a lot of sense to reduce the risk of thousands of pfSense instances being compromised. How does this affect my existing Mini-ITX pfSense Firewall? It won't, unless you want to upgrade. If your CPU has AES-NI, you can continue upgrading to 2.5 and beyond. If your CPU does not support AES-NI then you will be able to go no further than 2.4, which will still be available for download. Support for 2.4 will continue for many months afterwards and of course your firewall will continue to function, though without any features introduced from 2.5 onwards. If your motherboard has a CPU from the following list it has AES-NI: N3050, N3150, N3160, N3350, N3450 and later If your motherboard has a CPU from this list it does NOT have AES-NI: D510, D525, D2550, N2600, N2800, 845, 1047, J1800, J1900, N2807, N2930 If you don't know your CPU type it will show in your pfSense dashboard. We can't list every CPU here. Intel owners can check on ARK whether their processor supports AES-NI: type "ark" followed by the CPU name into Google and look for "AES" on the first resulting page. AMD owners may want to try their luck with cpu-world.com When will this happen? At the time of writing, 2.3.4 is still the official release and later versions are still in beta. pfSense 2.5 will be built on FreeBSD 12 - which won't be released until early/mid 2018. A pfSense 2.5 release is most likely much later in 2018. Are there any alternatives to pfSense? There are many. VyOS, Untangle, IPFire, Sophos UTM, ZeroShell, Shorewall, DDR-WRT to name but a few... or plain old IPTables. Links: pfSense 2.5 AES-NI announcement and Roadmap Relevant comment thread on reddit Store Links: Mini PCs we supply that support AES-NI Motherboards we supply that support AES-NI Permalink | mini-link Gigabyte's GTX 1080 Mini ITX OC 8G Graphics Card September 06, 2017 By Aleksandar Kostovic As the demand for smaller and more powerful Graphics Cards grows, Gigabyte have launched a bigger brother to their already existing GTX 1070. The 1080 Mini follows the same footprint: Dual slot thickness, 131mm height and 169mm length. This card gets an upgraded power delivery system with 5+2 power phases (from 5+1 of Founders Edition cards). TDP is up to 180 Watts, slightly more than the 150 Watts of the 1070. The card is powered by one 8 pin connector and it keeps the same look as the 1070 model, with the same heatsink and semi-passive 90mm fan which only kicks in when a pre-determined load or temperature is reached. As far as the clock speed goes, it can go a bit faster than a founders edition in OC mode, and like the previous model it has two modes: Gaming and OC mode. But of course boost clocks will ultimately be determined by the temperature, ambient temperature and airflow in your case. Source: Gigabyte Permalink | mini-link ASRock launches DeskMini GTX/RX mini PC with GTX 1080 September 05, 2017 By Aleksandar Kostovic Two years ago Intel introduced their desktop-CPU-on-tiny-motherboard 5x5 form factor, later re-named as "Mini-STX". ASRock subsequently launched their first generation DeskMinis and have now introduced their second generation called the DeskMini GTX/RX, this time with a newer and very slightly larger Micro-STX form factor. This tiny PC is able to pack up to an i7 processor, 32GB of DDR4 SODIMM memory, two SSD or HDDs, triple M.2 SSDs and a discrete graphics card in a size of only 2.7 litres. One of the most interesting aspects of this PC is the MXM GPU slot. Mobile PCI Express Modules have generally been found to date in some higher end laptops and All in One PCs. The 5 variants of the GTX/RX so far listed are fitted with: a B250M-STX board with MXM slot, a Z270M-STX board with MXM slot, B250M-STX with GTX 1060, B250M-STX with GTX 1070 and B250M-STX with GTX 1080. It is possible to fit up to B+ size MXM GPU in the GTX/RX chassis. As the name of this PC suggests, it is capable of housing a GTX 1080 or (slightly further down the line) an RX VEGA MXM graphics card. ASRock are said to be working with Aetina and TUL to ensure a stable supply of cards. A welcome change from the earlier DeskMini is the all-black PCB with black Mosfet heat sinks. 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