Temperature, Power and Noise
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At the end of the day we have to conclude that the CPU cooler in the Gigabyte Brix Pro isn’t enough for the Intel Core i7-4770R processor, which is a real shame. This is a really a great system and form factor, but sometimes you can push the envelope too far.
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Final Thoughts and Conclusion
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The CPU Cooler on the Gigabyte Brix Pro might work well on models with lesser processors, but wasn’t up to snuff for the Intel Core i7-4770R and its rated 65W TDP. The Gigabyte Brix Pro struggles to keep this processor cool when you put it under any substantial load and it gets pretty load when the fan ramps up. Intel says that 100C load temperatures are within spec, but many of our readers will end up avoiding this system due to the temperatures and fan noise.
Overall system performance was impressive as this small system had incredible performance in both CPU and GPU intensive tasks. We were really impressed how Intel Iris Pro 5200 integrated graphics was able to play DirectX 11 game titles like Metro Last Light as we’ve never been able to play recent tier 1 game titles on Intel integrated graphics before! Intel has made good improvements when it comes to improving graphics performance and they’ve been keeping up on their promise of having quarterly driver updates. Intel doesn’t support game day drivers yet for big titles, but they are making big strides.
When it comes to pricing the Gigabyte Brix Pro GB-BXi7-4770R runs $649.99, but you can also step down to the models like the GB-BXi5-4570R for $499.99. In fact that model might be a better choice for many as it costs less, still has Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200 and might not have as severe the thermal issues that we saw on the Brix Pro GB-BXi7-4770R.
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At the end of the day we are excited by how much power Gigabyte was able to put in a tiny PC that was just 0.79 liters, but we are also disappointed that they couldn’t get better thermals. In fact we’d be happy with a slightly taller system if that would mean better thermals. For example, if Gigabyte should have made this system another 12.7mm (half inch) thicker to support a larger heatsink would we not be sitting at 100C and thermally throttling?
Legit Bottom Line: The Gigabyte Brix Pro GB-BXi7-4770R is a great system, but the thermal solution just isn’t keep the Intel Core i7-4770R from throttling and you end up with a noisy system.
..ich kenne die Bedeutung/Verwendung von 'Brick' in der Unterhaltungselektronik im engl. Sprachgebrauch...soviel Selbstironie traue ich der Marketingabteilung von Gigabyte bei der Namensgebung allerdings nicht zu...keine Ahnung was die dabei im Sinn haben/hatten.
