Tag Archives: brix

ASUS VivoPC, the stylish NUC/Brix competitor

The small form factor (SFF) product category is really heating up! Apple pioneered the mass market consumer small computer arena with the original G4 based Mac Mini way back in 2005. Recently Intel took it a step further with their Next Unit of Computing (NUC), releasing a machine considerably smaller than the Mac Mini: 31.3 cubic inches vs. 85.5 cubic inches… yet it still packs significant computing power. This is becoming less of a niche market and much more mainstream.

GIGABYTE BRIX specs, similar to NUC but even faster

With Intel’s NUC you are stuck choosing between Gigabit Ethernet -or- Thunderbolt, and you get zero USB 3.0 ports 🙁 GIGABYTE arrives on the scene with their BRIX small form factor PC and it appears to improve upon the NUC by offering a faster CPU (up to 2GHz [w/3.1GHz turbo] on the BRIX vs 1.8GHz on the NUC) and (2) USB 3.0 ports. Photos courtesy of GIGABYTE One of the only drawbacks on the BRIX is that lack of Thunderbolt support.