Gigabyte offers an interesting lineup of miniature PCs that are not very different from the Intel NUCs. I chose this particular Gigabyte BRIX model for review because I feel that it fits an obvious gap in the Intel’s NUC lineup. The Gigabyte product that hides behind the long product name GB-BXCEH-2955 runs an Intel Haswell Celeron 2955U processor – something that is not available for an Intel NUC.

Mini-PC Barebone (BRIX) Download. By Model Name. Please login esupport.gigabyte.com. How to find model name / serial number. Somebody else succeded to install Centos 7.0 on a NUC or a Brix? I've just tried rewse workaround with the latest BIOS update (v40) on the NUC DN2820FYKH but it still doesn't work for me. I've the same problem with the Gigabyte Brix GB-BXBT-2807.

The unit is nicely packaged and after opening the package the first thing you will see after opening the cover is the tiny BRIX PC. While not as tiny as the Intel Haswell NUCs without a slot for a 2.5″ drive it still is really small. The pictures don’t do it justice. Considering this BRIX does give you the option of installing a single 2.5″ SSD or hard disk drive the dimensions really are impressive. This BRIX is 42.8 mm high and Intel’s i3 NUC with similar specs (the CPU notwithstanding) is 49.5 mm high. That’s about 15% more. The figures width and depth are similar.

Due to the nature of the product, we can’t help comparing this with Intel’s NUC products. Ok, let’s look at the specs. The highlights are listed below. • (dual-core, base frequency 1.4GHz, 15W TDP) • Intel HD Graphics integrated display adapter, max.

Frequency 1GHz, 10 execution units • 2 SODIMM DDR3L slots, max. Memory 16GB • Slot for a single 2.5″ drive, max. Thickness 9.5 mm • mSATA slot for SSD storage • 802.11b/g/n WiFi + BlueTooth 4.0 adapter • HDMI and Mini DisplayPort connectors (supports 2 displays) • 4 USB3.0 ports • Gigabit Ethernet interface The specification seem good to me. This BRIX sells for less than $180 / €160 making it only marginally more expensive than the Bay Trail NUC, which comes with much lower speed CPU and GPU, less USB ports and no mSATA slot.

Look around the Celeron BRIX The top of the BRIX contains just the power button. There’s no HDD LED on top here like on the Intel NUCs. It’s very glossy and prone to fingerprints and scratches – just like the NUC! On the front we have two USB3.0 ports and a combined headphone/SPDIF jack. The chassis is made of aluminum that’s painted black. Even my wife commented that she likes the BRIX better than the NUC and I tend to agree.

One thing to note here is that there is no inbuilt infrared receiver for remote controllers like the NUCs do have. The first thing on the left side of the back panel is the power connector. The BRIX does not have an internal power supply, but there’s an external power brick that is similar to what most of the laptops come with these days. There’s a full-size HDMI connector which supports the HDMI 1.4a specification and a Mini DisplayPort connector version 1.2a. Next to the DisplayPort connector there is your usual RJ-45 connector for the inbuilt Realtek GigabitEthernet adapter. Finally, you have two more USB3.0 ports. Assembling the Gigabyte BRIX Before using the BRIX, you need to install some memory modules inside the unit as well as some form of storage.

I chose to install a 2.5″ hard disk that I had lying around, but I definitely recommend using SSD drives instead – no matter what you intend to do with your BRIX. It does not really matter if you get an SSD drive that fits the mSATA slot or the 2.5″ drive slot. The performance and price are pretty similar these days for both.

The bottom cover of the BRIX contains also the drive holder for the 2.5″ drive. The SATA cables as well as the screws for attaching the drive are included, so you don’t need to get additional ones.

Under the cover you’ll find two SODIMM slots for memory (at the bottom of the picture) that take only 1.35V modules. This is important as many of the modules are 1.5V.

Here the SATA cable is still taped to mainboard, but if you install a 2.5″ drive you will pull the tape off. There’s a half-size Mini PCIe slot that is prepopulated with a WiFi/BlueTooth adapter. The antennas are preconnected to the WiFi card as well. Above the half-size slot there’s a full-size slot as well that can support mSATA devices. Installing the Operating System I decided to install the popular Ubuntu Linux operating system on the BRIX to see how well it is supported by Linux.