Tech News: Gigabyte's pint-sized PCs are powerful and well-connected

Gigabyte's pint-sized PCs are powerful and well-connected

Gigabyte has launched a number of new kit PCs which promise to cram a ton of power into a very compact case.

There are four new models, the Brix GB-BSi5T-6200, GB-BSi5HT-6200, GB-BSi7T-6500 and GB-BSi7HT-6500, providing high-end PC solutions in a small box targeting home theater enthusiasts and general home or office use.

All of these models benefit from Intel's latest generation of Skylake processors, with integrated Intel HD Graphics 520, and they all have a USB Type-C port supporting Thunderbolt 3 for data transfers of up to 40GB/s (and the ability to daisy-chain up to 6 devices to that single port).

You also get four USB 3.0 ports on these Brix machines, plus an HDMI 2.0 port along with a Mini DisplayPort, allowing you to hook up multiple displays (or you can do so via the USB Type-C port, of course) and drive 4K monitors at 60 fps.

There's also a Gigabit LAN port on board plus support for 802.11ac dual-band Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.2.

Kit it out

Note that this is a kit PC meaning that you have to supply your own system memory and storage for the device. There's a free slot for an M.2 SSD and a pair of DDR4 memory slots to that end.

These machines also have a VESA bracket bundled so you can mount them on the back of your display, tucked away out of sight.

As for the exact size of these little boxes, the BSi5T-6200 and BSi7T-6500 are 34.4 x 112.6 x 119.4mm, with the other two models being the same size but slightly taller at 46.8mm rather than 34.4mm.

The extra headroom on the BSi5HT-6200 and BSi7HT-6500 allows for an additional 2.5-inch SATA hard drive to be fitted alongside the SSD, so you can include a hefty drive to store all your media on.

These models are available now if you hunt around online, and for example you can find the BSi5T-6200 pitched at around the £375 mark (about $540, or AU$700).

Also check out: The smallest VR-ready PC yet crams Nvidia's high-end GPU insideYouTube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P11POvPK7_M