GB-BXi5G-760 - Gigabyte Brix Gaming w/ Nvidia "GeForce 760"

lhl

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Hey guys,

In case anyone is interested, I just got the latest Gigabyte BRIX Gaming w/ the Nvidia DGPU today (next day shipping from Newegg). Just thought I'd post some details about it since I haven't seen any reviews out on this at all.

It's bigger than a regular NUC/BRIX, although still tiny: 0.88L (59.6 x 128 x 115.4 mm)

I'm doing some power/heat/performance testing here:
https://randomfoo.hackpad.com/GB-BXi5G-760-Testing-OILOc5jPsEn

Happy to answer any questions or run tests for those interested, although I'm not running Windows, only Linux (Ubuntu 14.04LTS) on it.

Some notes:

* Idles at about 30W (compare to the fanless Bay Trail NUC I'm testing that idles at 8W)

* It has 2 small fans (50mm?) on one side, air flows straight to the other side. In the default "Normal" mode, it's pretty quiet - never gets very loud. I didn't do much testing on it in Normal mode.

* In Turbo mode the fans spin up as it's stressed. No dB measurements, but it sort of sounds like a little dustbuster. You'll want closed/IEM headphones... I've gotten it up to 160W power consumption. The external power supply is about half the volume of the BRIX and rated for 180W.

* One interesting thing. The box says "Intel Core i5-4200H/GeForceGTX 760" as does nvidia-smi, but lspci output is: NVIDIA Corporation GK104M [GeForce GTX 870M] (rev a1) - this makes more sense. TDP is about right (100W for the 870M + the i5 TDP is 47W, adds up)

* I'm running the xorg-edgers 340 drivers (340.24), FurMark score seems low? http://www.ozone3d.net/gpudb/score.php?which=21543 I haven't done benchmarking in years (or honestly used 3D w/ Linux much) so open to any thoughts/suggestions there.

I'll be primarily using this as a portable dev box for Oculus Rift DK2 development while I'm traveling.
 
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Too bad about the noise... I'd rather have a slightly wider chassis and slim 90mm fans blowing side to side or something than this blower setup...

The zotac kit you refer seems like a good alternative
 
Product link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856164018

The 870M is supposed to be almost as fast as a desktop GTX 660 Ti (7 SMX, 192-bit memory) so it's certainly a lot of GPU for the size.

Shame about the fans though, but I guess it's expected given the power density. Personally I'd take a slightly bigger system if it can feature a 100-120mm fan instead of these little screamers. This may be something a custom enclosure can remedy.
 
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We need some photos :). To identify the gpu correct please use gpuz. But gpuz is not supportet for linux.
 
Oh, I have some pics.

Here's one comparing it to the smallest BRIX (that's a 1037u) one:
14430266500_f06aa17c22_b.jpg


And here's an assembly shot:
14430335419_d66dd84fc2_b.jpg


Well, pretty much certainly a 870M - the lspci result is what the board itself reports. Also all the specs match - tdp, ram, cores, memory width, boost clock.

Gigabyte/Nvidia can call it a GTX 760 if they want, but *nothing* matches! (cores, clock, ram, memory width, or tdp) http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-760/specifications
 
Thanks for posting, I have been hovering over the buy button on the GB-BXi5G-760 and really torn on picking one up.

I wasn't able to load the notes you posted for your performance testing. What is your feeling as this handles gaming compared to a real 760 ? I'd like to make this both a steam streaming box for home but use it when I travel to play steam games.
 
Measure the fans and see their exact size. Depending on what they are you could swap out to Noiseblockers or Noctua's as they do make smaller fan sizes - could potentially be worth it.
 
I wasn't able to load the notes you posted for your performance testing. What is your feeling as this handles gaming compared to a real 760 ? I'd like to make this both a steam streaming box for home but use it when I travel to play steam games.

As I mentioned, I'm running Linux only atm so not sure how applicable the limited benchmarks I've run are. The numbers I got are low, but I'm not exactly sure what desktop 760 numbers on Linux look like.

As it's running at the exact specs (and full TDP) of an 870M, I'm assuming for Windows gaming performance, these are probably in line w/ the frame rates you might expect: http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-870M.107792.0.html

Oh, here's how Passmark scores the 870M (about 70% of 760 performance): http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=GeForce+GTX+870M
 
This is a incredible little machine.
It's simply a gaming laptop folded twice.

To bad that it's running hot and loud.

I would love to see the this little beast modded into a case with 2x120mm fans on each side. Making it twice the size.
 
Great specs for the size but I can't stand the looks. I wish they went with something more sleek/simple
 
oh shit this is not good. Maybe changing the thermalpaste could bring better temperatures to run at higher clock. Modify the bios to set down the max thermalristriction for clocking down could help. Or building a selfmade case with better coolers is the solution. I would like to accept this challange maybe i buy myself a brix and do this moding stuff.

This could be the easiest way to get better temps: I see on the pictures that 30-40% of the fanair comes to the toparea of the case to cool ssd and ram. But this components need no activ cooling.
So why not covering this fan area to get all fanpower to the middleare where the heatsinks of gpu an cpu are. You can cut a little paper an cover the fans. Look at the picture. I think you could reducing the temperature for 7-15°C.



Two papers on both side could increase the fan airtroughput to further 15% an should reduce the temperature to further 3-6°C.

 
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I got real curious from Linus' testing about the throttling. I was only looking at power load when I first tested (steady 150W+ measured w/ a Watts Up Pro) b/c nvidia-settings in Linux doesn't have a pretty chart on clock, but I got interested enough to script a little logger (I'll check that into github if anyone is interested in that) to see what was going on w/ thermal throttling.

Here's the overnight results, running Tessmark X64 (150W+ from the plug) over 11h+:

Code:
TEMP:
  93: 60.15%
  92: 39.63%

GPU:
 967:  0.13%
 875: 98.32%
 954:  0.02%
 941:  0.08%
 470:  0.01%
 476:  0.00%
 437:  1.28%
 483:  0.16%

MEM:
2500: 100.00%

There's some throttling and it doesn't hang around the boost clock much, but overall, it spends almost all its time at 90% clock (just below 941/967) which doesn't seem too terrible. It's definitely at the edge of its thermal cooling envelope, so I suspect some of the suggested mods would probably make a difference.

From Linus' review, I'm unsure if he had the BIOS set in Turbo mode, mostly because while he talks about the idle speed noise, I'd be amazed at anyone running this thing on Turbo and not talking about the fan noise under load - it ramps up like a small jet engine... (under Normal it doesn't ramp up the fan appreciably, so you'd definitely get tons of throttling).
 
oh shit this is not good. Maybe changing the thermalpaste could bring better temperatures to run at higher clock. Modify the bios to set down the max thermalristriction for clocking down could help. Or building a selfmade case with better coolers is the solution. I would like to accept this challange maybe i buy myself a brix and do this moding stuff.

This could be the easiest way to get better temps: I see on the pictures that 30-40% of the fanair comes to the toparea of the case to cool ssd and ram. But this components need no activ cooling.
So why not covering this fan area to get all fanpower to the middleare where the heatsinks of gpu an cpu are. You can cut a little paper an cover the fans. Look at the picture. I think you could reducing the temperature for 7-15°C.



Two papers on both side could increase the fan airtroughput to further 15% an should reduce the temperature to further 3-6°C.


Hi dondan,

There has been another article with the Brix Pro on another site where the reviewer took off the heatsink and concluded that they've done a pretty good job with the thermal paste and re-pasting may not do much to it.

The heat problems with the Brix Pro are particularly painful...it was very clear Gigabyte was working on paper theory in terms of TDP instead of actually building and trying different actual set ups. I guess, in hindsight, this is not surprising since they have experience with motherboards and video cards but not casing.

I opened up my Brix Pro and tried to push air using a 12" fan into the system and covered up different areas to find the "optimal" cooling.You're right, under some circumstances you can lower temperatures by 7 - 12C simply by forcing air in the correct direction. [Without selective covering, the temperatures hardly dropped 1C max 2C.]
 
This is still something a watch.
Great would be if you could change coolers but that's out of the question when the two processors are facing each other. (that's in a new case theory).

Perfect would be to turn both boards upside down. Change the coolers to something twice or trice the size. Make a push pull tunnel case (120mm on each side). That would make a case that is twice the size but still really small.
 
Gigabyte released the i7 version of this. Same thing, but i7 and half the VRAM (3gb instead of 6gb). Likewise, they re-released the i5 version; only difference is that it has 3gb VRAM instead of 6gb.

I ordered the i7 version and should get it this Monday but I'm not yet sure if I will return it or not (waiting for answers on my laptop first).

If would be nice if someone made a water cooling heatsink for both GPU and CPU in one unit. :]
 
I've had ma hands on GB-BXi7-4770R - the I7-4770R with Iris pro 5200 graphics.
My friend got it from valve at steam dev days and I've been seriously curious about this new iris pro chip's performance.

It's nothing ground breaking but you can play some online games like dota2 or CS:GO so for that I could recommend iris pro ones if not for the noise.
If current ones with nvidia are also really noisy while gaming I wouldn't recommend one unless gigabyte releases brix equpped with T/U version i5/i7 and Maxwell GTX750/750TI/850M/860M on 130W PSU.
 
CPU-Z validation link

GPU-Z validation link

1. Box as received from Amazon (inside an Amazon box)


2. Wrap and out cover removed from box


3. Top lid removed


4. Examination of top-accessible contents


5. Removable of Brix


6. Mini-HDMI to HDMI cable included


7. Mini-DisplayPort to DisplayPort cable included


8. What's under the center box?


9. Quick start guide, VESA mount, USB flash drive with all drivers, 2.5" storage drive screws


10. VESA mount


11. VESA mount won't work on monitors where the stand takes the place of the VESA mounting location (such as my ASUS monitor)


12. Closer examination of USB flash drive included with Brix


13. Back-side of USB flash drive


14. More goodies: 3.5mm input/output splitter, 180W power adapter, VESA mount screws


15. 3.5mm input/output audio splitter


16. Power adapter


17. VESA mount screws


18. Package contents as identified by quick start guide


19. Brix weighing 1029g on scale


20. or 34.8 fl. oz.


21. Human weight scale unable to measure weight of Brix


22. Brix weighs about the same as a 34oz [glass] bottle of olive oil


23. Bottom of Brix


24. Side of Brix revealing two fans; notice that the fan on the right is partially obstructed by chassis


25. Front of Brix


26. Side opposite from fans; some heat comes out from here


27. Back of Brix; some heat comes out from here


28. Look carefully -- see how long the screws holding the bottom plate are (about half the height length of the Brix)


29. Swinging open the bottom plate


30. Clear look into the bottom of the Brix where user-accessible modules are found


31. Hmm, what's this? :?


32. 250GB Samsung EVO and 16GB Crucial RAM installed


33. First look at BIOS screen


34. Using Apricorn EZ GIG IV to clone my old 120GB Kingston SSD over to the 250GB Samsung EVO. Kingston SSD was the bottle neck at ~250 MB/s, while the Samsung could do ~512 MB/s


34. Less cable clutter since moving away from laptop, but cable management is still needed


I have my Creative GigaWorks T20 Series II speakers plugged into my ASUS PA248Q 24" LED IPS 1920x1200 monitor. Audio comes to the monitor via DisplayPort. Using this setup I see a need for a DAC. Even with the speakers and Windows set to maximum volume the volume isn't always enough.

However, plugging my speakers directly into the 3.5mm input/output audio port on the front of the Brix seems to resolve this for free. But, if you have other HDMI/DisplayPort devices simultaneously plugged into your monitor and you switch inputs a lot, you would need to constantly unplug and plug your speakers versus just having your speakers plugged into monitor and your speakers working universally for any device transmitting audio via HDMI/DisplayPort.

I am able to play Skyrim at 1920x1200 with settings auto-detected to Ultra, all settings maxed out, and rock solid smooth framerate.

As far as noise, I'm more than satisfied with my Brix. Based on reviews of other Brix, I had always worried about noise being an issue but I can tolerate it even when the fans are ramped up to their maximum. I live with a Honeywell 50250-S air purifier on maximum intake that runs almost literally 24/7 (and has been for at least 7 years!), so the noise the Brix makes at full throttle isn't too much greater and thus easily tolerable for me. I sleep on the floor in the same room and slept with my air purifier off while my Brix was chugging away at video encoding at full throttle. BIOS comes with two modes for the performance: Operational and Turbo. I set mine to Turbo and have left it that way since the noise never went above intolerable/insane/crazy levels.

I'm coming from a Lenovo IdeaPad Z580 with a 2.3GHz i5 and NVIDIA GTX 635M with 8GB of RAM and a 120GB Kingston (~250 MB/s).
Lenovo_IdeaPad_Z580_optimizedPNG.png


going to this Brix
Gigabyte_Brix_i7-760_optimizedPNG.png


This is how I feel about the Brix i7 w/ 760:
Heart.png
 
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Wow Cerulean,

Thanks for the pictures and review!
I'm dead certain I ain't going anywhere near any Brix machines until I prepare myself with 7 years of sleeping with a hair dryer running for 24/7. :D

I really like the improvement where they give you a USB installation stick. Mine came with a CD which I wouldn't be able to use unless I had some external drive available.

Can you also help us with another test? Check if the machine throttles under something simple like the Intel XTU stress program. My Iris Pro 4750HQ laptop could finish the whole 5 minutes without even hitting 90 degrees but my Iris Pro 4770 Brix throttled at 100 within less than 30 seconds with the hair dryer running at full speed.
 
Wow Cerulean,

Thanks for the pictures and review!
I'm dead certain I ain't going anywhere near any Brix machines until I prepare myself with 7 years of sleeping with a hair dryer running for 24/7. :D

I really like the improvement where they give you a USB installation stick. Mine came with a CD which I wouldn't be able to use unless I had some external drive available.

Can you also help us with another test? Check if the machine throttles under something simple like the Intel XTU stress program. My Iris Pro 4750HQ laptop could finish the whole 5 minutes without even hitting 90 degrees but my Iris Pro 4770 Brix throttled at 100 within less than 30 seconds with the hair dryer running at full speed.
I'll do almost anything you guys ask just so that you can learn more about the i7 760 model. If there are any other pics you want I can add it to my list as well.

Downloading Intel XTU. Does it generate a report that I can copy and paste here?
 
Nice Performance!
@Cerulean
Now to really upgrade this super small form factor PC
can you please try to attempt to do a eGPU 2.0 DIY
If you are not familiar with this try googling it and it might pass to be the smallest gaming PC for 2014 - 2015.
a Desktop eGPU can be attached through its WLAN mPCIE(if it does not have a whitelist on it) slot and use wired lan instead
like this which by the way I have a successful implementation of ;
T1hYhJFuNdXXXXXXXX_!!0-item_pic.jpg
 
I would love to know how they manage to get the HDMI port working. Or is it just used as the data transfer cable for the PCIe signals?
 
I'll do almost anything you guys ask just so that you can learn more about the i7 760 model. If there are any other pics you want I can add it to my list as well.

Downloading Intel XTU. Does it generate a report that I can copy and paste here?

Hey Cerulean, it would be great if you could try to find out what the connector linking the GPU module and the mainboard is :)

Maybe we can find a flexible ribbon riser for the connector.
 
The cable is not the problem. The speed is limited by the mini pcie port.
 
The cable is not the problem. The speed is limited by the mini pcie port.

No, the problem I'm trying to solve is the atrocious cooling. By moving the GPU away, I could cool both the CPU and the GPU more efficiently.
 
I actually have a EXP GDC and Brix i5 4570 I've been meaning to put together for a while. Last time I tried it, I fried both the Brix and my 750ti and had to warranty. I'll see if I can do it again and post results.
 
































































I am also finding that Intel XTU really isn't reliable for testing. Why? Because I was doing benchmarks using FurMark for GPU and CPU testing and checked Intel XTU to find that the temperatures were not only slightly (insignificantly) higher but also did not have drop spikes at intervals. On an additional note, I am not saying that hardware isn't being throttled; I'm willing to bet it is.

intelxtu_sux.png


HWBot #1:
http://hwbot.org/xtu/share/144503

Intel XTU #1:
1.png


HWBot #2:
http://hwbot.org/xtu/share/144508

Intel XTU #2:
2.png


HWBot #3:
http://hwbot.org/xtu/share/147203

Intel XTU #3:
3.png
 
amazing pics Cerulean, thanks, these cute little toys make my SG05 look so big :p
 
Nice pics. Does anyone know what the bus connecting the GPU board to the mainboard is?
 
(Contents of this post are coming from another thread I posted in -- thought I would include it in this Brix thread as well)

How much was it?! Pretty nice for being so small! I like the way they lay everything out in the tiny case.

Gigabyte Brix GB-BXi7G3-760 (800 USD shipped)

Crucial 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 SODIMM kit (120 USD shipped)

Samsung EVO 840 250GB mSATA SSD (120 USD shipped)

Total: 1040 USD shipped

Already have Windows licenses so that doesn't factor into total cost, but you could easily get a Microsoft Windows 7 Professional license from someone here for about 55 USD.

I also put a Kingston HyperX 120GB 2.5" SSD in it as well to use for TMP and TEMP system variables + user profile AppData location. Got this SSD from a laptop that I put an 80GB Intel SSD in.

This tiny thing can run Skyrim at 1920x1200 on maximum quality settings and still give me smooth superfantastic framerate.



Far Cry 4:
I did the first mission of getting to the tower as a speedrun and kept it mostly the same pathway. Not perfect but that's OK; for practical purposes this is sufficient. By default, it selected 1920x1080 for my resolution and the "High" profile.

1920x1080 on "High"
Minimum FPS: 30
Maximum FPS: 58
Average FPS: 43

Then I would change the video profile, restart the mission, and do it again

1920x1080 on "Very High"
Minimum FPS: 26
Maximum FPS: 51
Average FPS: 37

1920x1080 on "Ultra"
Minimum FPS: 24
Maximum FPS: 50
Average FPS: 34

farcry4_towermission_1920x1080-high.png


farcry4_towermission_1920x1080-ultra.png


farcry4_towermission_1920x1080-veryhigh.png


farcry4_towermission_1920x1080-combined.png
 
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2 quick questions to Cerulean.

The first is what size are the fans? Judging from your provided pics(awesome quality btw) they appear to be 40mm as I was loking to replace them after reading reviews about the stock fans being loud.

The second is what chipset is used for the USB 3.0 ports as I'm looking to get a capture card that's USB 3 and is only compatible with certain chipsets (Avermedia Extremecap U3)
 
2 quick questions to Cerulean.

The first is what size are the fans? Judging from your provided pics(awesome quality btw) they appear to be 40mm as I was loking to replace them after reading reviews about the stock fans being loud.
According to http://www.hlrse.net/Qwerty/GB-BXi7G3-760/WP_20150110_17_25_43_Pro.jpg these are

Delta Electronics AUC0512DB DC12V 0.27A

You can find the official specifications at http://partner.delta-corp.com/Products/FANUploads/Specification/AUC0512DB-AF00(REV01).pdf

They spin at approx 7400rpm +/- 10% with a maximum air flow of 20.22 CFM and acoustical noise (average) of 38.5 dbA.

According to page 5, these are 50mm fans with a 15mm thickness.

You can buy these fans at http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/AUC0512DB-AF00/603-1490-ND/2560614 for about 9.20 USD/fan.

The second is what chipset is used for the USB 3.0 ports as I'm looking to get a capture card that's USB 3 and is only compatible with certain chipsets (Avermedia Extremecap U3)
Allow me to get back to you on this. I will need to disassemble and carefully inspect the motherboard. Perhaps I can borrow someone's DSLR and take a good photo of the top of the board if the chip handling USB is there.

I doubt this is what you are looking for, but if it does help here it is:
devicemgr_USB-controllers.png
 
According to http://www.hlrse.net/Qwerty/GB-BXi7G3-760/WP_20150110_17_25_43_Pro.jpg these are

Delta Electronics AUC0512DB DC12V 0.27A

You can find the official specifications at http://partner.delta-corp.com/Products/FANUploads/Specification/AUC0512DB-AF00(REV01).pdf

They spin at approx 7400rpm +/- 10% with a maximum air flow of 20.22 CFM and acoustical noise (average) of 38.5 dbA.

According to page 5, these are 50mm fans with a 15mm thickness.



I doubt this is what you are looking for, but if it does help here it is:

Thanks so much these actually answered both my questions but just wanting to confirm out of curiosity. Since the fans are 50mm could I replace them with 40mm or maybe even 60mm fans depending on the specs? I really wanna replace the stock fans with Noctuas if possible when I get my Brix (i7g-760)

Here's links to both the 40mm and the 60mm from Newegg:

40mm http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608033

60mm http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608032

EDIT: The 60s can probably be ruled out due to the 25mm thickness
 
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I just realized something as I was looking at my photos...

The GB-BXi7G-760 has a full sized HDMI port hidden behind the backplate of the chassis.

This is from Post #30:




Also, regarding the GPU, I feel like this would be useful to provide (I used Wikipedia to put this together):
GB-BXi7G-760_GPU-GK104.png
 
Hello All,

This is my solution to the annoying fan noise of the Brix Gaming:

I removed the two little fans inside the Brix Gaming and mounted this ugly but functional rig. I don't care about the looks, since the Brix will be under my table.

I purchased 2 100mm Silenx Fans. Providing a total of 70 CFMs
More than enough airflow to keep the processor cores and GPU around 34C-39C when idle. Playing Fallout 4 at high settings for an hour, the GPU never goes above 91C and the processor cores don't go above 95C

The fans are mounted backwards, sucking hot air out of the case.

The best part, IT IS AS SILENT AS A MAC PRO

BrixGaming1.jpg


BrixGaming2.jpg


BrixGaming3.jpg


BrixGaming4.jpg
 
That doubles the volume, though :D
Why not spin the fans a little faster to get ~80°C or something like that? Should increase the lifetime a significant bit.
 
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