Gigabyte BRIX Projector Mini PC
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2014-05-07
·
1,077 words · ~5 min read
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The Cooler Master glacer 240l CPU Cooler delivers the convenience of an
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all-in-one and the performance of a custom water cooler click now to learn
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more welcome to a video about one of the most bizarre products that I've
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encountered in quite some time the Gigabyte brick Series in General Uses
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the low power consumption and heat output of fourth generation Intel Core
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Series processors to achieve a stunningly tiny form factor without
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compromising performance to nearly the extent we would have seen in the past
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they've got everything from extremely slim bricks to the big fat bricks Max
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that could accept four 2 and 1 half inch hard drives to Bricks Pro which can be
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outfitted with Intel Iris Pro Graphics to deliver a pretty darn satisfying
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gameplay experience at 720p in modern games making it kind of perfect as a
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home theater PC that can handle some light gaming or as a steam machine but
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today we don't have any of those bricks we have the bricks projector which uses
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a similar size chassis to the bricks Pro but instead of using that extra space
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for powerful hardware and a beefy heat sink it actually crams a 90 Len LED
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backlit wvga that's 854x480 projector with 1.4 WT stereo speakers
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inside the casing so let's take a quick tour of the device on the front we've
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got two USB 3 ports and a headphone or or optical audio outjack as well as the
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lens for the projector on the sides not a whole lot other than the speaker
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grills and an intake ventilation hole for the projector component that lives
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inside the top of the unit then at the back we find the main Affair in terms of
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I/O with HDMI out mini DisplayPort out
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gigabit Ethernet two more usb3 ports power in a Kensington lock and finally a
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discrete input for the projector itself that's mini HDMI giving it the
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flexibility to allow it to be used with any other device that supports HDMI such
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as a a notebook or like a a PC within a
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boardroom or something like that Gigabyte conveniently includes an HDMI
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to Mini HDMI cable since most people won't have one of those lying around
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which I think is a nice little inclusion all right thanks for watching guys I
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think ah gotcha now we're not done yet let's
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crack this baby open removing the four screws from the bottom and using the
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little handle we can pull off the bottom then remove one more screw to completely
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open up the bricks projector the 1.7 GHz
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dual core core I3 4010u processor with
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its hd4400 Graphics is soldered so we
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won't be changing that but once we're inside we can upgrade the included n
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Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 mini PCIe module and we can add up to 16 gigs of ddr3l s
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in memory and an MSA SSD it should be noted that this is a barebones unit so
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RAM and storage are not included by default the internal guts also give us a
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look at how this bad boy is being cooled the projector lamp is cooled by that
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fresh air intake that I showed you guys on the side with a copper heat sink
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attached by thermal pads then the air exhausted from that heat sink goes
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directly into the intake for the CPU Cooler which has a larger fan on it that
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uses a blower design to pump the air through a shrouded aluminum heat sink
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then right out of the chassis everything else inside is is passively cooled all
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right so back to the outside the integrated projector it's really nothing
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special it's got no Keystone adjustments or other projector like settings so you
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just have to fuss with it to get the image right and without a very dark room
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you aren't going to be getting a usable image much bigger than 35 to the low 40s
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in terms of diagonal inch sizes but it
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should be noted that Acer's entry-level Pico projector the c120 is 200 bucks and
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that gets you 10 extra lumens but is otherwise pretty much the same in terms
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of raw spec if you really want to get something better in a compact projector
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you're probably looking at something more like a GP series from Ben Q those
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perform much better but they're around $500 so while the brick series is
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supposed to sell based on compactness in general Gigabyte has a model that is
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available for $250 less than this one with exactly the same specs as this one
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that's half the size of this one but does not include the projector so the
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big selling point for this particular bricks is obviously the versatility of
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it it could live in an office boardroom and save the hassle of having a separate
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projector or operate as a PC in a dorm
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with a normal monitor hooked up most of the time via those normal outputs but
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with the ability to Chuck it on the included little bendy tripod which is a
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$5 value you can get them for five bucks and then point it at the wall with the
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lights off when you want to watch a movie or something like that so
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with that in mind I would love to see you guys comment on this video and let
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me know what you would use a Mini PC with a built-in projector for or tell me
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if you think it's crazy and you wouldn't use the thing at all guys like and share
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this video if you liked it dislike it if you disliked it and leave a comment on
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the lineus tech tips Forum Linked In the video description if you want to discuss this product or if you have any
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constructive criticism for me and my team also linked in the video
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description is our support link with options to buy T-shirts give us a
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monthly contribution or give us a kickback whenever you buy random junk on
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Amazon so check that out if you enjoy our videos it helps us a whole bunch man
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this outro is getting long oh and as always guys thanks for watching and
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