General Use

Once the Sapphire Edge VS8 is turned on, it does offer a small "wow" moment. The white LED strip in the front pulsates, which is pretty cool. The power LED is embedded in the power button as well. The VS8 is quite good in terms of noise, but it is still audible, especially when the system is taxed properly. Considering the performance level which the VS8 achieves, seen below, the emitted levels are actually lower than I would expect.

Performance

PC Mark 07

3D Mark 06

Thanks to the Trinity architecture, the Sapphire Edge VS8 manages to blow the competition out of the water in terms of 3D performance. The VS8 comes with an AMD Radeon HD7600, which offers plenty of performance for casual gaming.

Power Consumption

Even with these powerful guts, the Edge VS8 does not draw a lot of power. While the stand-by number is a bit high, it is so mostly because of the included power supply. When sitting idle at the Windows desktop, the Mini PC only draws 16.2 W, which is an excellent number - far less than the original Edge-HD.


At load, the numbers become less differentiated. When watching a full HD movie, the VS8 is on par with its predecessor and the Zotac nano XS AD11. At maximum load, both the HD and VS8 once again draw similar levels of power, which is still alright, but they are beaten out by modern ZBOX counter-parts.

CPU Utilization

Mini PCs are finally approaching the CPU utilization of desktop systems while 1080P content is being watched. The VS8 clocks in at an extremely low 14% and is only beaten by 1% with an actual desktop Core i3 system. You should expect similar numbers from any modern low-power platform, since the AD06 from ZOTAC manages to match the number of the Edge VS8.

Temperatures

With so much performance under its hood, the Edge VS8 stays adequately cool, never breaking the 70° Celsius barrier. Even at these temperatures, the fan is quieter than some other Mini PCs on the market.