Friday, December 2nd 2016
ASRock's Beebox-S SFF PCs Upgraded With Kaby Lake CPUs
Remember ASRock's Beebox? The original Mini PC was originally reviewed here on TechPowerUp to a glowing score and wholehearted recommendation, and now, the company has announced an upgrade to its innards that is sure to give a new lease of life to the device's appeal. The upgraded systems are powered by either Intel's Core i5-7100U (2C/4T, 2.5 GHz base and 3.1 GHz Boost clocks) or i3-7200U (2C/4T, 2.4 GHz base clock) CPUs, featuring the Kaby Lake micro-architecture, but are, apart from that, identical to their predecessors. The system can also be equipped with up to 32 GB of DDR4-2133 memory (two SO-DIMM slots), an M.2-2280 NVMe SSD and a 2.5" SSD/HDD depending on your particular demands. Meanwhile, Intel's 802.11ac Wi-Fi + BT 4.0 wireless module is pre-installed.Just like its predecessor, the Asrock Beebox-S comes in a small black enclosure (110×118.5×46 mm, 0.6 L). Since the PC is based on Intel's Kaby Lake processor, it has rather advanced video playback capabilities, which make it a good candidate for an HTPC (especially if you're counting on watching Netflix in 4K, considering its rather... stringent... hardware requirements. This, I believe, is the strongest argument towards getting the new model over the still capable and cheaper, yet older, models.
If you do make the jump to the Beebox-S, it packs the required HDMI 2.0 with support for 4Kp60 with 10-bit HDR output, one of the key features of the new Beebox systems. there's also an IR receiver compatible with a bundled remote controller, further emphasizing a possible HTPC positioning of the Beebox-S. Other connections include 1x HDMI 1.4 as well as 1x DisplayPort 1.2. The Beebox-S also has 1x USB 3.0 Type-A and 1x USB 3.0 Type-C headers, as well as a 3.5 mm TRRS connector for headsets on the front panel. The back panel features two more USB 3.0 ports and one GbE connector.The Beebox-S 7100U and Beebox-S 7200U SFF PCs started selling this week for $291 and $349, respectively - a pretty steep price difference between both models for what amounts to a 600 MHz difference in the best-case scenario. For now, the Beebox-S is only available in black, though more colors may be on their way in the future, considering the previous Beebox made do with black, white, silver and golden finishes.
If you do make the jump to the Beebox-S, it packs the required HDMI 2.0 with support for 4Kp60 with 10-bit HDR output, one of the key features of the new Beebox systems. there's also an IR receiver compatible with a bundled remote controller, further emphasizing a possible HTPC positioning of the Beebox-S. Other connections include 1x HDMI 1.4 as well as 1x DisplayPort 1.2. The Beebox-S also has 1x USB 3.0 Type-A and 1x USB 3.0 Type-C headers, as well as a 3.5 mm TRRS connector for headsets on the front panel. The back panel features two more USB 3.0 ports and one GbE connector.The Beebox-S 7100U and Beebox-S 7200U SFF PCs started selling this week for $291 and $349, respectively - a pretty steep price difference between both models for what amounts to a 600 MHz difference in the best-case scenario. For now, the Beebox-S is only available in black, though more colors may be on their way in the future, considering the previous Beebox made do with black, white, silver and golden finishes.