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ASRock and Intel Team up to Create One of the Smallest Mini PCs: DeskMini

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Aside from appreciating a delicate compact design, most people barely recognize the artisanship and technology breakthrough it takes to shrink gizmos by even merely an inch. That said, it took two great minds, both Intel and ASRock working side by side to build one of the world's smallest mini PCs - ASRock DeskMini.

"We are excited to be working with ASRock as an ecosystem partner on innovative products," said Steve R. Peterson, Client Marketing and Enabling Director at Intel Corp. "The Mini Socket Technology Extended (Mini-STX) form factor adds the flexibility to support Intel LGA 1151 socket-based Intel processors in the mini PC segment. Ultimately, the Mini-STX component stack provides valuable configurability options for the channel, by extending the DT tower building block model into some of the smallest mini PCs available today."





ASRock DeskMini is based on the latest Mini Socket Technology Extended form factor, otherwise known as Mini-STX. Contrary to other run-of-the-mill small form factor systems, not only does DeskMini allow users to swap the CPU according to their own choice, it also packs enough headroom for a standard Intel box fan plus two 2.5 inch disk drives, all into the 1.92 liter chassis.

Moreover, while the whole setup is much smaller and power efficient than traditional desktop systems, it is also way more powerful than the current NUCs in the market. After conducting a series of tests, it was evident that ASRock DeskMini rocked the Cinebench R15, Sandra and 3DMark scores with an Intel Core i3-6100, compared to other mini PCs that sported a Core i7-6500U.



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That's nice and all. But I either need something very small (like an Intel NUC) or I want performance and don't really care if the hardware occupies a bit more space.

And by the way... NUCs are awesome!
 

AsRock

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That's nice and all. But I either need something very small (like an Intel NUC) or I want performance and don't really care if the hardware occupies a bit more space.

And by the way... NUCs are awesome!

But it looks like the size of a PSU which makes me wounder if it could fit there, and if it can get a case that holds 2 PSU's :p.

And meh nuc only looks good in 3rd party cases.
 
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The boards are only 5x5" so it probably could fit in a ATX psu sized case. This one doesn't seem to have the screw holes for that though.
 
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The boards are only 5x5" so it probably could fit in a ATX psu sized case. This one doesn't seem to have the screw holes for that though.


and then you'd still have an external power-brick, which I find hella annoying.

On the other hand - why are they never including any priceing into the "we're awesome" press releases... only makes those a pr-stunt without any real info.
 
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The Cinebench score isn't that good, they are comparing a much faster clocked CPU, and not one with the same clocks.
 

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The Cinebench score isn't that good, they are comparing a much faster clocked CPU, and not one with the same clocks.

Because most of the miniPC use mobile processor. And that is what they are comparing... BTW price of i7-6500U is $393.00 while i3 cost only $117.00
 
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Because most of the miniPC use mobile processor. And that is what they are comparing... BTW price of i7-6500U is $393.00 while i3 cost only $117.00

Yep, being able to use a desktop CPU is a big plus. We should see miniSTX for less money than the mini computers using mobile CPUs.
 
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