Open Benchtable build

This unconventional PC features Streacom's stylish BC1 Open Benchtable, AMD's Ryzen 5 3600, Nofan's CR-80EH CPU cooler and a fanless Seasonic PSU.

Contrary to common perception, dust is not really a problem for open-air builds and a monthly blast of canned air keeps everything in mint condition.

Source: PCPartPicker

The ZBOX edge CI341 is back in stock

The ZBOX edge CI341 features the 6W Celeron N4100, two SO-DIMM slots, M.2 storage, DisplayPort 1.4 and HDMI 2.0, three USB ports, two Gigabit Ethernet ports, WiFi and Bluetooth. The Zotac barebone also features a simple yet effective heatsink case for $179.99. The first ZBOX we feel confident to recommend.

Akasa Euler S build video

The Akasa Euler S is the simplest, most straightforward option for a fanless PC powered by a (35W) desktop CPU. The slim heatsink case does require a Thin mini-ITX motherboard (and it's pretty tight in there) but the building process is a child's game, and just so clean. Order it from performance-pcs, amazon.de, amazon.co.uk, or order a complete PC from our friend Matt over at Fully Silent PCs.

Thin mini-ITX motherboards are rather hard to find, although no less than four of them were announced last week: The GIGABYTE GA-IMB410TN, the ASRock H410TM-ITX, B460TM-ITX, and the ECS H410H6-T12. Could Thin mini-ITX be making a comeback?

ODROID H2+ review

Courtesy of ETA PRIME

Akasa Turing FX review

"The Akasa Turing FX is an impressive case. It is bigger than the original NUC case but still small. It looks great to my eyes and the build quality and machining are top notch. Using a completely silent PC yet relatively powerful PC is a luxury that I wish I could experience more often. Due to complete lack of noise the case would make a perfect HTPC (I actually have my Gemini Lake NUC HTPC in a fanless Akasa case) or a music streaming server. If you’re using your NUC as your desktop PC and annoyed by the fan noise the Turing FX would be your best option of making it completely silent."

Source: The NUC Blog

Ghost Canyon video roundup

Ghost Canyon is available

The highly-anticipated Intel NUC 9 Extreme is finally available in i7-9750H or i9-9980HK flavor. The first NUC to support desktop graphics cards also features Intel's Compute Element for processors upgrades. The 5-liter Ghost Canyon is a barebone system that requires RAM, storage, OS and optional discrete graphics. Although a fanless chassis was announced by Akasa, we have yet to see what it will look like in practice.

✓ PCIe x16 slot for desktop graphics (up to 8" card length)
✓ Supports three 4K displays (more with discrete graphics)
✓ Two Thunderbolt 3 ports
✓ Intel Wi-Fi 6
✓ Bluetooth 5
✓ Two Intel Gigabit LAN ports
✓ HDMI 2.0a port
✓ 3-year limited warranty

Source: Amazon (2)

Perfect add on

This tiny card adds two additional RJ45 ports to GIGABYTE's 10th Gen BRIX mini PCs, including the GB-BRi7H-10710, GB-BRi7H-10510, GB-BRi5H-10210, GB-BRi5H-10210E, and GB-BRi3H-10110. One is a welcome Intel LAN (210AT), while the other acts as a COM port (RS-232). We'd love to see it available for the original Intel NUC.

Source: GIGABYTE

AMD-powered fanless ThinkCentre

Lenovo's ThinkCentre M75n IoT is the follow-up to last year's Intel-powered M90n IoT. Featuring the same heatsink case, the M75n rocks the 6W Athlon Silver 3050e and should offer better thermals than paired with the 15W Core i3.

"ThinkCentre M75n IoT is built to Lenovo’s industry-leading specifications for durability and reliability, assuring 24/7/365 uptime in even the most rugged conditions. This includes withstanding vibration, humidity, shock, dust, and fungus. The intelligent cooling engine in ThinkCentre M75n IoT ensures more efficient heat dissipation than other edge devices that use mobile CPUs, even in environments of up to 50˚C/122˚F."

Connectivity is still top-notch and includes: two USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports, two USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C, two COM ports, DisplayPort, and Gigabit Ethernet (optional 802.11AC and Bluetooth 5.0 module). The M75n also comes with 4GB RAM and two M.2 slots (PCIe and SATA). The mini desktop will be available soon from $329.

Source: Lenovo

A note to manufacturers

We're taking a moment to appreciate the mini-STX form factor. These 5x5inch motherboards are awfully cute and have tremendous potential. Unfortunately, passive cooling is often not possible because of poor layout and PCH integration. Launching a motherboard without a chipset cooler is a bad idea, but placing a hot M.2 SSD on top of it is simply ridiculous. Hopefully, upcoming mini-STX motherboards will fix this problem.