EXCLUSIVE: 35W desktop Alder Lake

We are partial to 35W desktop CPUs. They offer amazing performance and the latest bells and whistles in a fanless-friendly thermal enveloppe (although last generations run way hotter than they should). Here's Intel's 12th Gen Alder Lake T-series that should be available early 2022.  

i9-12900T 16 (8+8) 24T 30MB L3 up to 4.9GHz UHD Graphics 770
i7-12700T 12 (8+4) 20T 25MB L3 up to 4.7GHz UHD Graphics 770
i5-12600T 6 (6+0) 12T 18MB L3 up to 4.6GHz UHD Graphics 770
i5-12500T 6 (6+0) 12T 18MB L3 up to 4.4GHz UHD Graphics 770
i5-12400T 6 (6+0) 12T 18MB L3 up to 4.2GHz UHD Graphics 730
i3-12300T 4 (4+0) 8T 12MB L3 up to 4.2GHz UHD Graphics 730
i3-12100T 4 (4+0) 8T 12MB L3 up to 4.1GHz UHD Graphics 730

What is a NUC?

Courtesy of OnLogic

Smallest fanless 5600G build

Streacom's 5-liter mini-ITX case is designed for processors up to 45W TDP and pairing it with the 65W Ryzen 5 5600G requires some tweaking.

"My (Aussie) Father's Day gift (and upcoming birthday) from my wife. SO her request to have Windows is heeded (on the Samsung SSD, Budgie is on the Kingston). Fanless Ryzen 5600g because of ridiculous GPU prices, and my quest for a fanless system. DB1 because it readily ships inside Australia. Would have liked to get an FC8 from Streacom but it's currently out of stock.

5600g was running with: PPT 40W TDC 35W EDC 45W
Curve set to -10 for all cores CPU, -5 for GPU
Cinebench 23: Single 1427, Multi 8600-something.
Stable with ~1hr of Prime95, so that seems fair enough."

Source: reddit

JETWAY's quad Intel LAN barebone

This JETWAY system is powered by the humble Celeron 3965U but does feature four Intel Gigabit LAN. Also onboard are two USB 2.0, two USB 3.0, COM and HDMI ports. The barebone also features one DDR4 SODIMM slot (16GB max), SATA3, mSATA, and mini PCIe slots (full size & half size). The chassis itself is on the small side at 5.6" x 7.6" x 2.5" (142.4 x 193 x 62mm) for 2.2kg. It's available now for $449.95.

David and Goliath

How does the cheap Alpine AM4 Passive compare to the premium Noctua NH-P1? Unsurprisingly, the Arctic CPU cooler is no match for the Noctua juggernaut, and the 65W Ryzen 5 PRO 4650G reaches a whopping 95°C running Cinebench R23. The NH-P1, on the other hand, handles the AMD APU just fine at 74°C. The $15 cooler keeps the Ryzen chip at bay only when the processor is severely downclocked and undervolted. 

Source: DNS (Russian) 

Wenge and copper HTPC

We're not sure if such long and bent heat pipes are very effective or if its side panels are really convection-friendly, but this wood and copper PC is a sight to behold. We wish copper was more widely used for passive cooling. Copper has superior heat conductivity compared to aluminum, it's also three times more expensive.

The Tanager Media Center redefines your expectations of the TV. Experience all your video, music, photo and streaming media within a gorgeous, rich, interface. Seamless and responsive, and controlled by remote control and tablet. The Tanager Media Center is the result of years of design from a skilled engineering team. It brings together powerful media centre functionality, premium quality components, and truly silent operation. A perfectly engineered steel body and wood paneling encloses state-of-the-art electronics, enabling beautiful design and reliable construction. Heat is effectively dissipated using a custom-built cooling system of copper and aluminium, designed for flawless operation in any environment. From conception to construction, Tanager is designed and assembled in Canada.

Source: Tanager

Linus reviews The Beast

The Beast is a mind-blowing ATX chassis featuring two 3kg heat sinks (paired with no less than 10 heat pipes each) ready for passive builds up to 400W TDP. The relatively small 450 x 380 x 210 mm case is made of glass and premium aluminum. The Beast accommodates graphics cards PCBs up to 290 mm in length and is fully compatible with the GEFORCE RTX 30 SERIES. This one-of-a-kind chassis will be back in stock soon for 650 euros.

Ally is a Snapdragon mini computer

Granted, Android isn't a powerful or flexible OS, connectivity is extremely limited, and the paltry 2GB RAM / 16GB storage are a no-go as far as we are concerned, but this $149.99 mini desktop could start something new.

The Ally is a high-power mini PC with a Snapdragon Qualcomm processor and an Android 10 operating system. With 16GB of memory and 2GB of RAM, this enterprise mini PC has the capacity to support a wide variety of Android-based business applications and software. With its small-form factor, the Ally can easily be hidden behind any display while letting its performance do all of the talking. The Ally also supports AI technology which makes it easy to solve complex problems within IoT, edge computing, home applications, and much more.

Akasa Turing TN review

The Turing TN is the latest iteration of the popular (and super efficient) Akasa case. It's specially designed for Intel's NUC 11 Pro (AKA Tiger Canyon) and is available for $149.99.

The Hyundai mini PC is back

Previously available featuring the Celeron N4000 Hyundai's fanless PC is back rocking the slightly more powerful Celeron N4020 (Gemini Lake Refresh). Pre-installed with Windows 10 Pro, the mini PC also features 4GB of memory and 64GB of eMMC storage for $149.99.