**Cyclone Mini PC**

[Boomstick777]

Ok yeah this may the coolest piece of PC tech I have ever bought. Not much on the net about this one so though I would post about it here.

Mini PC, comes with Windows 8.1 pre installed. (Upgrade to Windows 10 when available)

Quad core ATOM Intel CPU / GPU. 2GB Of DDR3L. And a small 32GB eMMc main drive. You can add a SDXC 'Internal' card to expand storage or use one of the three USB 2.0 ports to plug in extra HDD etc. I've one port hooked up to my Dell monitor which gives me 3 extra.

First thing that shocked me is how fast this boots up and how responsive everything is. Full Windows experience, you can do anything your normal PC can. Obviously bar high end gaming lol.

Streaming, web stuff. High Def Media playback all spot on.

So the reason I got this is for a 24/7 download, web browsing media box. It uses just 12 Watts. 12 Watts !

Comes in around 120 pounds, really not bad for a power efficient all in one PC.

Average temp when running programs / doing web stuff is around 60c. (Right now it's around 60c I'm installing Windows updates, running Youtube and posting this

This is totally passively cooled, no fans / no noise

The CPU will downclock at IDLE and turbo up when under LOAD. Typical Intel turbo boost.

It's tiny !

Spoiler

For testing have mine sat next to my monitor. Audio out, HDMI + VGA, 3 x USB and slot for memory cards. WIFI / LAN and Bluetooth. This will likely end up living in the lounge hooked up to 46 inch Samsung TV. I may even use it as an alternative to my main PC for web stuff as I spend more time doing than that than gaming atm. Awesome little thing.

Really surprised how good this thing is, if you want a download box / Media box, browsing Music / Videos etc. Something to run 24/7 this thing is ideal.

Some more info:

Spoiler

 

[Boomstick777]

USB2.0? That's a real disappointment, other than that it's a sweet little system.

Give it USB3.0/3.1 and I'd probably consider that as a NAS box. I'm guessing the atom's chipset is limited to USB2 as that's the only reason that I can conceive they passed up on that.

They could actually make HDD enclosures that just slide underneath the unit as an optional extra, make them stackable to gain more than one extra HDD. Seems like a massive missed opportunity.

I love small PCs. A better CPU, more ram and USB 3 would be a big improvement for me.

Yeah I think the chipset is limited in with the CPU. I mean USB 3.0 would be nice but for the money I can't fault this at all. It's perfect general PC use. Maybe in a couple years we'll see updated Atoms with USB 3.0 and more memory, probably a few years away from getting it at this price point though.

The main highlight for me is the passive cooling and only 12 Watt power usage, low heat / power I can just run this thing 24/7 and not worry about it.

 

[Boomstick777]

Ooo.. i like that, i was going to get one of them Intel HDMI things, but this would be better next to my TV, which is next to my PC anyway, but still!

Haha, why not just plug your PC into the TV?

I read about the Intel sticks, I think they get hot really quick and throttle pretty hard.

This Cyclone is tiny but has more room to breath over the stick, and the passive cooling does a good job of keeping temps in check.

I'm still using it, haven't switched my main PC back on yet

 

[Boomstick777]

Mainly because of my K&M, it's too far away! I plug it in when I want to watch a film. The sad thing is, my Monitor and TV are about an arms length away.

Oh really? I'd have to do a bit more reading.

Haha, how is it speed wise? I mean the main thing I now hate is going back to a normal PC without an SSD as its so slow

Yeah it's fine for general use, really don't notice much difference between this and my main PC. I'm not gaming obviously that's where the differences would be glaringly obvious, but for web browsing, media playback it's spot on. Boot up and restart are fast, just like my desktop but the slowest thing so far being Windows updates, had to do about 70 updates that took a while to install and then reboot, def slower than my main PC. But to be expected on a 12 watt system lol.

The main hard drive is a 32GB eMMc, it's fine just very small. The Windows OS uses about 6GB so you have enough spare for updates etc, but media / video files I store on external HDD.

I'm playing with settings atm like Firefox and IE to offload cache onto external HDD to stop so many writes. I always tweak everything system with Yamicsoft as it optimizes for flash / SSD. Everything seems fine atm. Still haven't gone back to main PC lol.

Ran a few downloads through the night, everything fine using WIFI getting 4MB download. I may try this in LAN at some point as well.

I like the idea, I think in the next 5~10 years things will get most interesting.

As a side PC, I have a Gigabyte Brix GB-BXi5G-760 which has an NVidia 760 in it!

Yeah definitely, hopefully really low power systems like this will get a nice performance boost in the same sub 15 watt envelope. I like just being able to run this 24/7 and not worry about it. Even at IDLE my X99 build + Titan X sucks a lot of juice, under load probably looking at 400Watts +. So this thing is ideal as a download / media box and just have the main PC shutdown when not gaming.

 

[Boomstick777]

What's the RRP on it?

Around 120. Worth checking around.

Got it all updated, going to move this to the lounge and just run is as 24/7 download - Media box. Crazy that something so small / cheap can run full Windows etc.

 

[Boomstick777]

If that's with OS that's really impressive? I'm guessing it's got an external powerblock also, how bigs that? wouldn't mind knowing what the USB transfer rate comes out at but still think it's the deal breaker for me. Recon I'll keep an eye out for a refresh mind.

Yeah comes with Windows 8.1. There is no power brick. Just a plug for the wall socket and single pin into the back of Mini PC.

Got to say, really is the coolest PC thing I have bought, really liking this tiny PC