Asrock Beebox N3000 Review: A great fanless mini PC

[Steve]

We got our first look at Intel's Braswell SoC architecture last month courtesy of Asrock's N3050B-ITX and N3700-ITX motherboards outfitted with the new dual-core 2.16GHz Celeron N3050 and quad-core 2.40GHz Pentium N3700 SoCs.

While Intel's latest desktop SoCs didn't exactly wow us, we were impressed enough with the quality of Asrock's boards and now the company is back to show us a more complete Braswell package with its new 'Beebox' mini PC.

The Beebox measures 0.6L and boasts a mere 4 watt TDP. This incredibly low power rating has allowed Asrock to create a tiny HTPC that is completely fanless. Under typical usage the entire system draws less than 10 watts. The company is heavily promoting the fact that its latest mini PC can support triple-monitors using three video outputs simultaneously including 4K from the DisplayPort. Interestingly, Asrock claims the Beebox can handle 4K video due to its unique dual-channel memory, a feature other Braswell mini PCs don't support.

Read the compelte review.

 

[madboyv1]

Very nice review, and surprisingly handy mini-PC. And idea how the difference in performance would be between the N3000 the beefier N3150? the 2w TDP difference probably won't make a huge difference either in heat generation so really I'd think for a consumer looking at both the only difference (besides availability) would be price.

 

[Peter Farkas]

Great review, thanks Techspot. The price is so good in the US (220USD), while here in the UK I have found it on Amazon for 272GBP=417USD for the same config. This is ridiculous...
Anyway, I think this is a very good miniPC for the US price and worth buying if you can utilize it.

 

[Guest]

Hi, regarding the inability to play fluid 4K videos, can you please expand on that? I've seen reviews where Braswell plays HEVC 4K videos and others where it fails. Apparently MPC-HC can handle it after first enabling hardware decoding in the LAV filters options. Can you check that?

 

[cliffordcooley]

Apparently MPC-HC can handle it after first enabling hardware decoding in the LAV filters options. Can you check that?

On what hardware? Would that hardware fit in this Beebox?

 

[jgonzo432]

Do you know what the 14-pin header next to the SATA connector is for? Also, is it safe to assume that any m-pcie card can be used in the top m-pcie/m-sata slot (I.e. m-pcie to usb instead of flash storage)?