CompuLab Intense-PC2: An Excellent, Fanless, Mini PC Powered By Intel's i7 Haswell

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  • phoronix
    Administrator
    • Jan 2007
    • 67311

    CompuLab Intense-PC2: An Excellent, Fanless, Mini PC Powered By Intel's i7 Haswell

    Phoronix: CompuLab Intense-PC2: An Excellent, Fanless, Mini PC Powered By Intel's i7 Haswell

    Last month in a preview article I mentioned I was testing CompuLab's Intense-PC2 and that it was a great Haswell-based mini Linux PC. After using it now for another month and putting it through its paces with many strenuous benchmarking workloads and trying out other Linux distributions, I remain enthusiastic about the Intense-PC2 and it being a great offering for Linux (and even Windows/BSD) users.

    Phoronix, Linux Hardware Reviews, Linux hardware benchmarks, Linux server benchmarks, Linux benchmarking, Desktop Linux, Linux performance, Open Source graphics, Linux How To, Ubuntu benchmarks, Ubuntu hardware, Phoronix Test Suite
  • rabcor
    Senior Member
    • Apr 2013
    • 1366

    #2
    These are some bloody impressive specs for such a tiny computer, I wouldn't mind using one for hosting a few servers (like Teamspeak and perhaps some dedicated game servers), and I can imagine the use for something this powerful yet small for enterprise and school uses, computers tend to take up a lot of space after all, but with this it can just be attached to a wall or the back of the monitor or something.

    If I wasn't such a gamer, I'd be dying to get one of these.

    Comment

    • mcirsta
      Senior Member
      • Sep 2011
      • 144

      #3
      This is indeed a nice device but quite on the expensive side. I'm not sure they're of the same quality but cheaper ones are on sale on aliexpress, much cheaper than this one.

      Comment

      • estan
        Junior Member
        • Oct 2014
        • 26

        #4
        Could you review some budget alternatives?

        I immediately fell in love with this thing when I saw it in your last article about it. However, I'm a student and that price is pretty damn steep for something that would probably not be my main computer.

        It would be great if you could gather up some similar boxes that are cheaper (and less ruggedized naturally) and give them a spin.

        Comment

        • Marc Driftmeyer
          Senior Member
          • Oct 2012
          • 1502

          #5
          Wow, looking at the pricing page I'm smiling more for the Mac Mini.

          Comment

          • efikkan
            Senior Member
            • Jun 2010
            • 436

            #6
            I'm looking for something like this for my new home router, but I'm currently torn between buying a mini-PC like this or building an 1U Supermicro rack. 2x Intel NICs is a requirement, so this box looks interesting. But I'm still worried about the heat, ~30W in a tiny box will get hot.

            Originally posted by rabcor View Post
            If I wasn't such a gamer, I'd be dying to get one of these.
            You wouldn't use one of these as your main computer. Even if you pick the one with an i7, it's still the underpowered dualcore ultrabook i7, and is nothing compared to even an mid-range desktop i5. These boxes are suited for other purposes, such as home routers, mediacenter PCs and various embedded applications.

            Comment

            • Xelix
              Phoronix Member
              • Nov 2008
              • 53

              #7
              Originally posted by efikkan View Post
              I'm looking for something like this for my new home router, but I'm currently torn between buying a mini-PC like this or building an 1U Supermicro rack. 2x Intel NICs is a requirement, so this box looks interesting. But I'm still worried about the heat, ~30W in a tiny box will get hot.

              You wouldn't use one of these as your main computer. Even if you pick the one with an i7, it's still the underpowered dualcore ultrabook i7, and is nothing compared to even an mid-range desktop i5. These boxes are suited for other purposes, such as home routers, mediacenter PCs and various embedded applications.
              I call it bull****. This is a perfectly capable computer for day-to-day use.

              Comment

              • JS987
                Senior Member
                • Sep 2012
                • 445

                #8
                Originally posted by Xelix View Post
                I call it bull****. This is a perfectly capable computer for day-to-day use.
                Core i7 4600U is slower than desktop Core i3. Its performance per price is low.
                Last edited by JS987; 19 October 2014, 02:19 PM.

                Comment

                • Xelix
                  Phoronix Member
                  • Nov 2008
                  • 53

                  #9
                  Originally posted by JS987 View Post
                  Core i7 4600U is slower than desktop Core i3. Its performance per price is low.
                  Even if it is actually slower than a core i3, how is that a proof that it is not good enough for day-to-day use?

                  For browsing the web, watching movies, using an office suites, skype, writing code, instant messaging, playing music, etc, this is more than enough.

                  Sure, you won't mine bitcoins or play video games on this. But that was never the point.

                  Comment

                  • JS987
                    Senior Member
                    • Sep 2012
                    • 445

                    #10
                    Originally posted by Xelix View Post
                    Even if it is actually slower than a core i3, how is that a proof that it is not good enough for day-to-day use?
                    It is fast enough for some tasks, but it is too limited for main desktop computer which should be usable for anything.

                    Comment

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