Industrial NUC Box-N97 from ASRock
Since the release of Intel Skylake (6th Gen) and Braswell, ASRock Industrial has provided tiny boards and mini-PCs to the industrial systems market. After assuming ASRock’s Beebox design, the business has maintained a consistent cycle for its product launches in this area.
The business has been keeping up a line of 4 in. x 4 in. NUC BOX systems that are actively cooled and based on Intel’s low power microarchitecture. The business unveiled the Elkhart Lake-based NUC BOX-J6412 during the Tremont period. This served as the NUC BOX-3xx0’s replacement and was powered by Braswell SoCs. The business’s newest offering is the NUC BOX-N97. The ADL-N Intel Processor N97 is used in the Gracemont version. The system is available as a barebone, similar to previous NUC BOX devices, and can support either a 2.5″ SATA disk or an M.2 2280 SATA / NVMe SSD, as well as a single DDR4-3200 SODIMM.
The NUC BOX-N97 box also includes a 65W (19V @ 3.42A) power adapter, a VESA mount, and the appropriate screws. Along with a product description and installation documentation, a geospecific power cord is also included. The unit’s underbelly, which must be disassembled in order to install the RAM and disk drive, has a slot for a 2.5″ drive. As can be seen in one of the gallery images, the SATA cable is attached to the bottom.
They decided to add a 16 GB Crucial DDR4-3200 CL 22 SODIMM and an SK hynix Gold P31 NVMe SSD to the system. The M.2 slot is capable of accommodating both SATA and NVMe SSDs, with the latter running at PCIe 3.0 x1.
Every NUC BOX system they have evaluated so far has two SODIMM slots. The ADL-N SoCs only have one memory channel, hence the NUC BOX-N97 only has one slot. The internals of the NUC BOX-N97 are essentially identical to those of the other NUC BOX systems they have previously tested, with the exception of the DRAM slot. The system makes use of a cooler similar to one seen in laptops. There are no frills, and the thermal solution and chassis design are tried-and-true models.
GMKtec NucBox G2 Specifications
The successor to the still operational NucBox 7, manufactured by GMKtec in Jasper Lake, is the NucBox G2. The ports-all-around design of this micro-PC family is similar to what we observed in the ACEMAGIC T8 Plus evaluation from the previous week. The soldered LPDDR5 RAM in the NucBox G2 is identical to that in the ACEMAGIC system. The usage of an M.2 2242 SATA SSD maintains some level of upgradeability. The system cannot be purchased as a basic kit. A 1 TB SATA SSD with Windows 11 Pro pre-installed and 12 GB of LPDDR5-4800 RAM were included in our evaluation setup.
The NucBox G2 kit also includes a 36W (12V @ 3A) geo-specific wall wart with a Type-C output, an HDMI cable, a wall mount and matching screws, an instruction booklet, and a warranty card. The wall wart can’t be utilized consistently with other devices that comply with USB-PD sink specifications since this is a non-conforming USB Type-C application. Only the NucBox G2’s Type-C power input port may be utilized with the adapter. To access the M.2 2242 SATA SSD slot, just pry off the top portion of the main device. A colorful top panel option is also provided by GMKtec.
A ribbon connection connects the LED lighting base to the main board, which may be seen by unscrewing the bottom. There is also a tiny notebook-style fan and a copper heat spreader nearby. The fan may draw air in via the open vents in the LED lighting base and expel it over the heat spreader fins. The ADL-N package and a single DRAM package with four 24 Gbit Micron dice are visible after removing the heat sink and fan.
The soldered RAM cannot be upgraded by the user. However, behind the M.2 SATA SSD slot lies the M.2 2230 slot for the WLAN component. The pre-installed SSD is from FuturePath, and it seems that the FPT310 SSD featured in the ACEMAGIC T8 Plus review has the same SSD controller.
To maintain a consistent testing environment across several systems, we had to erase the Windows Pro OS that was pre-installed on the NucBox G2 and install Windows 11 Enterprise instead. The table below provides a summary of the complete specifications of the two review samples (as tested).
| Systems Specifications (as tested) | ||
| ASRock NUC BOX-N97 | GMKtec NucBox G2 | |
| Processor | Intel Processor N97 Alder Lake-N 4C/4T, up to 3.6 GHz Intel 7, 6MB L3, 12W (PL1 = 12W / PL2 = 25W) | Intel Processor N100 Alder Lake-N 4C/4T, up to 3.4 GHz Intel 7, 6MB L3, 6W (PL1 = 10W / PL2 = 25W) |
| Memory | Crucial CT16G4SFRA32A.C16FR DDR4-3200 SODIMM 22-22-22-52 @ 3200 MHz 1×16 GB | Micron LPDDR5-4800 (Single-Channel / 4 x16) 52-44-44-104 @ 4800 MHz 12 GB |
| Graphics | Intel UHD Graphics (24EU @ 1200 MHz) | Intel UHD Graphics (24EU @ 750 MHz) |
| Disk Drive(s) | SK hynix Gold P31 SHGP31-1000GM-2 (1 TB; M.2 2280 PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe SSD, operating at x1) (SK hynix 128L 4D TLC; SK hynix Cepheus ACNT038 Controller) | Futurepath S4GXH02TV6A01T0 (1 TB; M.2 2242 SATA III 6 Gbps) (?? NAND; ?? Controller) |
| Networking | 2x 2.5 GbE RJ-45 (Realtek RTL8125) Mediatek MT7921K (RZ608) Wi-Fi 6E (2×2 802.11ax – 1.2 Gbps) | 2x GbE RJ-45 (Realtek RTL8168/8111) Realtek RTL8852BE Wi-Fi 6 / Bluetooth 5 (2×2 802.11ax – 1.2 Gbps) |
| Audio | Realtek ALC256 (3.5mm Audio Jack in Front) Digital Audio with Bitstreaming Support over HDMI and Type-C (Alt DP) Ports | 3.5mm Audio Jack Digital audio and bitstreaming support over HDMI Outputs |
| Video | 2x HDMI 2.0b 2x Display Port 1.4a over Type-C Alt-Mode (up to 3 simultaneous 4096×2160 @ 60 Hz displays) | 2x HDMI 2.0b (up to 4Kp60) 1x DisplayPort 1.4a (up to 4Kp60) |
| Miscellaneous I/O Ports | 2x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C w/ Alt DP Support (Front) 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A (Front) 2x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A (Rear) | 3x USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) Type-A |
| Operating System | Windows 11 Enterprise (22000.2416) | Windows 11 Enterprise (22000.2360) |
| Pricing | (Street Pricing on Oct 05th, 2023) US $260 (barebones) US $353 (as configured, no OS) | (Street Pricing on Oct 5st, 2023) US $230 (as configured, w/OS) |
