Power Consumption & Wrap Upward

When it comes to idle consumption, the 7200U is on par with the 6200U as both consummate systems consumed just seven watts hither.

Despite the slight clock speed advantage, the Cadre i5-7200U does eat slightly less power than the 6200U nether full load, we saw a 2-watt reduction hither. Certainly nothing worth getting excited over just it's nice to run across efficiency improvements, even if they are pocket-sized.

Placing both the CPU and GPU under full load we run across that the 7200U consumed 3 watts less than the 6200U, so again zilch world shattering but information technology'south still positive to come across a reduction in consumption for a slight performance improvement.

Baby Steps!

Having already crowned the Beebox-S as one of the all-time pound for pound mini PCs on the market, this small update further cements that position. In terms of performance, the 7200U is faster while consuming slightly less power. Should the Beebox-Due south 7200U start selling for the same price every bit the 6200U in the next few weeks, then that small performance bump and efficiency comeback would exist warmly welcomed.

Pricing really needs to be on point hither considering other than the upgrade to the new Kaby Lake fleck, the rest of the computer's hardware is identical to its Skylake-based predecessor.

I of the primal benefits of buying Kaby Lake is that information technology offers more avant-garde video playback capabilities and Asrock notes that the new Beebox-Due south supports 4K (60fps) with 10-bit HDR output. Unfortunately, this isn't a feature I tin can currently examination. I was able to test the arrangement's performance and unfortunately the numbers are largely disappointing. Though, by all accounts, early indications had pointed toward Kaby Lake offer no real functioning advantages over Skylake.

Fifty-fifty with a clock speed advantage, we often simply saw gains of around two% in our awarding testing. The encoding benchmarks saw a boost of 2-12% but with the Kaby Lake organization having upward to an 11% clock speed advantage, that isn't news.

Shopping shortcuts:

  • Asrock Beebox-South 7200U on Amazon
  • Asrock Beebox-S 7200U on Newegg

As we mentioned early in this review, we mostly focused on performance, then if you'd like to learn more than about the features of Asrock'south mini PC check out our review of the well-nigh identical Beebox-S 6200U from this by August.

Pros: Great performance for everyday workloads. Compact, solidly synthetic. Well connected: USB three.1 Type C, mSATA, 2.5" storage, and triple display output.

Cons: Clumsy SATA ability/data cable implementation makes installation harder than necessary. The Beebox-South 6200U remains attractive considering Kaby Lake'due south minor gains.