Raptor Lake-P Impresses, plus Shock ECC

Low-power processors have historically been geared in direction of notebooks and different transportable platforms. Nonetheless, the continued reputation of ultra-compact form-factor desktop techniques has resulted in UCFF PCs additionally serving as lead automobiles for the most recent cellular processors. Such is the case with Intel’s Raptor Lake-P – the processor SKUs have been announced earlier this month on the 2023 CES, and end-products utilizing the processor have been slated to seem in just a few weeks. Intel is formally permitting its companions to start out promoting their merchandise into the channel right this moment, and likewise permitting third-party analysis outcomes of merchandise primarily based on Raptor Lake-P to be revealed.

ASRock Industrial introduced their Raptor Lake-P-based NUC clones as quickly as Intel made the elements public. With the brand new platform, the corporate determined to trifurcate their choices – a slim model (sans 2.5″ drive assist) with DDR4 SODIMM slots within the NUCS BOX-13x0P/D4, an everyday top model with 2.5″ drive assist within the NUC BOX-13x0P/D4, and a barely tweaked model of the latter with DDR5 SODIMM slots within the NUC BOX-13x0P/D5. The NUCS BOX-1360P is the corporate’s flagship within the first class, and the relative maturity of DDR4-based platforms has allowed them to start out pushing the product into the channel early.

ASRock Industrial sampled us with a NUCS BOX-1360P/D4 from their first manufacturing run. We anticipated a boring improve with enhancements in efficiency and energy effectivity. In the midst of the assessment course of, we discovered that the system allowed management over a brand new / key Raptor Lake-P function that Intel hadn’t even bothered to convey out throughout their CES announcement – in-band ECC. This assessment supplies a complete take a look at Raptor Lake-P’s function set for desktop platforms together with with detailed efficiency and energy effectivity evaluation for SFF PC workloads.

Introduction and Product Impressions

Intel’s Raptor Lake-P builds upon Alder Lake-P and its heterogeneous processor structure by shifting to a extra environment friendly manufacturing course of. In contrast to the desktop model with improved cache measurement per efficiency core and doubled effectivity cores depend, the -P sequence supplies enhancements basically from the up to date V-F curves. This has allowed Intel to extend the turbo clocks for each core varieties to ship higher efficiency and energy effectivity – all whereas retaining the identical 28W nominal TDP of Alder Lake-P. There are additionally a lot of I/O enhancements resembling extra Thunderbolt 4 ports and USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 assist on them, however the adoption of these are depending on different board element decisions by the system producer.

ASRock is a widely known vendor within the client PC market. In 2011, the corporate arrange the ASRock Industrial enterprise unit to deal with industrial motherboards. The division branched out in 2018 as an impartial vendor with unique deal with B2B merchandise. The corporate has merchandise for deployment in small companies (places of work), automation, robotics, safety, and different industrial / IoT functions. Primarily, the corporate develops motherboards, and sells them to varied system integrators who can do their very own worth additions. Moreover, the corporate additionally sells mini-PCs primarily based on the developed motherboards into the retail channel. We’ve taken a detailed take a look at the efficiency profile of assorted ASRock Industrial UCFF PCs earlier than, together with that of the NUC BOX-1260P primarily based on the Core i7-1260P Alder Lake-P processor.

The corporate supplied us with a pattern of their first Raptor Lake-P mini-PC – the NUCS BOX-1360P/D4. That is basically a follow-up product to the NUC BOX-1200 sequence, however not precisely a drop-in alternative. Whereas the NUC BOX-1200 sequence got here with twin LAN capabilities, and a selection of each HDMI and Show Port outputs, the NUCS BOX-1300 sequence replaces the Show Port output with one other HDMI port and does away with one of many LAN ports.

Whereas the NUC BOX sequence makes use of a chassis tracing its roots again to ASRock’s now defunct Beebox product line, the NUCS BOX is a primary for ASRock Industrial. With out the necessity to assist a 2.5″ drive, the chassis top has been reduce down from 48mm to 38mm. The unique fingerprint magnet of a chassis high has additionally been changed with matte plastic. The relative distance between the motherboard and the chassis high has not been altered, although (the peak discount is totally on the underside the place the two.5″ drive caddy was once positioned). The cooling resolution for the processor is time-tested inside that case design, and all that ASRock Industrial has executed for the NUCS BOX-1300 sequence is to change the I/O cut-outs barely to match the brand new board.

ASRock Industrial’s predominant focus is on B2B clients. It’s no shock that their techniques are packaged in a nondescript method. Nonetheless, throughout the package deal, the corporate contains every part that an end-user would want – a VESA mount and related screws, M.2 SSD set up aids, a geo-specific energy wire and a 90W energy adapter.

ASRock Industrial markets their mini-PCs in a barebones configuration, with the selection of RAM and SSD left to the tip consumer. Putting in these parts entails eradicating 4 screws from the underside of the unit and slotting within the SODIMMs and affixing the M.2 SSD with a screw. It should be famous right here that the M.2 SSD set up within the NUCS BOX-1360P is way simpler in comparison with the NUC BOX-1200 sequence because the screw slot is straight on the board and never on a separate plastic tab. The facet of the chassis are perforated for air consumption and the rear has the air vent that permits the laptop-style blower fan to exhaust air after passing it by means of the warmth spreader.

With the intention to make an apples-to-apples comparability, we opted to make the most of the identical set of parts utilized in our assessment of the NUC BOX-1260P. The NUCS BOX-1360P/D4 was outfitted with an ADATA XPG GAMMIX S50 Lite and 2x 32GB of the Kingston FURY Affect DDR4-3200 SODIMMs. The complete specs of our assessment pattern (as examined) are summarized within the desk beneath.

Within the subsequent part, we check out the BIOS choices together with an evaluation of the motherboard platform. It additionally contains an outline of the in-band ECC function that Intel had performed down at launch. Following that, we now have a lot of sections specializing in numerous efficiency features with and with out in-band ECC earlier than concluding with an evaluation of the worth proposition of the system.