ASRock has unveiled a fanless, Linux-ready “iBox-8265U” mini-PC with Intel’s latest Whiskey Lake CPUs, up to 32GB DDR4, a SATA bay, 2x GbE, 4x USB, triple displays, and extended temp support.

ASRock Industrial Computer’s 171.8 x 150 x 71.5mm iBox-8265U is the first 8th Gen Whiskey Lake U-series based mini-PC we’ve seen. Several Whiskey Lake based SBCs have broken cover, however, including Aaeon’s UP Xtreme. The FanlessTech story that alerted us to the product calls it a barebone mini-PC, suggesting that the OS is optional. The product page says it supports Linux 4.6 and Windows 10.

iBox-8265U, front and back
(click images to enlarge)

Intel’s Whiskey Lake-U chips are notable for providing quad-core configurations with the same 15W TDPs found on Intel’s earlier dual-core U-series chips. The quad-core models offer a performance increase of up to 40 percent compared to previous U-Series processors.

The models supported by ASRock are all dual-threaded. These include the 1.8GHz (4.6GHz Turbo), quad-core Core i7-8565U and 1.6/3.9GHz Core i5-8265U and the dual-core, 1.8GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) Core i3-8145U. The Whiskey Lake processors integrate Intel Gen9 UHD Graphics 620 with 24 EUs.

The iBox-8265U is available with up to 32GB DDR4 in addition to a 2.5-inch SATA bay. It also offers dual GbE ports and 4x USB ports, which are variably listed as 3x USB 3.0 and 1x USB 2.0 or 2x 3.0 and 2x 2.0. There’s an external RS232/422/485 port and dual internal RS-232 interfaces.

Triple displays are supported via 2x DisplayPorts and a single HDMI port. Other features include an audio jack, a watchdog, and support for a Kensington lock. The fanless, 2.2-Kilogram box supports 0 to 60ºC temperatures according to the product page and 0 to 50ºC per the datasheet.

 
NUC-8265U: a 4×4-style Whiskey Lake mini-PC

ASRock also announced plans to demonstrate a 4×4 eNUC form-factor NUC-8265U mini-PC based on Whiskey Lake at last week’s Japan IT Week Spring show. The feature set is similar to that of the iBox-8265U, but the smaller eNUC model has dual M.2 slots instead of the iBox’s 2.5-inch SATA bay. The limited specs mentioned in the announcement do not include the more industrial-focused iBox’s 3x serial ports.

ASRock also showed off an unnamed eNUC form-factor mini-PC based on AMD’s Ryzen Embedded V1605B. Like the NUC-8265U and ASRock’s Mini-STX-based H110M-STX, it’s also available in an SBC-only version.

 
Further information

No pricing or availability information was provided for the iBox-8265U, which ASRock notes “may not be sold worldwide.” More information may be found on the iBox-8265U product page.