German PC manufacturer Cirrus7 has put up the company's latest fanless Incus A300 Mini-STX desktop for preorder.
The Incus A300 only has enough space to accommodate a Mini-STX motherboard so options are very limited. The Incus A300 employs the ASRock A300M-STX, which is the same motherboard found inside the ASRock DeskMini A300. The Incus A300 is available in 35W and 65W CPU configurations. The 35W options include the AMD Athlon 200GE, AMD Athlon 240GE, AMD Ryzen 3 2200GE and AMD Ryzen 5 2400GE. If you're looking for a more powerful processor, the 65W options consist of the AMD Ryzen 3 3200G and Ryzen 5 3400G.
The 35W model measures 7 x 7.7 x 4.3 inches (178 × 195 × 108mm) and weighs 7.1 pounds (3.2kg). The 65W model's dimensions and weight are 7 x 7.7 x 5.5 inches and 9.3 pounds. The manufacturer describes the Incus A300 as having a passive aluminium housing with copper cores. The PC case's aluminum fins act like a passive heatsink and transfer heat away from the processor.
There are two SO-DIMM DDR4 memory slots on the ASRock A300M-STX motherboard. You can opt for 4GB or 8GB of DDR4-2666 CL19 memory or 16GB (2x 8GB) or 32GB (2x 16GB) of DDR4-3000 CL16 memory. Storage options include one M.2 SSD slot, which is passively cooled by the PC case, and two 2.5-inch SSD bays. You can purchase your storage from Cirrus7 or grab it later on from one of your preferred retailers.
The vendor also offers an optional VESA wall and screen bracket to mount the Incus A300 (cirrus7 didn't specify the measurements for the VESA mount). You can also buy the Intel Wireless-AC 9260 module to get wireless dual-band and Bluetooth 5 connectivity.
The Incus A300's front panel houses a large power button, one USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A and Type-C ports. Display outputs are HDMI, DisplayPort output and VGA connector. There are also one USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A port, USB 2.0 Type-A port and Ethernet port.
Price and Availability
The Incus A300 base model, which comes with the Athlon 200GE and 4GB of DDR4-2666 CL19 memory, retails for €368.91 (after applying the €50.42 pre-order coupon) and roughly translates to $405. The pre-sale discount is available until October 27, and cirrus7 will start shipping out orders on November 1.
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Zhiye Liu is a news editor and memory reviewer at Tom’s Hardware. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.
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joeblowsmynose A case that doubles as the heatsink ... I like the idea. Reminds me of Confederate Motorcycles - they like to make the frames of their bikes more functional - the gas tank and oil tank are a part of the frame (with even cool side windows to see the oil and gas sloshing around inside the frame)Reply
Anyway ... back to the tech world, I love the concept of making everything multi-functional as possible.
I wonder though, how warm the case might get after some heavy load - hopefully cool enough you can still comfortable plug and unplug peripherals? I could see it potentially getting a bit toasty. -
twotwotwo That cheapish base model could be neat as a silent, more flexible option to drive a TV (vs. the usual sticks and set-top boxes).Reply
Re: quiet AMD STX machines, I'm writing this on an STX DeskMini A300 with a 3200G's stock cooler (with the shroud taken off so it can be crammed in there) and the "Quiet" BIOS setting. I can hear it if the room's otherwise silent. But it's quiet and consistently so! The NUCs I used before revved the fans with minimal provocation (animated GIFs in work Slack :p). Although this chip has a 65W TDP, in practice it seems like it takes heavy multithreaded/GPU load to stress the cooling. I'm not gaming; that would probably push it harder.
The less sketchy way to do something like this is probably to get a low-profile Noctua cooler or such; I used the stock one because I had it and was cheap and impatient and it (barely) fit.