Intel Compute Stick Review

Internal Features

Warning

The Compute Stick is not meant to be end-user serviceable. Open it at your own risk.

From Intel's Bay Trail family of SoCs, the Compute Stick sports Intel's quad-core Atom Z3735F processor. Launched in early 2014, this 64-bit SoC sports 2 MB L2 cache and runs at a base frequency of 1.33 GHz (1.83 GHz in burst). Memory-wise, the Compute Stick uses single channel DDR3L running at 1333 MHz, which is limited to 2 GB of RAM due to the constraints of the Atom processor.

For graphics, the Compute Stick is powered by Intel's HD Graphics, which is integrated in the Atom Z3735F processor. Using Intel HD Graphics Control Panel, consumers can adjust common display settings, manage power settings and create custom profiles that let you save video settings for different environments or lighting situations.

Storage is provided by Samsung's 32 GB MBG4GC eMMC flash. Designed for mobile devices, this small flash component uses high-density MLC NAND with an MMC controller. Out of the 32 GB of space labeled on the box, Windows Disk Management shows that 23.04 GB goes to the root file system, 5.86 GB goes to the Recovery Partition, and the remaining 100 MB is dedicated to the EFI System Partition.

Wireless networking for the Compute Stick is provided an Azurewave AW-NB177NF M.2 Wi-Fi module. It's a single-band, 802.11 b/g/n that runs in the 2.4 GHz range, while also providing Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity. Rated to run at 150 Mbps, the Wi-Fi performance is compatible to an N150 Wi-Fi adapter, which is significantly slower than the current AC class of Wi-Fi devices.