Giada D2308, High-End Mini PC

Miniature personal computers are the sort of systems that people would expect to have modest performance capabilities, and that is usually the case, but there are exceptions, like the Giada D2308.

At first glance, one might be tempted to mistake the product for a wireless router, because of the three antennas sticking up at the back. Nevertheless, while the PC does have support for Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n wireless Internet, it isn't just a router. Rather, it is a fully-fledged desktop packed inside a very small package. The so-called heart of the system is, surprise, an Intel Haswell Core i5 or Core i7 central processing unit (CPU). It will fall to buyers to choose which fourth-generation processor they prefer, based on monetary constraints (if any) and performance aims.

Meanwhile, graphics capabilities aren't limited to the integrated graphics processor of the Haswell unit.  Instead, Giada went ahead and included an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650, with 1 GB of VRAM. Moving on, a pair of mini PCI Express slots are available, for customers to fill with low-profile add-in boards (sound cards or whatever else). Furthermore, Gigabit Ethernet is available, along with Bluetooth and, as we've already mentioned, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n. Other specifications include two HDMI outputs, a Bluray/DVD player, support for the Trusted Platform Module (TPM, which provides extensive security with high levels of data encryption) and up to 16 GB of RAM for everything to run smoothly.

Finally, storage space comes in the form of a 2.5-inch SATA drive (HDD or SSD). All in all, the hardware is what we'd expect from a Windows XP / Windows 7 / Windows 8 / Linux mini PC. The Giada Tech website has all this information, and more (and we don't just mean the Phoenix EFI BIOS with support for an ACPI interface), but the price seems to elude us.

Giada D2308
Image credits to Giada

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