After all the positive points of the previous pages one can expect there has to be a downside; sadly this is quite an important one and the issues should be corrected. Let us start off with the observed temperatures: even though the Haswell CPU architecture is mobile based the provided Gigabyte Cooling solution is not up to the task to stop the processor from throttling during intensive usage. Below are the by Realtemp logged average temperatures.

At idle we are already monitoring processor temperatures of around 53°C, which is quite high to start off with. Normal surfing will increase the temperatures to around 60-65°C, let alone intensive rendering or gaming increases temperatures to over 90°C. The latest BIOS included a turbo Fan speed setting, so the blower ran full speed all the time. After applying this setting it still didn't allow the Gigabyte BRIX Pro to maintain sub 90°C temperatures under heavy load, strangely enough even with the entire motherboard outside of the housing the temperatures remained insanely high for a 22nm processor. Only thing we didn't try was replacing the blower fan with a normal 8cm Fan.

These temperatures worry me as some users will use this Brix Pro intensively. Everybody knows that excessive heat and electronics is never a good combination; if the life span of these BRIX Pro is seriously affected by it will only become clear once the first RMA cases start to roll in. Gigabyte probably did their homework and have full confidence in the component choice, yet it has to be mentioned the current cooling solution really could use an extensive overhaul.

Sadly it doesn't stop there; cooling wise the chosen solution is under performing, yet it manages to produce an unacceptable noise level. Some compare it with a hair dryer, while I can compare with the good old Thermaltake Dragon Orb coolers. At least the latter had great cooling performance at the cost of noise; the current Gigabyte solution has neither... It astonishes me that such a great marvel of engineering receives such an inferior and noisy cooling. 

To end on a positive note, the power consumption is as expected. Not the lowest, but looking at the performance this mini device brings one can hardly debate it.

Time to wrap it up ->