UK Gaming Computers ‘Minos’ Mini PC Review

A Closer Look

Before I delve into the depths of this system, lets just take a moment to adore the paint finish that has been given to Fractal Design’s Node 304 chassis. As mentioned before this is a brand new finish that has just come out of prototype and here is offered in a toxic green colour. The quality of the paint finish is second to none and even when looking closely, there is a pristine finish to be seen.

On the right hand side of the case we find a small grill to provide ventilations to the back of the PSU and on the front of the system there are two USB3.0 ports, mic and headphone jacks, power button and just around to the front as a blue power LED and under the front a white drive activity LED.

On the opposite side of the case is a slightly larger grill behind which resides the GPU.

Around on the back of the system we can see that this system uses a mini ITX form factor and to the left of the I/O panel is a IEC power input showing again that the PSU is mounted towards the front of the system.

Lifting off the front panel we can see there are two 92mm fans to draw in through the system and stuck to the inside of the panel is a green LED strip to add some subtle lighting to the system when it’s powered on.

Lifting the lid off of the Node 304, first impressions again are that of a carefully built system and not one that has been built in a rush. SFF cases such as the Node 304 can be notorious for cable management and it’s good to see that UKGC have not made this mostly unseen feature go untouched.

A flagship system would not be top of its game without a top end card and as a result, one of NVIDIA’s powerhouse Titans is fitted, giving the Minos a lot of GPU power for its size.

As seen from looking at the rear of the case, the PSU is mounted towards the front of the system, allowing the Node 304 to keep the systems height to a minimum. Power here is provided courtesy of a Corsair TX650 V2 non-modular power supply. Again we can see where cables have been tied together to keep airflow as smooth as possible through the system.

Tucked away in the depths of the build, we can just catch a glimpse of the memory and those with a keen eye will recognise this as Corsair’s Vengeance kit. In particular, we have 16GB (2x8GB) of 1600MHz DDR3 in black to match the rest of the internal build.

Looking down even further we can also see that at the heart of this system is a motherboard from Gigabyte, namely the GA-Z87N-WIFI. Paired with a 4770k that has been given a light overclock to 4.4GHz I have some good expectations for this board based on my previous experiences with this boards Z77 equivalent paired with a 3770k clocked to the same level.

Keeping everything cool, UKGC have kitted the Minos out with a Corsair H80i all-in-one water cooling system. Cable tidying is also taken care of here as we can see with the power cables to fans carefully wrapped around and tucked beneath the screws.

Looking at the storage, the Minos comes with a minimum of a 120GB Corsair Force LS SSD as we have here, although a 240GB and 480GB SSD can be added at extra cost.

For bulk storage, a Seagate Barracuda 1TB is on hand, with the option for a 2TB drive or a secondary SSD for some RAID performance.

Looking back towards the front of the case and once again noting the two system fans, we can now see that they are a pair of Fractal Design’s Silent Series R2 92mm units which provide plenty of airflow whilst keeping things nice and quiet.

Going back to the cable management, the Node 304 is not ideal for this, however UKGC have made a pretty good effort at tidying everything as best they can.