Asus Chromebox 5a launches with up to 13th gen Intel Core i7, starts under $300

Last year's Asus Chromebox 5just got a minor refresh. While the company packed last year's model with up to 12th gen Intel Core-P series processors, the latest mini PC, the Chromebox 5a, gets up to 13th gen Intel Core U-series CPUs. Besides the processor change, the newer model also sees some changes in the ports.

More specifically, the Chromebox 5a has more USB ports. While that's a good upgrade, the newer model loses the Thunderbolt 4 port. So, the fastest option in the new mini PC is the USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports, which can offer only 10 Gbps of data transfer speeds instead of 40 Gbps that you would get from Thunderbolt 4.

That's not the only downgrade, though. The Chromebox 5 came with a 2.5 GbE Ethernet, while the newer mini PC has a Gigabit Ethernet port. So, don't expect fast wired network speeds from the new Chromebox 5a.

Getting back to the processor options, the top-end models of the Chromebox 5 came with 12th gen P-series processors (Core i3-1220P variant curr. $480.82 on Amazon). To compare, you get U-series 13th gen processors on the higher-end Chromebox 5a models. While the newer processors do tend to offer better single-core performance, the P-series chips can deliver comparatively better multi-core performance.

Other than these, the two ChromeOS mini PC models are similar, but the starting price of the newer Chromebox 5a is a little lower, at $294 instead of $309. Check out the comparison table attached below to learn more.

The above is the detailed content of Asus Chromebox 5a launches with up to 13th gen Intel Core i7, starts under $300. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!