14 DAY TRIAL // Mini PCs are, quite often, advertised as tiny but versatile systems that you can use for web browsing, media playback and other sorts of entertainment, as well as business tasks, but the one that Sapphire just launched is different.
Called Sapphire Edge DS8, it is aimed at digital signage, professional audio/video solutions, and point-of-sale (PoS), instead of multimedia or office work.
Then again, computers aimed at such uses aren't really all that rare either. They come out pretty often, and Sapphire's Edge series has always (or usually) been meant for professional AV solutions as a Digital Signage player, as well as the other things.
Anyway, the newcomer is predictably small and ridged. Or, rather, the case is ridged, since it has to double as a heatsink (from what we can tell, this is a fanless product).
That said, we may as well lay out the specifications for everyone to see. For something meant to only swap through commercials and video posters, they're surprisingly good.
First off, the Sapphire Edge DS8 is powered by a quad-core Trinity A8-series accelerated processing unit (APU).
The chip is backed up by 8 GB of DDR3 RAM (random access memory), a surprisingly large amount actually.
Also, storage space comes courtesy of a High MTBF commercial grade SSD. The capacity is of 64 GB, not very high but sufficient for digital signage AV.
Also, the Edge DS8 boasts two USB 3.0 ports, four USB 2.0 connectors, both HDMI and mini DisplayPort video outputs, SPDIF, audio connect jacks, WiFi support and a standard RJ-45 Gigabit LAN port.
All in all, the Sapphire Edge DS8 measures 168 mm x 235 mm by 46 mm / 6.61 x 9.25 x 1.81 inches. It should be able to work fine 24/7 and ships, for an unknown price, with a 2-year warranty.