FIREBAT T8 Plus Mini PC Running Linux: Introduction

Specifications

We interrogated the system running Ubuntu 23.10, a hugely popular Linux distribution. In later articles in this series, we’ll take you through installing and configuring a variety of different Linux distributions on the Mini PC, including Ubuntu 24.04 LTS when it’s released next month.

Processor

The FIREBAT T8 Plus has an Intel N100, a processor that falls in the mobile segment. Launched in the first quarter of 2023, it has 4 performance cores (without hyperthreading), and no efficiency cores. For its class, it’s a well respected processor.

The FIREBAT was running under very light load when the image below was taken. As you can see, all of the cores are running at 700MHz, the lowest frequency.

The Intel N100 has a PassMark score of 5,576.. To put that into context, that’s a rating slightly higher than the Intel i5-6500 desktop processor. The N100 has a frugal TDP of 6W, whereas the i5-6500 is a stonking 65W. We’ll be benchmarking the N100 against other processors in the next article in this series. For now, here’s a chart comparing the N100 with some other very low power processors using the CPU Mark benchmark. It wipes the floor against them.

Graphics

The marketing blurb claims that the FIREBAT is a desktop gaming computer. That’s risible. Had this computer offered say the Intel Iris Xe for its onboard graphics (Passmark 2690), the claim would have some merit. Instead, while the FIREBAT onboard GPU is based on the Xe-architecture it offers only 24 of the 32 EUs (Execution Units) operating at only 450-750MHz. Due to the single channel memory, low clock speeds, and low shader count, the gaming performance of the iGPU is extremely limited. Alder Lake-N was never designed as a gaming platform though, instead targeting lower-level tasks like web browsing, video playback, and basic office work.

Disk

This is the first real disappointment from a hardware spec. For storage, the FIREBAT has a Wicgtyp 512GB M.2 2242 SSD, Sata III 6Gbps. 512GB is a respectable amount of storage, but it’s truly bog standard performance. Read speed is up to 550MB/s and write speed 450MB/s. FIREBAT told us they used this glacial M.2 SSD to keep the cost down.

We’ll probably upgrade to a M.2 2242 NVMe (maximum 2TB is supported), but they are more expensive than the regular M.2 2280 often found in mini PCs. FIRETAP were unable to confirm if the controller supports gen3x4 or gen4x4 M.2 2242 NVMes.

Memory

It would be easy to misinterpet inxi’s output here. For the avoidance of doubt, the 16GB RAM is single channel. Even though it’s DDR5, we’re not expecting great benchmarks. And note the RAM is running at only 3200MHz when it should be running at 4800MHz.

After digging in the BIOS (accessed by pressing the Del key at boot up), we fixed the issue. Choose the Chipset menu entry, and change the Maximum Memory Frequency from 3200 to Auto. After restarting the machine, inxi is reporting RAM is now running at the correct 4800MHz frequency. We’ll report in later articles if this causes any stability issues.

Audio

Bluetooth

There’s support for Bluetooth 4.2. It works fine under Ubuntu 23.10.

Network

For networking we have WiFi5 2.4/5.0 as well as 2 RJ45 ethernet ports. The WiFi5 performance seems poor, but we’ll investigate this more deeply in the next article in this series. Both wired and wireless worked out of the box in Ubuntu.

Temperature

The temperature reading was taken with the machine under light load. It’s perfectly respectable.

In the next article in this series we’ll publish the results of benchmarking the FIREBAT T8 Plus Mini PC.

Pages in this article:
Page 1 – Introduction
Page 2 – Specifications

Complete list of articles in this series: