New mac mini!

[zombie67]

Hmm. For the number of memory channels the Max Memory Bandwidth, they are 2 and 25.6 GB/s respectively. These numbers are identical to the desktop IB CPU i7-3770k. The only difference is 6mb of cache for the mobile chip, compared to 8mb for the desktop chip.

How are you measuring the usage of cache? If that last two mb of cache is really that critical for you, then it looks like only desktop i7 chips (or better) will do.

In that case, and you still want something similar in form-factor, I suggest one of the other solutions I listed above. They will be significantly more expensive though, and consume more power.

Edit: Just to be clear, they both use the "S" version of the desktop processor, which uses less power and runs at only 65w. So not quite as fast as the "K" versions. But they have 8gb cache. The Gigabyte brix I listed even uses the haswell i7, which has AVX2, if that is important.

Brix system cost with no OS:
Brix: $590 (including $60 off)
2x8gb: $165
2.5" 750gb HD: $65 (including $25 off)

Total: $820 + Tax + S&H + OS (if Windows)

For comparison, I was spending $600 +/- ~$75 per mac mini when I bough mine.