The OnLogic Helix HX500 Review: A Rugged Fanless 35W mini-PC

Miscellaneous Aspects and Concluding Remarks

Networking and storage are aspects that may be of vital importance in specific industrial PC use-cases. The Helix HX500 can be configured with 4G LTE support (there is a SIM slot in the front panel that connects to a 4G mPCIe card on the board). The system also has two GbE LAN ports, one of which has AMT support to help with remote management. On the storage side, our review sample was configured with a 256GB SATA SSD. After the OS installation and loading up of our benchmark programs, we didn't have enough free space left to run our storage benchmark. A SATA SSD in the M.2 form-factor is a known quantity and no match for NVMe SSDs that are becoming de-facto entry-level storage options. That said, the SATA SSDs used by OnLogic come with MLC NAND, and are suitable for industrial applications requiring longevity and minimal maintenance. End users requiring high-performance storage can always opt for NVMe SSDs in the configuration stage.

One of the key aspects of fanless systems is the thermal profile under load. Our stress test saw the internal package temperature go as high as 98C, and the chassis (doubling up as a heat-sink) managed to keep it stable around that mark.

The external temperature plateaued around 79C, but only in one particular region of the top panel, as shown above. Additional thermal images are available in the gallery below.

We opted not to evaluate the gaming and HTPC capabilities of the HX500. Simply put, the HX500 is meant for completely different use-cases, and consumers looking for a passively cooled gaming machine or HTPC have other system options that can be explored (like the Bean Canyon NUC in an Akasa Turing chassis).

Closing Thoughts

The OnLogic Helix HX500 provided us with the opportunity to evaluate a fanless industrial PC targeting the burgeoning market for high performance density in edge deployments. From our evaluation, it is clear that OnLogic has been able to deliver effectively on the promise of a rugged computer capable of operation over a wide temperature range. OnLogic allows fine-grained customization that can tweak the system for any use-case.

In terms of scope for improvement, it is possible that the absence of variety in terms of native display outputs (all three are DisplayPort, none HDMI) or a native Type-C port could act as deal-breakers for specific deployment scenarios. In most cases, additional dongles can solve the problem. Power consumption numbers could do with some improvement, but OnLogic has done the best they could given Intel's efforts to cram in as many cores as they could for a particular TDP in their 14nm process.

Despite these minor quibbles, we have to say that OnLogic's Helix series presents a wide range of compelling options for industrial edge deployments. Prices start at $887, which is par for the course for industrial fanless PCs being sold as a B2B product. Technically, it would be interesting to see what OnLogic can do in terms of coupling the Helix chassis design with a 35W TDP Tiger Lake processor. As it stands, the Helix HX500 is a solid step-up from the line of NUC-based fanless PCs that OnLogic has been offering so far. The new product line opens up yet another option for end users in the industrial PC market.