MSI Cubi 2 Plus vPro Skylake mini-STX PC Review
by Ganesh T S on April 27, 2016 8:05 AM ESTMiscellaneous Aspects and Final Words
The MSI Cubi 2 Plus vPro gave us an opportunity to look at yet another implementation of the mini-STX form factor after reviewing the ECS LIVA One. It is interesting to see the approach taken by the two companies, particularly in terms of hardware components and available features. MSI must be lauded for integrating Intel NICs in both versions of the Cubi 2 Plus. ECS uses a Realtek NIC in the LIVA One. The integration of DDR4 SODIMM slots by MSI also enables the Cubi 2 Plus (Core i3-6100T model) to score better in the benchmarks against the LIVA One with the same processor. However, ECS integrated a USB 3.1 Gen 2 bridge (ASMedia ASM1142) to provide consumers with a 10 Gbps Type-C port in the LIVA One. The Type-C port in the Cubi 2 Plus is only Gen 1 (5 Gbps).
We have looked at two different systems in the review today. The MSI Cubi 2 Plus is meant for the average consumer, while the Cubi 2 Plus vPro is meant for business users / enterprises planning to purchase multiple PCs together. Accordingly, MSI's marketing approach is also going to be different for the two systems.
In the North American market, MSI plans to offer only the barebones version (no CPU / hard drive / memory). The Cubi 2 Plus will be sold to the channels and have an approximate MSRP of $210 with a 2-year warranty. The vPro model will be a build-to-order one, priced at $270 with a 2-year warranty.
Built-to-order systems can incorporate additional thermal protection for the storage and WLAN components similar to what we got in our first Cubi 2 Plus sample
Coming to the business end of the review, we would like MSI to integrate more USB 3.0 ports on the chassis instead of USB 2.0 ports. As mentioned before in this section, the Type-C port could have used a USB 3.1 Gen 2 bridge chip behind it. The SD card reader could have been behind a USB 2.0 bridge instead of occupying a PCIe lane, particularly considering the fact that it doesn't support UHS-II cards at full speed. The power inlet positioning and adapter output design are a bit tricky to insert fully in the first attempt. However, once installed, this is not much of an issue.
The sizing of the chassis means that only T-series processors can be used. Unfortunately, these processors carry a premium compared to the corresponding full-wattage CPUs. The mini-STX form factor has advantages (small size) and disadvantages (no cutomization possible beyond choice of CPU). We won't go into the details here, but, suffice to say that it is a bit more open to customization compared to the NUCs.
On the positive side, the Cubi 2 Plus has a good industrial design that is aesthetic. The look and feel are solid despite the usage of a plastic chassis. The USB 2.0 port on the top panel is very welcome, though, if we were to nit-pick, having two USB 3.0 ports instead of a single 2.0 port (similar to contemporary computer cases for DIY builds) could offer more benefits. The choice of I/Os in the two models is dictated by the target market. In either case, the design is compact and relatively silent - perfect for office environments and use-cases where a little fan noise is not a big deal. The vPro capability of the Q170 chipset is ideal for small businesses and the H110 chipset enables low cost PCs with socketed CPUs. MSI has put these two chipsets to use in the mini-STX form factor to deliver an effective solution targeting multiple market segments.
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ganeshts - Wednesday, April 27, 2016 - link
Yes, but I have seen that type of behavior (load power higher than PSU rating) in some of the other mini-PCs that we have evaluated before.KateH - Wednesday, April 27, 2016 - link
The 90W rating is on the DC side; the draw from the wall will always be higher than the system consumption due to heat losses in the power supply. The 102W reading on the AC side means the system is probably consuming around 80-85W DC.BrokenCrayons - Thursday, April 28, 2016 - link
Thanks both of you. I'd neglected to take into account inefficiencies in the PSU. Still, that is cutting things a bit close. An inexpensive PSU running at 80-90% of its max rated output might not last very long under adverse conditions like say, sitting under a desk in a hot room on top of a shaggy carpet.ganeshts - Thursday, April 28, 2016 - link
Well, I suspect no one is going to run Prime 95 + Furmark 24x7 on their PC :) It is just a check for how much the max. power consumption of the unit is going to be.HomeworldFound - Wednesday, April 27, 2016 - link
All of these devices are a let down to me, I want one yet it fails to meet my expectation every time. So many different Intel configurations exist that the market is flooded by products that barely differ outside of the case. Why do none of these manufacturers team up and offer a better alternative to the Intel GPU even in the larger more accommodating products?I guess what I have to ask is if I want something like this with the ability to game, is AMD really ahead of the competition or will they be with an improved CPU/GPU combo?
abufrejoval - Saturday, April 30, 2016 - link
I guess the biggest issue is about what you consider "game ready". To you it may mean the equivalent of a GTX 980 ti or even a dual AMD Fury or about 300 Watts of TDP.Others are happy enough with the on-board GPU or would love to see an AMD Nano (175 Watts) matched to this form factor.
This large range of TDP cannot be solved with a single physical design in this form factor and the result is loss of economy of scale, which is what these systems are mostly about: Selling large volumes.
And that unfortunately means that the TDP is pretty much set in stone and either excludes an external GPU or uses one so weak, it doesn't do any better than what an APU or Intel HD graphics can deliver by themselves.
AMD is ahead only in terms of the openness of their platform, of where they could go theoretically as proven out by the PS4 and Xbox 2 designs.
In that theory someone could go and have AMD design a custom SoC a couple of notches above the likes of a PS4, using either 16 GB GDDR5 for OS and graphics or even 16GB of HBM2, 8 juicy CPU cores (4GHz class) and Fury class graphics with a combined TDP of 200 Watts and cooled by something really massive and slow moving.
At the space and weight equivalent of a gallon of milk you could have a gaming PC, that's even portable (thanks to the handle on that milk bottle) from room to room or party to party.
Better yet, I'd like to be able to stack two, four (or eight?) of these together, to build an even larger NUMA/SLI rig.
PCs are still designed far too CPU centric, even if GPUs have long since taken over a much larger part of the silicon real-estate and the value creation.
Let's move what's left of the PC onto the GPU board (or SoC) and turn the motherboard into a passive backplane with slot form factor sockets for additional (2-4/8) APUs.
And make the memory system GPU centric with the CPU being allowed to use some of that to bootstrap the games (or even run Excel/SAP during business hours).
AMD could execute that vision, if somebody were to provide the required cash up front. The result would be an open PC, which unfortunately means that recovering the invest could be much more difficult than it already is on locked-in systems like the PS4 or the Xbox.
RayRoy - Thursday, April 28, 2016 - link
Will there be a Skylake U model in the original Cubi size?ganeshts - Thursday, April 28, 2016 - link
I have pinged MSI, but they have neither confirmed nor denied plans for a Skylake Cubi-mini. We will probably know more at Computex. If it is not shown at Computex, I think it will not be coming.potf - Thursday, April 28, 2016 - link
Sorry, only thing missing imho in the article photos is where is the hdd if you want to put one ?I would guess on the bottom as there seems to be room for it.
Asus competition the vc65 / VC65R has at least 2 2.5 hdd slots , 4 in some VC65R versions, and an optical drive (but have no M2)
MSI cubi broadwell small factors had the option to have msata plus 2.5 drive, and it seems to me that the bottom would be removable in the 2 plus version also, in order to choose between a smaller form factor and more ports, but now it only seems that is a differentator between normal and pro version.
Otherwise, still waiting to see how MSI will sell them in europe : for now only ref is MSI Cubi 2 Plus-B3610T4GXXDXX Intel Core i3-6100T 2x 3.20 GHz, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD, no OS and I do not know whether the ssd is in M2 factor or 2.5. Street price is around 500 euros vat included (400 USD equivalent).
The nice thing with selling them barebones is the flexibility, the less nice one is that T processors are less easy to find than standard cpus (55-65W).
ganeshts - Thursday, April 28, 2016 - link
It is is one of the teardown gallery photos, where the removable bottom part is shown separately, and there is a rectangular 'hole' corresponding to where the 2.5" drive is mounted. The 'proprietary' cable to connect the drive to the main board on the bigger segment is supplied along with the unit (you can see it in the package photo on the right side)