The Intel Compute Stick (Core m3-6Y30) Review
by Ganesh T S on June 27, 2016 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Systems
- Intel
- Core M
- Skylake
- HDMI Stick
- Compute Stick
Power Consumption and Thermal Performance
The power consumption at the wall was measured with a 1080p display being driven through the HDMI port. In the graphs below, we compare the idle and load power of the Intel Core m3-6Y30 Compute Stick with other low power PCs evaluated before. For load power consumption, we ran Furmark 1.15.0 and Prime95 v28.7 together.
Compared to the Bay Trail and Cherry Trail Compute Sticks, the Core M one has higher idle and load power consumption numbers. Given the upgraded Wi-Fi and the presence of a Core-series CPU, the idle number can probably be justified. The load numbers point to the Core m3-6Y30 being operated in the cTDP-up mode.
Our thermal stress routine starts with the system at idle, followed by 30 minutes of pure CPU loading. This is followed by another 30 minutes of both CPU and GPU being loaded simultaneously. After this, the CPU load gets removed, allowing the GPU to be loaded alone for another 30 minutes. The various clocks in the system as well as the temperatures within the unit are presented below.
According to the official specifications, the junction temperature of the Core m3-6Y30 is 100C. The fan is able to keep it well below that temperature. The system essentially seems limited by the package power. We find that it is only able to sustain 6W for extended time durations, though we do see it spike up higher in the beginning.
Another important aspect to keep note of while evaluating PCs with such a small form factor is the chassis temperature. Using the Android version of the FLIR One thermal imager, we observed the chassis temperature after the CPU package temperature reached the steady state value in the above graph.
We have additional thermal images in the gallery below.
On the whole, the thermals don't give us much cause for concern, though the idling temperature of around 60C for the CPU package seems a little bit too high. It is possible that altering the the default BIOS options may help in improving this aspect.
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Ryan Smith - Monday, June 27, 2016 - link
No. That would be a terrible business strategy since it would undermine your trust in our reviews.We have run sponsored content in the past - which was clearly labeled - but that is always news/analysis and such; never reviews.
Otherwise I direct you to our About page section on sampling.
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The majority of what we review is provided directly by the manufacturer of the product. The product samples are delivered to our reviewers with the expectations of us providing a fair, thorough review. There is never any implicit guarantee of positive or negative, just that the review will be done as well as we can.
In the early days, when we were a much smaller site, manufacturers would threaten to withhold future review samples in response to a negative review (not so blatantly as that of course). We have quietly lost and gained the support of manufacturers throughout the years based on reviews. I've personally had many arguments with manufacturers who dare attempt to either knowingly deceive our readers or use advertising dollars or product support to influence our reviews.
Today, we are large enough to avoid these petty discussions of withholding review samples. Most manufacturers know that one way or another we'll get our hands on a product for review and don't try to play these sorts of games. Rarely we are faced with a manufacturer or advertiser who is looking to influence our content. We have a firm internal policy in place to deliver honest, balanced reviews to the best of our ability - regardless of external pressures. Fortunately, as I mentioned earlier, we have been around long enough and are large enough to avoid this being an issue in the vast majority of situations.
Wolfpup - Monday, June 27, 2016 - link
Huh... I may have use for a tiny, simple server at some point, and one of these would about fit the bill. Just need to add a USB Ethernet port and upgrade Windows 10 to Pro and it should work...bill.rookard - Monday, June 27, 2016 - link
You might be better off getting some cheap hardware off eBay at this point until the pricing comes down. Pick up a Dell Optiplex SFF for $100ish (just got one for $90 myself), outfit it with a notebook drive for the OS and a big HDD for storage and run it with a Linux system with Samba. That would do the trick nicely.beginner99 - Monday, June 27, 2016 - link
Even 64 GB storage is on the low side. Common. 128 Gb would add $5 max to the BOM. Sell it to me for $30 more and I would take it over 64 gb. NUC sounds like a better investment and more flexible.Realvn - Monday, June 27, 2016 - link
Ofcouse that core m series are the best perform stick, fastest at it size, best perform per watt, best...But the price too high, very high of it class, very high compare to any NUC at p/p
Sivar - Monday, June 27, 2016 - link
The use of a tiny fan concerns me. It's often the little fans that die young. Perhaps building the enclosure from (admittedly expensive) aluminum would be sufficient to allow for a solid state design?Meteor2 - Monday, June 27, 2016 - link
It only runs briefly, if at all.mostlyharmless - Monday, June 27, 2016 - link
Why 64-bit MS, with only 4GB RAM?The_Assimilator - Tuesday, June 28, 2016 - link
Because 32-bit is dead and needs to stay that way.harijan - Monday, June 27, 2016 - link
Contrary to some of these comments. I love these reviews Ganesh. I have a bay trail computestick, and it runs OK for what I do with it. I loaded it with ubuntu and have it running multiple lxc containers.I think I'll skip this generation, although I can't wait for next years model, hopefully with HDMI 2.0. Once they have that, I think the next Atom, or whatever Intel use in this segment, based model will be a no brainer in most HTPC situations.