MSI Cubi 2 Kaby Lake UCFF PC Review

Networking and Storage Performance

Networking and storage are two major aspects which influence our experience with any computing system. This section presents results from our evaluation of these aspects in the MSI Cubi2-005B. On the storage side, one option would be repetition of our strenuous SSD review tests on the drive(s) in the PC. Fortunately, to avoid that overkill, PCMark 8 has a storage bench where certain common workloads such as loading games and document processing are replayed on the target drive. Results are presented in two forms, one being a benchmark number and the other, a bandwidth figure. We ran the PCMark 8 storage bench on selected PCs and the results are presented below.

The 2.5" SATA SSD makes the Cubi2-005BUS come in the lower half of the storage benchmarks order (since most of the other PCs are using a NVMe SSD). However, the score (5001 vs. 5085 for the pack leader) shows that most consumers with office and gaming workloads do not have much to gain by going for a NVMe SSD compared to a SATA SSD.

On the networking side, we restricted ourselves to the evaluation of the WLAN component. Our standard test router is the Netgear R7000 Nighthawk configured with both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz networks. The router is placed approximately 20 ft. away, separated by a drywall (as in a typical US building). A wired client is connected to the R7000 and serves as one endpoint for iperf evaluation. The PC under test is made to connect to either the 5 GHz (preferred) or 2.4 GHz SSID and iperf tests are conducted for both TCP and UDP transfers. It is ensured that the PC under test is the only wireless client for the Netgear R7000. We evaluate total throughput for up to 32 simultaneous TCP connections using iperf and present the highest number in the graph below.

In the UDP case, we try to transfer data at the highest rate possible for which we get less than 1% packet loss.

The 1x1 nature of the WLAN component (Intel AC3168) results in lower Wi-Fi performance compared to the PCs with 2x2 radios. Internal antenna placement and orientation also has an effect on these numbers.