MSI Cubi 2
A dynamic chassis capable unit. makes for a
Like the UN65U and BRiX S, the MSI Cubi 2 is another major vendor’s take on Intel’s NUC concept. The Cubi 2 is significantly thinner than the squarebased competition. The unit was bested in height by the Skull Canyon sixth-gen NUC, though its base footprint is almost twice that of the Cubi 2.
The unit is able to achieve its thin presence with two smart design choices. The first step was making the primary storage spec a M.2 drive — the test unit contains a Transcend MTS400 256GB SSD communicating over the SATA protocol. The second step is a clever approach to the chassis base. Bundled with the Cubi 2 is an alternative base that increases the unit’s height by 10.1mm and thereby accommodating support for a 2.5-inch storage solution to join the M.2 drive.
It’s fair to think that, with pushing the boundaries in height and general volume found in the Cubi 2 — or lack thereof — the unit may suffer from heat-related issues. And while, yes, the unit did get warm to the touch when under load, so did many of the other units during testing. While there was a discernable change in volume between idle and load, it was not intrusive or obnoxious.
For today’s computing environment, we would’ve preferred an 8GB RAM spec rather than 4GB, though fixing this should only require a ~$50 outlay for another 4GB SO-DIMM to place in dual channel mode.
With only the OS required out of the box and competitively priced, the Cubi 2 represents good value and performance.