MSI Cubi 008X
A mini PC with style and substance
Built around Intel’s latest ‘Broadwell’ processors, this stylishlylishly simple mini PC (in black or white)ite) is smaller than most external hard drives. In fact, it’s not even big enough to accommodate a hard drive; it has a 128GB SSD instead. If you need more storage, however, the Cubi comes with a height extension thathat houses a laptop-type 2.5in hard drive. It’s a sensible best-of-both-oth-worlds idea.
The Cubi range startstarts at just £100 with a Celeron processorr (you’ll need to add your own RAM andnd storage to that). A Pentium chip version comes next at £240 (with the SSD and a just-about- usable 2GB of RAM). Then there’s the i3 model, which we tested. It handled everyday programs like a mid-range laptop. Unlike the lower-end models, it can cope with 4K video (four times the resolution of 1080p Full HD). The SSD feels pacey, and the 4GB of memory is adequate. You could upgrade to 8GB later for about £40.
The built-in Intel HD Graphics 5500 graphics card won’t run 3D games unless you turn down the quality settings a lot, and it’s not ideal for video editing. But simpler games like Minecraft work, and it’s compatible with Steam In-home Streaming, so you could connect the Cubi to your TV and play Steam games from a bigger PC in another room.
Another selling point is energy efficiency: our tests showed that the Cubi uses less than 30 watts, even when working to the maximum. Those figures are remarkable for a full-blown PC.
Some of that energy is still wasted as heat, which has to be pumped out by a fan, meaning thehe Cubi is not entirely noise-free. Still, it’s incredibly quiet, and if you use the supplied bracket to mount it on the back of your TV, the sound is largely blocked. As well as an HDMI port for HDTV sets, there’s a mini Displayport monitor connection – and you can use both at once for dual screens.
Both Gigabit Ethernet and the latest 802.11ac Wi-fi are included, along with four USB 3.0 ports. You’ll need to slot an SD card reader into one of those to use memory cards, but these are very cheap.
At £300, the Cubi 008X is excellent value, although it doesn’t include Windows, which will cost you about £80 (it’s compatible with Windows 10). You could install a version of the open-source operating system Linux instead. For a more powerful system, we’d consider Intel’s NUC with an i5 processor, at around £310 without memory or storage. But if mid-range performance suits you, the Cubi is a great choice and offers greater flexibility. VERDICT: Smaller and smarter than the average mini PC
★★★★★
ALTERNATIVE: Zotac Zbox Nano Ci321 RL85 £130 Similarly priced, this larger mini PC has an older, slower processor but is silent
A stylishly simple PC that offers great flexibility