MSI Announces Cubi 3 Silent and Cubi 3 Silent S Mini Desktops

[btarunr]

MSI proudly announces a new, fanless, aluminum mini PC: the MSI Cubi 3 Silent and Cubi 3 Silent S. The Cubi 3 Silent series are MSI's first fanless mini PCs and are featured with the Intel Kabylake-U processors to provide efficient performance. The Cubi 3 Silent series have a comprehensive connectivity to suit the needs of both consumers and businesses. Next to that, these new mini PCs can be upgraded with ease.

By simply removing 4 screws on the bottom side of the Cubi 3 Silent, the user has access to its M.2 Slot, 2.5" HDD and SO-DIMM memory modules. The MSI Cubi 3 Silent is mountable to a wall by VESA standards or can be combined with an HDTV, so the user can enjoy Ultra High-Definition and high quality media entertainment at home. A black and a silver version of the MSI Cubi 3 Silent series are globally available by end of October 2017.



Fanless Design
New on MSI mini PCs, the Cubi 3 Silent Series is assembled in an Aluminum case (1) and an Aluminum CPU heat sink (2) to keep it cool without using a fan. Its innovative fanless heat dissipation design is both silent and energy efficient. A fan-less design also reduces malfunctions and increases the lifespan of the Cubi 3 Silent Series mini PC.

Aluminium Case
MSI Cubi 3 Silent series comes with a powerful heat dissipation, the Aluminum case is durable and has a neat, metal look.

• SOLID: Protects the components insides.
• STABLE: Reducing scratches from bumps.
• DURABLE: Extends the product lifespan.
• ELEGANCE: Modern simplicity look suits as a decoration.

Easy Upgrade and Maintenance
Only remove 4 screws at the Cubi 3 Silent's bottom cover to be able to upgrade or replace the M.2 SSD, memory modules and 2.5" HDD/SSD storage slots. It's just that simple.

Comprehensive Connectivity
MSI Cubi 3 Silent series is equipped with comprehensive connectivity to connect external devices, the dual LAN and dual COM ports design suits the needs of business for connecting different LAN devices, barcode scanners, credit card readers, receipt printers and many more to make it an optimal cutting-edge platform for a variety of commercial projects.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[RejZoR]

Looks cheap, at least on photos. Why is it so hard to design a case which is expected to usually stand in a living room or on a desk? That vent around the top...

 

[silentbogo]

Found some more pics of Silent S model to get a better view of front && back I/O.
There's a standard serial port, and a serial over RJ45 (like the management port on network switches), plus a dual-NIC (Intel).
Basically a beefed-up version of Cubi 2 Plus, but lacks a Card Reader, and still no Type-C...

Looks cheap, at least on photos. Why is it so hard to design a case which is expected to usually stand in a living room or on a desk? That vent around the top...

Cheap? It's completely made out of aluminium and only has radiator fins sticking out between top and bottom parts. Looks more than adequate to me, considering it's meant to be hidden behind the monitor on a VESA mount, or somewhere in the locked box under the desk.

 

[RejZoR]

Well, it's exactly that heatsink in between that makes it look cheap. If you go through all the "trouble" of making it in brushed aluminium, at least make the heatsink look nice then. It looks now like a system case with top cover that you failed to close properly and it's sticking out on top.

 

[cryohellinc]

Personally like how it looks.

 

[Valantar]

Well, it's exactly that heatsink in between that makes it look cheap. If you go through all the "trouble" of making it in brushed aluminium, at least make the heatsink look nice then. It looks now like a system case with top cover that you failed to close properly and it's sticking out on top.

For a fanless PC, the main priority has to be making the heatsink work. It could also be argued that the exposed fins (at least in the silver version) allude to iconic designs like the PowerMac G5 and similarly styled PCs. Personally, I think the "floating" top cover looks perfectly okay, particularly when the alternative would be none at all or some perforated plastic thingy. Even with this cover, though, I worry that airflow to the heatsink will be insufficient over time, at least in the horizontal "on-desk" position. Mounted vertically on a VESA mount, it should be pretty good.

 

[bug]

Not bad, but it will be once again ridiculously priced at ~$700. Also, why would MSI recommend Win10 Pro for a HTPC?

 

[silentbogo]

why would MSI recommend Win10 Pro for a HTPC?

Because it's not really an HTPC. It's meant for commercial and industrial applications (e.g. PoS, warehouse management, automation etc.)

 

[bug]

Because it's not really an HTPC. It's meant for commercial and industrial applications (e.g. PoS, warehouse management, automation etc.)

Now that you said it, yes, these would probably be much more useful than the laptop that sits on my desk plugged in 24/7. Running Linux, tho

 

[Valantar]

Because it's not really an HTPC. It's meant for commercial and industrial applications (e.g. PoS, warehouse management, automation etc.)

What? Are you saying that dual COM ports aren't the new, hot HTPC feature of 2017?

 

[lexluthermiester]

Cheap? It's completely made out of aluminium and only has radiator fins sticking out between top and bottom parts. Looks more than adequate to me, considering it's meant to be hidden behind the monitor on a VESA mount, or somewhere in the locked box under the desk.

I agree. It looks very stylish to me. Thinking the unanodized silvery color looks better, but that's personal preference.

 

[Brusfantomet]

Has Intel fixed their HDMI drivers to allow for more than two channels of sound over HDMI now? that was the main reason i got AMD when i built my HTPC.

 

[bug]

Has Intel fixed their HDMI drivers to allow for more than two channels of sound over HDMI now? that was the main reason i got AMD when i built my HTPC.

Intel provide sound drivers now? I must have missed that.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Has Intel fixed their HDMI drivers to allow for more than two channels of sound over HDMI now? that was the main reason i got AMD when i built my HTPC.

Last time I checked, Intel's HDMI output was 5.1 ready, but the newest releases might be 7.1. Not to sure about that though. And I think that only works if you are routing the HMDI through a 5.1/7.1 audio receiver which then outputs to a display.

Intel provide sound drivers now? I must have missed that.

Nvidia and AMD do as well. It would be pointless to have HDMI ports without the audio component. With Geforce and Radeon video cards, you don't even need a sound card, built-on or otherwise[and yes, I've tested this].

 

[silentbogo]

Has Intel fixed their HDMI drivers to allow for more than two channels of sound over HDMI now? that was the main reason i got AMD when i built my HTPC.

Never heard of this problem before... What you might've encountered, is your TV's inability to do pass-through surround on its optical audio output (if that's the setup you had).
I've tried that on many Intel platforms, including Bay Trail and Cherry Trail SoCs. It works... at least with a mediocre AV receiver.

 

[Brusfantomet]

Never heard of this problem before... What you might've encountered, is your TV's inability to do pass-through surround on its optical audio output (if that's the setup you had).
I've tried that on many Intel platforms, including Bay Trail and Cherry Trail SoCs. It works... at least with a mediocre AV receiver.

nope, the TV does not receive a sound signal. went with a AMD system that has been flawless from day one, only reason i do not make it completely passive is i then will hear the server out in the hall, was toying with the idea to fill it up with 2 TB SSDs until i figured i would cost approximately 4000 usd.

And i found this: https://communities.intel.com/thread/100199 it was a DTS/DD5.1 passthrugh issue that is fixed now.

 

[bug]

Nvidia and AMD do as well. It would be pointless to have HDMI ports without the audio component. With Geforce and Radeon video cards, you don't even need a sound card, built-on or otherwise[and yes, I've tested this].

Yes, but on Intel motherboards sound comes from a Realtek driver or something similar. There's no "HDMI driver" per se that I know of.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Yes, but on Intel motherboards sound comes from a Realtek driver or something similar. There's no "HDMI driver" per se that I know of.

Sure there is. It's just worked into the rest of the Intel driver set. Get into the bios and disable the onboard sound device. Then reboot using the HDMI connector and you'll still have sound. Try it for yourself if you don't believe me.

 

[silentbogo]

There's no "HDMI driver" per se that I know of.

It's called Intel HD Graphics driver
Just try and enable "explicit multi-display" in BIOS, hook up a TV to iGPU's HDMI port, and you'll see a new playback device in your audio settings and device manager.
Same with DisplayPort, and same on any dGPU.

The only reason we still have Realtek/VIA/Creative codecs in our motherboards, is because we still use analog audio outputs. The digital part can be handled by either Intel, AMD or NVidia just as good as even the best discrete codec in the world.

 

[bug]

Sure there is. It's just worked into the rest of the Intel driver set. Get into the bios and disable the onboard sound device. Then reboot using the HDMI connector and you'll still have sound. Try it for yourself if you don't believe me.

It's called Intel HD Graphics driver
Just try and enable "explicit multi-display" in BIOS, hook up a TV to iGPU's HDMI port, and you'll see a new playback device in your audio settings and device manager.
Same with DisplayPort, and same on any dGPU.

The only reason we still have Realtek/VIA/Creative codecs in our motherboards, is because we still use analog audio outputs. The digital part can be handled by either Intel, AMD or NVidia just as good as even the best discrete codec in the world.

Ah, ok. I don't use onboard GPU, maybe that's why I never noticed it.
I do see the Nvidia sound output, so probably there's something similar for Intel. Oh well, my question is answered now, thanks.