MSI Cubi review

The compact chassis looks great in either black or white, with one corner acting as the power button. It’s small enough to mount behind a monitor using the supplied VESA bracket, but it’s the optional HDD extension base that could prove most useful.

In its default configuration the diminutive Cubi has no room inside for a 2.5in hard disk or SSD, so you’ll need to use a tiny mSATA disk instead. However, if you don’t want to use mSATA, you can swap the flat base plate for the extension plate included in the box; this adds around a centimetre to the Cubi’s height, but makes room for a 2.5in storage disk. It’s great to have the choice between size and storage capacity, rather than forcing you to use mSATA or lumping you with a larger chassis. Installing the extension plate doesn’t stop you from using the mSATA port, either, meaning you could have both mSATA and 2.5in storage if you need the extra storage capacity.

It’s a shame there’s no card reader for complete convenience, but otherwise we were impressed with how much connectivity MSI managed to fit onto the Cubi. The two USB3 ports on the front are joined by a 3.5mm headset jack, and you’ll find another two USB3 ports alongside HDMI, Mini DisplayPort and Gigabit Ethernet on the back. You also get 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0.

You can use both display outputs simultaneously to drive two monitors, and the mini DisplayPort can output to 4K resolution screens at 60Hz. There are a few caveats for anyone looking to use the Cubi with a 4K display, however. You’ll need to opt for the Core i3 model, and fill both SO-DIMM slots with RAM in dual-channel mode.

The barebones cost of £189 makes the Cubi comfortably cheaper than Intel’s NUC, even before you factor in the cost of storage, memory and a copy of Windows. Zotac’s Zbox Nano CI321 might be cheaper still, but it’s a lot less powerful and significantly larger. If you like the idea of a compact computer that’s quiet and inexpensive, yet still able to handle all your desktop tasks, the Cubi is an excellent choice. If you want a little more gaming performance, however, a Core i5 NUC is still your best bet.