Unless the OEM was also able to solve the problem of MXM cards not being readily available on the aftermarket (and what is available tending to be obscenely priced) I suspect it'd be more likely to spawn frustration and rage.
Well, that's the point of putting it out there. If you make it available, and people do start to use it, companies will start to produce boards for it, competition ensues, prices drop and availability goes up.
But MXM has been available for over a decade (laptops) and it hasn't helped anything. I still remember trying to upgrade my Dell laptop to a 7950GTX and the MXM chip was $900 on eBay. even now, the 980M is over $800. If it hasn't caught on by now...
Basically MXM, if priced exactly the same as desktop PCIE boards should give vendors more margin. So IMO MXM should be prices identically to their big cousins and that wouldn't be bad for both consumers and OEMs
Except that it would make no sense for them to be priced the same considering the same parts would have to be packed much more densely in to the MXM board compared to a desktop board.
That's like saying a laptop should be the same price as a comparable desktop + monitor + keyboard + touchpad.
Probably the reason why MXM boards are so expensive is that there are no official markets for them. People complain why Mini-ITX boards can be as pricey as ATX boards or why SFX power supplies are as pricey as ATX ones. They're probably pricey because there's a niche demand for them (though I'd argue mITX boards tend to have more core features than ATX ones)
You're asking for 80 square inches of board real estate to be miniaturized and crammed into about 5., and then to be sold at the same rate as that bigger item.
You may as well demand all labor to be priced at the same rate as that of a Shenzhen assembly line worker.
I had an Asus laptop with an MXM slot. The major problem there was compatibility. Asus put custom firmware on the boards that was required for the computer to function. Basically the first 512K (I think) of the firmware was Asus specific, and the remaining part came from NVidia.
I think that's been the issue with MXM all along: You can't just buy any laptop with the slot, buy any card for the slot, and expect it to work without serious technical wizardry.
Low profile PCI Express probably makes more sense. It wouldn't greatly increase the size of a box like this.
Heck even a transverse (on a riser, across the top of the CPU,) half-height, short-length PCIe x16 slot would be nice, there are "decent", (although not "super powerful) video cards available for half-height, short-length slots.
Thunderbolt 3 alongside similarly sized (stackable?) (MXM-based) external GPUs would be better. Want a small system with just what you need for office/HTPC duty? Skip the GPU. Want a compact gaming rig? Get the extra chassis and (given proper availability and firmware standardization) whatever MXM GPU you want. You could easily fit the "MXM+" GTX 980 (and thus 1080, whenever it's out) in a 5" by 5" form factor, and cooling would be a breeze with a heatsink filling two dimensions of the chassis fitted with a downward blowing 120mm fan.
Problem is a mITX case could easily handle a 1000 watt system, going with a full-sized ATX PSU and a high-end GPU/CPU combo and a large bunch of drives. It would be noisy when going full tilt, but it would be doable. What people seem to be asking for is a <200 watt tiny system with interchangeable parts. A 200 watt TDP would allow for a small but efficient PSU to fit within a small case, a 65W CPU and a 100 watt GPU, meaning even a modern high-end GPU like the GTX 970.
The mSTX form factor just sounds like the answer to a question no one has asked.
Glad to see more vendors gearing up in the small space PC's. Have changed over to NUC's and other small form factors in the house and at work and they work fantastic for almost everything. The monster 6 core machine (i7-5930k) only gets used for video editing now.
Agreed, I'm glad that these have become pretty viable now. I'm looking to replace my big PC with a smaller machine as well, but would like to still do some medium-ish quality gaming on occasion. I'm hoping the new AMD Zen APUs next year fit the bill, I'll have to see how they review. It would just be cool if a discrete GPU wasn't really a requirement anymore.
$739? For that money you can buy a i5-6300HQ notebook that comes with a 960M. Even if you dont use the screen, you still get to make use of the built-in UPS of the notebook.
The $739 is due to our choice of components - the Core i5 is $204, the SSD is $317, the RAM is $57 and so on.. people can budget for these components differently (using a SATA 2.5" drive could bring down that price by $250).
Looks like there are two mounting slots under the mainboard. There doesn't seem to be a standard SATA connector, but there is a connector marked "SATA 3" (on the edge of the board, between the back USB connectors and the "chipset"). I'm assuming this is some form of non-conventional SATA port that combines data and power lines as there is no traditional PSU, but the converters must be on the motherboard, and enables to use a proprietary cable to connect the drivers.
Right. I did a quick math and the price of this mini is reasonable. In my opinion, this is the only mini that I found with a decent price as most small PCs reviewed here are not cost competitive to a laptop. The price also reflects the simple quality of the case but who cares. The niche of this product is the decent price.
I'm new to this, does the i5 HQ version draw the same power and get the same clock as the 65 W desktop version? I was thinking of this form factor because I was hoping to put full-power desktop components in a smaller form factor.
Approx. 6.125" x 6.125" x 3.125" by rough measurements. That comes to ~1.9L, but ASRock claims 1.82L in their press release. I might be off by 0.1" or so in the hurried measurements that I took.
Thank you Ganesh, I am awful at visualizing dimensions, that picture changes my entire opinion of this device. I went from simply being bummed about the PCI-e being at 2.0 speeds to being stoked at the possibilities. I am still holding out hope for a usable (FB, Youtube etc.) USB stick PC, but I may give up waiting (will likely be years for that to be realized) and just go for something like this. Great article Ganesh!
The form factor has a lot of potential, but: 1. Mobo makers are stuck in the past. Wasting space with VGA output which could have gone to more USB3 ports or an extra displayport or thunderbolt. 2. Please give us at least the graphics power you can get in NUCs or Brix systems with Iris Pro. The 65W processors with shared-memory graphics are unbalanced with strong CPU and weak GPU. Quad-core Iris Pros are great all-rounders but stretch the cooling systems of NUCs and Brixes.
Those have a higher TDP -- that board may not support them. It supports 65w for sure, but maybe not the higher wattage of the K series chips, which I think is 91w.
Am the only one surprised this got beat by the skull canyon with its 45W CPU in many non-GPU related benchmarks? Would a 65W i7 with HT in this change that outcome ( I assume so? )
Why exactly do you want to have two boxes with a wire connecting them and a second power supply? Doesn't it make a little more sense for the case just to be larger and hold a GPU internally? Way cheaper that way too.
I'm surprised the Skull Canyon toasts this config in pretty much all benchmarks. When comparing the specs side by side, the Skull Canyon CPU is pretty much inferior or equal to the i5 6500 on all metrics other than hyper threading: http://ark.intel.com/compare/93341,88184 Does hyper threading make such a big difference?
I agree with the comment section, this box would be much more impressive if it was an inch wider, and had room to hold something like the low profile dual slot 750ti.
So basically it's going to be like when graphics cards and monitors said they were "HDMI v1.4", when in fact they were pretty much HDMI v1.2, because they didn't support resolutions higher than 1920x1200. Perfect.
A reasonably priced case with built-in passive CPU heatsink would be a nice complement in that review. With Skylake about the only real benefit is the practicality of silent PCs.
Really don't understand the point to STX. Has zero slots, okay that makes it even smaller than ITX but is there really a need for it? The NUC/mini-PC type jobbies like the NUC, Cubi, Liva, etc. seem to have their market covered. If you really want there are some very small mini-ITX cases (some that even only hold thin mini-ITX) and don't end up using the slot so the space "wasted" because of it isn't that much.
For example Antec's ISK 110 is very small, it's a bit bigger than this but it uses mini ITX boards (with no slot usability) which are available all over the place. It just doesn't seem like we need another form factor to be between mini ITX and the NUC-type machines, does it?
I'd rather mini DTX have taken off that this. I just don't think there's a need for mini-ITX minus like 5cm
Most NUCs have a 15W or less CPU meant for laptops... With a laptop style heatsink/fan.
This takes a 65w CPU and a quieter heatsink/fan.
Imagine you want a very high performance desktop, but also want it as small as possible. I realize most commenters on this site are obsessed with game performance, but if you don't care about playing the latest game, then this pretty close to the perfect high performance small desktop workstation.
The power draw for the MSI Cubi 2 Plus vPro max load power draw (Prim95 + FurMark) really can't be right. It's a 35W TDP i5-6500T, and according to the chart is measuring 10W higher than the 65W i5-6500 PC in this review?
The i5-6500T 35W PC almost has to be closer to half of the 102W shown here (which was taken from the MSI Cubi 2 Plus vPro main article).
Can please someone confirm tha it is possible to install 15mm high HDDs? Would be a nice to put 2*4TB 2,5 drives +m2-SSD in it.
Found nowhere information about possible high of drives in this case, or pics showing there is enogh space. All tests only use ssd drives with 6/9,5mm height. Asrock only provides that it has space for 2 drives
Do you own it? I am interested in purchasing one and was wondering if you think its possible to modify the case to accept 15mm drives. Seagate now has 5TB 2.5" 15mm HDD's and I think those in RAID 1 would make the Deskmini a great portable NAS. Otherwise, I will go with 2tb SSHD in RAID 0 with an external backup drive.
Out of all the other systems, this particular system needs an AMD version the most - to put a 2400G APU in it...
For my purposes of making a sub-$500 play computer for my daughter - the ASRock DeskMini 110 is over-speced in the wrong place and under-speced in the wrong place. With an Intel i5, it simply lacks an interesting niche. Any and every other box has a CPU+RAM+SSD, including much smaller things like NUCs etc - at this size, it should have an APU to be worth the bother.
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dj_aris - Wednesday, June 8, 2016 - link
What if mini-STX boards came with an MXM slot? That would spawn a really fresh and interesting form factor...DanNeely - Wednesday, June 8, 2016 - link
Unless the OEM was also able to solve the problem of MXM cards not being readily available on the aftermarket (and what is available tending to be obscenely priced) I suspect it'd be more likely to spawn frustration and rage.bill.rookard - Wednesday, June 8, 2016 - link
Well, that's the point of putting it out there. If you make it available, and people do start to use it, companies will start to produce boards for it, competition ensues, prices drop and availability goes up.nathanddrews - Wednesday, June 8, 2016 - link
But MXM has been available for over a decade (laptops) and it hasn't helped anything. I still remember trying to upgrade my Dell laptop to a 7950GTX and the MXM chip was $900 on eBay. even now, the 980M is over $800. If it hasn't caught on by now...xchaotic - Wednesday, June 8, 2016 - link
Basically MXM, if priced exactly the same as desktop PCIE boards should give vendors more margin. So IMO MXM should be prices identically to their big cousins and that wouldn't be bad for both consumers and OEMswolrah - Wednesday, June 8, 2016 - link
Except that it would make no sense for them to be priced the same considering the same parts would have to be packed much more densely in to the MXM board compared to a desktop board.That's like saying a laptop should be the same price as a comparable desktop + monitor + keyboard + touchpad.
xenol - Wednesday, June 8, 2016 - link
Probably the reason why MXM boards are so expensive is that there are no official markets for them. People complain why Mini-ITX boards can be as pricey as ATX boards or why SFX power supplies are as pricey as ATX ones. They're probably pricey because there's a niche demand for them (though I'd argue mITX boards tend to have more core features than ATX ones)Morawka - Wednesday, June 8, 2016 - link
No cooling fan, no heatsink, no display outputs, reduced bill of materialsNamisecond - Wednesday, July 6, 2016 - link
You're asking for 80 square inches of board real estate to be miniaturized and crammed into about 5., and then to be sold at the same rate as that bigger item.You may as well demand all labor to be priced at the same rate as that of a Shenzhen assembly line worker.
barleyguy - Wednesday, June 8, 2016 - link
I had an Asus laptop with an MXM slot. The major problem there was compatibility. Asus put custom firmware on the boards that was required for the computer to function. Basically the first 512K (I think) of the firmware was Asus specific, and the remaining part came from NVidia.I think that's been the issue with MXM all along: You can't just buy any laptop with the slot, buy any card for the slot, and expect it to work without serious technical wizardry.
Low profile PCI Express probably makes more sense. It wouldn't greatly increase the size of a box like this.
r3loaded - Wednesday, June 8, 2016 - link
Yeah, MXM was invented to make life easy for OEMs, not consumers.Flunk - Wednesday, June 8, 2016 - link
I think the ship has sailed on that idea, people want smaller and smaller notebooks, not huge ones with huge upgradability.CharonPDX - Wednesday, June 8, 2016 - link
Heck even a transverse (on a riser, across the top of the CPU,) half-height, short-length PCIe x16 slot would be nice, there are "decent", (although not "super powerful) video cards available for half-height, short-length slots.Valantar - Wednesday, June 8, 2016 - link
Thunderbolt 3 alongside similarly sized (stackable?) (MXM-based) external GPUs would be better. Want a small system with just what you need for office/HTPC duty? Skip the GPU. Want a compact gaming rig? Get the extra chassis and (given proper availability and firmware standardization) whatever MXM GPU you want. You could easily fit the "MXM+" GTX 980 (and thus 1080, whenever it's out) in a 5" by 5" form factor, and cooling would be a breeze with a heatsink filling two dimensions of the chassis fitted with a downward blowing 120mm fan.marc1000 - Thursday, June 9, 2016 - link
MXM has lots of issues.I believe if you wanna go this small, it is better to stick with NUCs. if you need some more power, go for mITX + standard GPU.
Calista - Sunday, June 12, 2016 - link
Problem is a mITX case could easily handle a 1000 watt system, going with a full-sized ATX PSU and a high-end GPU/CPU combo and a large bunch of drives. It would be noisy when going full tilt, but it would be doable. What people seem to be asking for is a <200 watt tiny system with interchangeable parts. A 200 watt TDP would allow for a small but efficient PSU to fit within a small case, a 65W CPU and a 100 watt GPU, meaning even a modern high-end GPU like the GTX 970.The mSTX form factor just sounds like the answer to a question no one has asked.
repoman27 - Friday, June 10, 2016 - link
The switch to HBM and stacking the memory and GPU on interposers will enable socketed GPUs in near future. Hopefully that becomes a thing.Namisecond - Wednesday, July 6, 2016 - link
You'd have the same problems with MXM there as you do with them on laptops, with maybe marginally more volume for a cooling system.MXM was not designed to be a user serviceable interface. The sooner you realize that, the happier you'll be. :3
SeanFL - Wednesday, June 8, 2016 - link
Glad to see more vendors gearing up in the small space PC's. Have changed over to NUC's and other small form factors in the house and at work and they work fantastic for almost everything. The monster 6 core machine (i7-5930k) only gets used for video editing now.blackice85 - Wednesday, June 8, 2016 - link
Agreed, I'm glad that these have become pretty viable now. I'm looking to replace my big PC with a smaller machine as well, but would like to still do some medium-ish quality gaming on occasion. I'm hoping the new AMD Zen APUs next year fit the bill, I'll have to see how they review. It would just be cool if a discrete GPU wasn't really a requirement anymore.Lukart - Wednesday, June 8, 2016 - link
That pricing looks really good! Now I want to see this thing listed..JoeyJoJo123 - Wednesday, June 8, 2016 - link
Might have been interesting and possibly worth a buy if it included 2 Intel Ethernet ports, to act as a pfSense box. I guess I'll pass.A5 - Wednesday, June 8, 2016 - link
You don't need a 65W CPU to do pfSense.Shadowmaster625 - Wednesday, June 8, 2016 - link
$739? For that money you can buy a i5-6300HQ notebook that comes with a 960M. Even if you dont use the screen, you still get to make use of the built-in UPS of the notebook.ganeshts - Wednesday, June 8, 2016 - link
The $739 is due to our choice of components - the Core i5 is $204, the SSD is $317, the RAM is $57 and so on.. people can budget for these components differently (using a SATA 2.5" drive could bring down that price by $250).t.s - Wednesday, June 8, 2016 - link
And where is the sata port?nightbringer57 - Wednesday, June 8, 2016 - link
Looks like there are two mounting slots under the mainboard.There doesn't seem to be a standard SATA connector, but there is a connector marked "SATA 3" (on the edge of the board, between the back USB connectors and the "chipset"). I'm assuming this is some form of non-conventional SATA port that combines data and power lines as there is no traditional PSU, but the converters must be on the motherboard, and enables to use a proprietary cable to connect the drivers.
nightbringer57 - Wednesday, June 8, 2016 - link
(addendum)If you look at the bundle photo, you can see the weird-SATAoid-thingy-to-standard-SATA-adapter in the small plastic bag.
The_Assimilator - Wednesday, June 8, 2016 - link
Well spotted, for a while I thought ASRock had given us a pair of 2.5" mounts with no way to use them...zodiacfml - Wednesday, June 8, 2016 - link
Right. I did a quick math and the price of this mini is reasonable. In my opinion, this is the only mini that I found with a decent price as most small PCs reviewed here are not cost competitive to a laptop.The price also reflects the simple quality of the case but who cares. The niche of this product is the decent price.
aethertron - Sunday, June 12, 2016 - link
I'm new to this, does the i5 HQ version draw the same power and get the same clock as the 65 W desktop version? I was thinking of this form factor because I was hoping to put full-power desktop components in a smaller form factor.extide - Monday, June 13, 2016 - link
That IS a full power normal desktop CPU, like you can buy at newegg.Gadgety - Wednesday, June 8, 2016 - link
@TS Ganesh " larger than the NUCs, but smaller than a mini-ITX build"Why do you not list case dimensions in the specifications as this is part of the point of evaluating this offering?
t.s - Wednesday, June 8, 2016 - link
seconded. A review about SFF, without the dimension is quit funny.ganeshts - Wednesday, June 8, 2016 - link
Approx. 6.125" x 6.125" x 3.125" by rough measurements. That comes to ~1.9L, but ASRock claims 1.82L in their press release. I might be off by 0.1" or so in the hurried measurements that I took.Btw, you can get an idea of how small the case is from the photo here: http://www.asrock.com/news/index.us.asp?id=3303
Gadgety - Wednesday, June 8, 2016 - link
Thank you.fanofanand - Wednesday, June 8, 2016 - link
Thank you Ganesh, I am awful at visualizing dimensions, that picture changes my entire opinion of this device. I went from simply being bummed about the PCI-e being at 2.0 speeds to being stoked at the possibilities. I am still holding out hope for a usable (FB, Youtube etc.) USB stick PC, but I may give up waiting (will likely be years for that to be realized) and just go for something like this. Great article Ganesh!QChronoD - Wednesday, June 8, 2016 - link
I was expecting to see a picture of this next to a modular PSU with the caption of "Can you guess which is which?"Michael Bay - Saturday, June 11, 2016 - link
Same here, looks just like a fancy PSU would.Eden-K121D - Wednesday, June 8, 2016 - link
Where is the GTX 1080 review ?nonotme2 - Wednesday, June 8, 2016 - link
Are there any XEON based sfx platforms?CSMR - Wednesday, June 8, 2016 - link
The form factor has a lot of potential, but:1. Mobo makers are stuck in the past. Wasting space with VGA output which could have gone to more USB3 ports or an extra displayport or thunderbolt.
2. Please give us at least the graphics power you can get in NUCs or Brix systems with Iris Pro. The 65W processors with shared-memory graphics are unbalanced with strong CPU and weak GPU. Quad-core Iris Pros are great all-rounders but stretch the cooling systems of NUCs and Brixes.
cm2187 - Wednesday, June 8, 2016 - link
Out of curiosity, what would happen if I stick an i7 6700K in there (no overclocking)? Is it a temperature or a power constraint?fanofanand - Wednesday, June 8, 2016 - link
likely both.BedfordTim - Wednesday, June 8, 2016 - link
It will take an i7-6700 which would make more sense if you are not overclocking.extide - Monday, June 13, 2016 - link
Those have a higher TDP -- that board may not support them. It supports 65w for sure, but maybe not the higher wattage of the K series chips, which I think is 91w.A5 - Wednesday, June 8, 2016 - link
Would be interesting to mix this kind of thing with an R-series CPU if you need to do (very) light gaming.The_Assimilator - Wednesday, June 8, 2016 - link
Man, this thing would be a killer if it had Thunderbolt support.wintermute000 - Wednesday, June 8, 2016 - link
Can someone pretty please test ESXi on it :)wintermute000 - Wednesday, June 8, 2016 - link
And kvm too ;)8steve8 - Wednesday, June 8, 2016 - link
Am the only one surprised this got beat by the skull canyon with its 45W CPU in many non-GPU related benchmarks? Would a 65W i7 with HT in this change that outcome ( I assume so? )ganeshts - Wednesday, June 8, 2016 - link
Note that the eDRAM might also play a role. (eDRAM is available for both CPU and GPU workloads)8steve8 - Wednesday, June 8, 2016 - link
true... i wish that skull canyon cpu or any skylake with eDRAM was in the anandtech bench databaseValantar - Wednesday, June 8, 2016 - link
Platforms like this are begging for Thunderbolt 3 and similarly sized eGPU chassis.peterfares - Wednesday, June 8, 2016 - link
Why exactly do you want to have two boxes with a wire connecting them and a second power supply? Doesn't it make a little more sense for the case just to be larger and hold a GPU internally? Way cheaper that way too.piasabird - Thursday, June 9, 2016 - link
Seems like 120 watts is awfully low on the power. It is basically just a box with a motherboard in it.peterfares - Thursday, June 9, 2016 - link
65W CPU. I don't think everything else will add up to 55W.cm2187 - Thursday, June 9, 2016 - link
I'm surprised the Skull Canyon toasts this config in pretty much all benchmarks. When comparing the specs side by side, the Skull Canyon CPU is pretty much inferior or equal to the i5 6500 on all metrics other than hyper threading:http://ark.intel.com/compare/93341,88184
Does hyper threading make such a big difference?
nirolf - Thursday, June 9, 2016 - link
There's also that 128 MB of eDRAM that works like a big fat cache for the CPU.TheinsanegamerN - Thursday, June 9, 2016 - link
I agree with the comment section, this box would be much more impressive if it was an inch wider, and had room to hold something like the low profile dual slot 750ti.extide - Monday, June 13, 2016 - link
Then it would be ini-ITX .. which has been around forever..extide - Monday, June 13, 2016 - link
Mini ITX *extide - Thursday, June 9, 2016 - link
Come on guys , full page ad completely covering the page. It was the LG OLED TV ad. PLEASE get rid of that BSLolimaster - Saturday, June 11, 2016 - link
Ublock is your friendextide - Monday, June 13, 2016 - link
I know how to use adblock, but I prefer to leave ads turned on here if possible, and so should you.stubblepoo - Friday, June 10, 2016 - link
hmm, slowly inching towards my dream of stuffing something into an orange Gamecube case and being able to run dolphin off it...jaydee - Friday, June 10, 2016 - link
There is conflicting information on the front page, whether the USB type-C is 3.0 or 3.1 specganeshts - Friday, June 10, 2016 - link
3.1 Gen 1 = 3.0No conflict, it will operate at 5 Gbps max. theoretical rate.
jaydee - Friday, June 10, 2016 - link
So basically it's going to be like when graphics cards and monitors said they were "HDMI v1.4", when in fact they were pretty much HDMI v1.2, because they didn't support resolutions higher than 1920x1200. Perfect.extide - Monday, June 13, 2016 - link
No...Lolimaster - Saturday, June 11, 2016 - link
I would really love a review of the i7 6700T 35w.i7 6700K is only 17% faster on average without that nice tdp. Powerconsumption idle/load/typical use/temps. Would really appreciate it.
prisonerX - Tuesday, June 14, 2016 - link
A reasonably priced case with built-in passive CPU heatsink would be a nice complement in that review. With Skylake about the only real benefit is the practicality of silent PCs.prisonerX - Tuesday, June 14, 2016 - link
This ticks a lot of boxes:small size, 12V power, Skylake. But $130 for a motherboard, a generic power brick and a simple case? Seriously?8steve8 - Saturday, July 9, 2016 - link
I know right? It should be like $300 considering the skull canyon NUC is over $600 and can only handle a 45w CPU... With a terrible (loud) cooler.There is nothing that competes with this: Skylake 65 W with this size.
If only Intel would release a socketed Skylake 65w CPU/iGPU with eDRAM.
ES_Revenge - Friday, June 17, 2016 - link
Really don't understand the point to STX. Has zero slots, okay that makes it even smaller than ITX but is there really a need for it? The NUC/mini-PC type jobbies like the NUC, Cubi, Liva, etc. seem to have their market covered. If you really want there are some very small mini-ITX cases (some that even only hold thin mini-ITX) and don't end up using the slot so the space "wasted" because of it isn't that much.For example Antec's ISK 110 is very small, it's a bit bigger than this but it uses mini ITX boards (with no slot usability) which are available all over the place. It just doesn't seem like we need another form factor to be between mini ITX and the NUC-type machines, does it?
I'd rather mini DTX have taken off that this. I just don't think there's a need for mini-ITX minus like 5cm
8steve8 - Saturday, July 9, 2016 - link
Most NUCs have a 15W or less CPU meant for laptops... With a laptop style heatsink/fan.This takes a 65w CPU and a quieter heatsink/fan.
Imagine you want a very high performance desktop, but also want it as small as possible. I realize most commenters on this site are obsessed with game performance, but if you don't care about playing the latest game, then this pretty close to the perfect high performance small desktop workstation.
8steve8 - Saturday, July 9, 2016 - link
This is much smaller than even tiny itx PCs ... Also front ports without internal wires/connectors!jaydee - Thursday, June 30, 2016 - link
The power draw for the MSI Cubi 2 Plus vPro max load power draw (Prim95 + FurMark) really can't be right. It's a 35W TDP i5-6500T, and according to the chart is measuring 10W higher than the 65W i5-6500 PC in this review?The i5-6500T 35W PC almost has to be closer to half of the 102W shown here (which was taken from the MSI Cubi 2 Plus vPro main article).
butchooka - Friday, August 12, 2016 - link
Can please someone confirm tha it is possible to install 15mm high HDDs?Would be a nice to put 2*4TB 2,5 drives +m2-SSD in it.
Found nowhere information about possible high of drives in this case, or pics showing there is enogh space. All tests only use ssd drives with 6/9,5mm height. Asrock only provides that it has space for 2 drives
james.shallcross - Tuesday, September 20, 2016 - link
7mm - no problem9.5mm - will JUST fit
15mm - will not fit
Screwville512 - Monday, December 5, 2016 - link
Do you own it? I am interested in purchasing one and was wondering if you think its possible to modify the case to accept 15mm drives. Seagate now has 5TB 2.5" 15mm HDD's and I think those in RAID 1 would make the Deskmini a great portable NAS. Otherwise, I will go with 2tb SSHD in RAID 0 with an external backup drive.rgs84 - Wednesday, September 21, 2016 - link
Can someone confirm that I can use it for example with i5-6685R, same 1151 socket, but better video onboard (Iris Pro 588)?chrismart1234 - Thursday, September 22, 2016 - link
Nah; it supports full desktop processors only not mobile processors.wstkwon - Tuesday, January 3, 2017 - link
Hey, I tried to make this pc, but my monitor is blank. WTF? ANy hel please?n13L5 - Sunday, August 5, 2018 - link
Out of all the other systems, this particular system needs an AMD version the most - to put a 2400G APU in it...For my purposes of making a sub-$500 play computer for my daughter - the ASRock DeskMini 110 is over-speced in the wrong place and under-speced in the wrong place. With an Intel i5, it simply lacks an interesting niche. Any and every other box has a CPU+RAM+SSD, including much smaller things like NUCs etc - at this size, it should have an APU to be worth the bother.