Review: MSI Cubi 3 Silent

Conclusion

It was only a matter of time before big-name manufacturers started to become adventurous with the Intel NUC form factor.

Hoping to stand out from the competition, MSI has repurposed its 102mm x 102mm NUC motherboard inside a larger, fanless chassis to create the Cubi 3 Silent.

Designed with HTPC enthusiasts and quiet-computing aficionados in mind, this ultra-compact PC saves space, makes no noise and avoids the guesswork of traditional barebone solutions by including memory, storage and a Windows 10 operating system as standard.

The approach has potential, and Cubi 3 Silent sounds tempting on paper, yet MSI's execution leaves something to be desired. Performance throttling is a genuine concern - to the extent that going fanless feels like too big a compromise - and having focussed almost entirely on eliminating noise, MSI has overlooked other potentially useful upgrades such as an eighth-generation Intel Core processor, USB 3.1 Type-C or HDMI 2.0.

Bottom line: we appreciate quiet PCs as much as anybody, yet there's a fine line between hushed and hampered, and Cubi 3 Silent struggles to find the right balance.

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TBC.

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