A Closer Look – CUBI N
The MSI CUBI N is a simple bit of kit, at least on the surface. It’s small enough to hold in one hand…
Actually, here’s proof of that!
The front looks nice enough, with a headphone/microphone combi jack, so your mobile headphones should work just fine here, or you can use a splitter for dedicated microphone/headphone setups. There are two USB 3 ports on the front too, so plugging in portable storage, controllers and other peripherals is easy enough.
Around the back, you’ll find the power port, LAN, two more USB 3 ports, and display connections. It supports both HDMI and VGA. I doubt many home users will use the VGA, but that’s likely going to appeal to some business uses where older technology is often left to work until it dies, then left another 10 years beyond that.
The top looks really cool too, with a perforated design to provide some cooling to the internal components. However, it has a sort of wave design to it. Keep in mind, this is a tiny system you could easily hide out of sight. However, if you are going to have one on your desktop, next to your TV or something like that, it’s nice that it’s attractive too. I quite like the larger power button up here too, clean and simple.
There’s a little more ventilation down the sides.
It’s not hard to open this thing up, you just need a small screwdriver. It won’t void your warranty either, assuming you don’t spill your beer in here while doing it at least.
There’s room for an M.2 SSD, 2.5″ SSD/HDD, and a SODIMM, all of which are upgradeable. Again, keep in mind what’s in mine is just one version of this, you can buy it with different storage and memory configurations pre-installed.
