Logic Supply ML100G-50 Fanless Skylake vPro Industrial NUC Review
by Ganesh T S on February 27, 2017 8:00 AM ESTNetworking and Storage Performance
Networking and storage are two major aspects which influence our experience with any computing system. This section presents results from our evaluation of these aspects in the Logic Supply ML100G-50. On the storage side, one option would be repetition of our strenuous SSD review tests on the drive(s) in the PC. Fortunately, to avoid that overkill, PCMark 8 has a storage bench where certain common workloads such as loading games and document processing are replayed on the target drive. Results are presented in two forms, one being a benchmark number and the other, a bandwidth figure. We ran the PCMark 8 storage bench on selected PCs and the results are presented below.
The Transcend MTS600 SATA SSD used in the Logic Supply ML100G-50 is not a high-end one in terms of performance. It does use Micron's 20nm MLC flash (which should be good in terms of endurance), but the Silicon Motion SM2246EN controller and the capacity point (128GB) makes it come below the higher capacity SATA SSDs used in the Zotac ZBOX series reviews.
On the networking side, we restricted ourselves to the evaluation of the WLAN component. Our standard test router is the Netgear R7000 Nighthawk configured with both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz networks. The router is placed approximately 20 ft. away, separated by a drywall (as in a typical US building). A wired client is connected to the R7000 and serves as one endpoint for iperf evaluation. The PC under test is made to connect to either the 5 GHz (preferred) or 2.4 GHz SSID and iperf tests are conducted for both TCP and UDP transfers. It is ensured that the PC under test is the only wireless client for the Netgear R7000. We evaluate total throughput for up to 32 simultaneous TCP connections using iperf and present the highest number in the graph below.
In the UDP case, we try to transfer data at the highest rate possible for which we get less than 1% packet loss.
The 2x2 802.11ac solution used in the ML100G-50 is the same as the one used in the ML100G-30. The benchmark numbers are expected to be the same, but, we did see some slight differences that can be attributed to antenna orientation and other environmental factors. In any case, the 2x2 solution delivers a big jump in performance over the 1x1 solution used in other fanless PCs.
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DarekLogic - Tuesday, February 28, 2017 - link
Here's that ML100G-10 link without the errant parenthesis: https://www.logicsupply.com/ml100g-10BrokenCrayons - Monday, February 27, 2017 - link
Logic Supply sells the DA-1000 which has two Intel ethernet adapters and is passively cooled. Though it's CPU is based on the Bay Trail Atom, for a pfSense router project, it's probably sufficiently powerful AND would likely be a bit more efficient than a Skylake-based system.Shadowmaster625 - Monday, February 27, 2017 - link
That huge white block is a thermal pad?DarekLogic - Monday, February 27, 2017 - link
Darek here from Logic Supply. That's correct, that's a thermal pad for the SSD. As silly as it may look, in our testing it resulted in a roughly 6-12°C drop in SSD temperature depending on what the system is doing.Thanks for the question.
BrokenCrayons - Monday, February 27, 2017 - link
I haven't ordered anything from Logic Supply in a few years, but I have done business with the company a few times for small orders. They were easy to deal with and I'd happily vouch for them putting together good fanless systems.Ranger1065 - Tuesday, February 28, 2017 - link
Yawn.Valantar - Tuesday, February 28, 2017 - link
As usual for these UCFF reviews, I (sorely!) miss pictures of the actual cooling solution. I get that you don't want to disassemble it before testing (having to replace thermal paste and so on), but can't you at least do it afterwards? Does it take more than removing the four screws in the motherboard? I'm very interested in seeing the actual implementation of the passive cooling solution here.Valantar - Tuesday, February 28, 2017 - link
As usual for these UCFF reviews, I (sorely!) miss pictures of the actual cooling solution. I get that you don't want to disassemble it before testing (having to replace thermal paste and so on), but can't you at least do it afterwards? Does it take more than removing the four screws in the motherboard? I'm very interested in seeing the actual implementation of the passive cooling solution here.Spartacus00 - Tuesday, February 28, 2017 - link
Would love to see comparisons to additional manufacturers. We have used Tangent for their Rugged Mini PC's and had great success. They were able to send us a demo unit, which Logic Supply was not; and were very flexible with the types of configurations we wanted in the machines. Worth looking into for anyone who is shopping for industrial fanless.fanofanand - Wednesday, March 1, 2017 - link
I still can't wrap my head around a $450 PC selling for $1150 because it's small. I get it, I understand all the reasons why, it still just doesn't make sense to me for 99.9999999% of consumers. Nobody has an extra 5 liters of space ANYWHERE around their desk?