Logic Supply ML100G-50 Fanless Skylake vPro Industrial NUC Review
by Ganesh T S on February 27, 2017 8:00 AM ESTPerformance Metrics - II
In this section, we mainly look at benchmark modes in programs used on a day-to-day basis, i.e, application performance and not synthetic workloads.
x264 Benchmark
First off, we have some video encoding benchmarks courtesy of x264 HD Benchmark v5.0. This is simply a test of CPU performance. As expected, the Core i5-6300U helps the ML100G-50 come out on top. It is followed by the Broadwell-based ML100G-30 and the Skylake i3-based Zotac ZBOX CI523 nano.
7-Zip
7-Zip is a very effective and efficient compression program, often beating out OpenCL accelerated commercial programs in benchmarks even while using just the CPU power. 7-Zip has a benchmarking program that provides tons of details regarding the underlying CPU's efficiency. In this subsection, we are interested in the compression and decompression MIPS ratings when utilizing all the available threads. The pattern of results is similar to that seen in the x264 benchmark.
TrueCrypt
As businesses (and even home consumers) become more security conscious, the importance of encryption can't be overstated. CPUs supporting the AES-NI instruction have hardware acceleration for the encryption and decryption processes. The Core i5-6300U in the Logic Supply ML100G-50 does have AES-NI support. TrueCrypt, a popular open-source disk encryption program can take advantage of the AES-NI capabilities. The TrueCrypt internal benchmark provides some interesting cryptography-related numbers to ponder. In the graph below, we can get an idea of how fast a TrueCrypt volume would behave in the Logic Supply ML100G-50 and how it would compare with other select PCs. This is a purely CPU feature / clock speed based test.
Agisoft Photoscan
Agisoft PhotoScan is a commercial program that converts 2D images into 3D point maps, meshes and textures. The program designers sent us a command line version in order to evaluate the efficiency of various systems that go under our review scanner. The command line version has two benchmark modes, one using the CPU and the other using both the CPU and GPU (via OpenCL). The benchmark takes around 50 photographs and does four stages of computation:
- Stage 1: Align Photographs
- Stage 2: Build Point Cloud (capable of OpenCL acceleration)
- Stage 3: Build Mesh
- Stage 4: Build Textures
We record the time taken for each stage. Since various elements of the software are single threaded, others multithreaded, and some use GPUs, it is interesting to record the effects of CPU generations, speeds, number of cores, DRAM parameters and the GPU using this software. The ML100G-50 comfortably comes out on top in all the stages, as expected.
Dolphin Emulator
Wrapping up our application benchmark numbers is the Dolphin Emulator benchmark mode results. This is again a test of the CPU capabilities, and the Core i5-6300U's specifications ensure that the ML100G-50 comes out on top again.
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BrokenCrayons - Wednesday, March 1, 2017 - link
Most people have that extra space, but these systems aren't intended for desktop use. They're targeted at industrial environments where dust ingestion due to active cooling would contribute to the early demise of a conventional computer. Consumers rarely need this kind of hardware unless they're doing something like HAM radio or another chore that needs a passively cooled design.fanofanand - Wednesday, March 1, 2017 - link
Yeah I kind of gathered that after posting my comment, but I think my comment is still applicable beyond this one specific box. The SFF space is one of the last bastions of "premium pricing" outside of corporate and "gaming". I mean what we have here is a super low power CPU, with an IGP, and basic RAM selling for the price of an alienware laptop. It's just hard to wrap my head around. I get it for industrial applications but not for everyday consumers.milkod2001 - Thursday, March 2, 2017 - link
Market is big enough that even NUCs while they are useless and overpriced for what they offer still sell. Good thing is: you don't have to buy them, you can just completely ignore them and move on :)nowayandnohow - Thursday, March 2, 2017 - link
"you can just completely ignore them and move on"Exactly, stop whining and go to the market segment that targets what you need.
nowayandnohow - Thursday, March 2, 2017 - link
Look, I am a prime customer for this solution: I need a somewhat capable small server for a location - on this location I also need to run 2VM's which each uses their own NIC (I am looking at their Xeon equipped server with 6 x NIC, 32GB ECC RAM, and 4 drives in RAID6). All of this is going to be supporting a low maintenance, long periods of no-computers-and-very-little-web-traffic location. This is perfect.What sets this one apart is that it is small, really small, and it has ZERO moving parts. It will not have a fan failure, it will not have a spinning disk doing all the things spinning disks do. It'll be dead quiet, run what I need for it to run, hidden away in a closet, running 24/7.
Of course i could build my very own, for probably half the price and double the specs, but this is not what I am looking for. This is not intended for home tinkers, and the price comes with turnkey (with warranty) setup, and I am willing to pay for that.
We need to end this "it can be done cheaper", someone needs to make a buck on putting capable systems together, with purpose not only to support gamers that would never buy it in the first place, and uses components that are not the 'cheapest possible available'. Otherwise all computers will just be either super expensive for coorporations, or super low budget like half of the SFF units out there today. Who the hell wants an i3 with cheap-ass RAM, slow spinning HD and then the capacity to push out 4k? Who ever buys that is an idiot. You want to build, build... You want to buy a gaming machine, buy a gaming machine, but if you don't understand the target segment of the market does not make it shit. You see computers as a commodity, I see them as things that cost does not really matter, but build quality and purpose does.
Buying this can will last me 5 years in the setting that I am looking for, the components are perhaps not the newest, but HQ stuff, and with no moving parts, protecting it through a HQ UPS, this bad boy will run quietly and smooth.
SkipPerk - Wednesday, April 19, 2017 - link
There are quite a few solutions that really require small form factor, although fanless is not always essential. I have had good luck with dust filters, although a sealed case would be awesome for humidity. Sometimes you simply need to tuck a tiny computer somewhere (often wall mounted between other equipment). That said, I have used tiny Atom boxes and run VM's through them, but they are not so stable. You can set up a Linux box and forget about it.benzosaurus - Sunday, March 12, 2017 - link
Almost specced one of these at work the other day.