Zotac ZBOX CI523 nano Fanless Skylake-U mini-PC Review
by Ganesh T S on October 5, 2016 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 higher turbo frequency of the Core i5-5300U in the Logic Supply ML100G-30 pushes down the Zotac ZBOX CI523 nano to the second place amongst the PCs considered for comparison.
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. Again, the higher turbo clock in the ML100G-30 helps it come ahead of the CI523 nano.
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 can accelerate the encryption and decryption processes. The Core i3-6100U does have AES-NI support. TrueCrypt, a popular open-source disk encryption program can take advantage of the AES-NI capabilities. In the graph below, we can get an idea of how fast a TrueCrypt volume would behave in the ZOTAC ZBOX CI523 nano 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.
Dolphin Emulator
Wrapping up our application benchmark numbers is the Dolphin Emulator benchmark mode results. This is again a test of the CPU capabilities. Even though the ZBOX CI523 nano comes out on top, there is not much separating it from the Broadwell-U Core i5-based ML100G-30 and Haswell-U Core i5-based Core-ML320 industrial PCs from Logic Supply.
35 Comments
View All Comments
keg504 - Wednesday, October 5, 2016 - link
What is USB 3.1 gen 2?Wwhat - Sunday, October 30, 2016 - link
Gen1 is just USB3.0 or 2.0 with a USB-C connector. Or in other words fake USB3.1.BrokenCrayons - Wednesday, October 5, 2016 - link
It looks like the CA320 and CI320 didn't have the same hot-running SSD problem the CI523 does. It's not exactly a fair comparison give the lower TDPs of the AMD A6 and the Bay Trail CPUs, but it looks like Skylake U is just a little too warm for a passive cooler in such cramped confines. It kind of defeats the purpose, but maybe putting it on top of one of those laptop cooling pads that power a fan from the USB port would help.slideruler - Wednesday, October 5, 2016 - link
SSD does not get hot (in regular usage) when the box is put on it's side (see my message above).The whole thing is barely warm.
By the way, I'm running 2 port i5 version (not i3) and my Kill A Watt shows 10W idle, 30W when CPU is taxed. The only usage my GPU gets is when a movie is played, even then there's no much difference at the wall comparing to idle.
ganeshts - Wednesday, October 5, 2016 - link
OS makes a lot of difference :)Under regular use, the CPUs idle at around 50C and the SSD is around 58C (that is a bit too high for my liking, but it is not a real issue, anyway)
fallaha56 - Wednesday, October 5, 2016 - link
this device is pointless ! no HDCP 2.2, no HDMI 2.0...we hold our breath...
heffeque - Wednesday, October 5, 2016 - link
Waiting for Zen APU here. It'll probably make awesome home theater material.dakishimesan - Wednesday, October 5, 2016 - link
Zotac has really stepped it up in the art/design department with not only the design of the computers themselves, but also the boxes and marketing materials. Impressed.solnyshok - Thursday, October 6, 2016 - link
There are some cheaper fanless skylake systems by e-global on aliexpress and elsewhere. i3-6100u seems to go for $257. No mesh, only fins. Would love to see review of one of those. http://www.pcstationcn.com/index.php?route=product...ganeshts - Thursday, October 6, 2016 - link
Interesting ones.. they have a bigger surface area in the chassis for heat dissipation. Looks like it should be able to handle the 15W TDP processors at the rated load. If the vendor pitches one for review, I would take up the opportunity.