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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zepi - Monday, February 27, 2017 - link
Out of curiosity, what kind of ambient temperatures do you have in your test-bench?There is quite a difference between 18C and 28C room temperature in this kind of test.
bill.rookard - Monday, February 27, 2017 - link
Ideally you would think they would set ambient temp (via heat or a/c as needed) to a flat 21C/70F or so which is what most people would have as an average 'comfortable' temp. 28C might be a bit high (82F) while the 18C (64F) is a bit chilly.Although, considering these are 'industrial' type systems, you might actually subject them to a much wider dual temp test (15C/60F and 32C/90F) which you might find in a warehouse or factory floor.
zepi - Monday, February 27, 2017 - link
This is what I'm referring to. If someone deploys this at factory floor, temperature variations might be completely out of your standard AC'ed office block.Knowing ambiet temp would definitely help people estimating the dT figures that it can handle.
ganeshts - Monday, February 27, 2017 - link
The ambient temperature for all our thermal testing is between 70 and 74F.For one of our previous industrial PC reviews, I did the stress testing at multiple temperature points - http://www.anandtech.com/show/6494/aleutia-relia-i... , but the overall feedback in terms of balance between time spent on a review and actionable results was that room temperature testing is more than enough.
If the customer is ordering, say, 20K or 30K worth of these PCs, I am sure Logic Supply would be more than happy to deliver those graphs for the particular workloads to be used at different temperature points [ just my opinion :) ]
Samus - Tuesday, February 28, 2017 - link
The issue I think he is raising is the typical ambient temperature of a ventilated kiosk or summertime warehouse is probably 90F. Who knows how high it is when not ventilated. For a review of an industrial PC, it would probably be appropriate to increase your ambient temp to real-world scenarios.SkipPerk - Wednesday, April 19, 2017 - link
Our facilities routinely top 105 in August. I had to use a laptop cooler to keep my Asus ultrabook from slowing down excessively. I updated both required PC's to large CPU coolers (Noctua NH-12) and filled every fan slot (plus we ALWAYS use dust filters or else the motherboards get so dusty that when it gets humid they short out on wet dust).Temperature is a valid question. I have seen boxes in digital signage that get insanely hot (think 130 degrees F). You not only need fans, but you want to ventilate the box the computer is in. An old server Delta fan for an intake and an outtake will drop an enclosure down to five or ten degrees above ambient.
Outside temps matter considerably in the summer. As does humidity.
Meteor2 - Monday, February 27, 2017 - link
I think most people go for 19 C these days if using heating. Uses 20% less energy than 21 C.eldakka - Monday, February 27, 2017 - link
At least for this product being tested, the specifications from their website are:Operating Temperature Range 0°C ~ 50°C
Therefore, in theory at least, any ambient temperature likely to be found inside a livable room should be satisfactory for this device.
Can't speak for the other devices like the ECS or Zotac machines tho.
Ro_Ja - Monday, February 27, 2017 - link
It looks like a big heat sink itself.tipoo - Monday, February 27, 2017 - link
It is. It's fanless, uses the whole case as a heatsink.