MSI Announces Barebones Cubi Kits, Will Compete With Intel, Gigabyte, Others

MSI is starting a new product line of barebones mini PCs to compete against Intel's NUCs, Gigabyte's BRIX, and other similar devices.

MSI sent out the specs for the first six of these devices that will come to market. All of the Cubi boxes will use embedded Intel Broadwell CPUs and graphics, and are identical in specs to each other except for the CPU.

Strangely enough, Cubi boxes Cubi-001BUS and Cubi-004BUS, Cubi-002BUS and Cubi-005BUS, and Cubi-004BUS and Cubi-006BUS are completely identical to each other in specs and price. In other words, MSI only has three different hardware configurations currently available, yet lists six different models. We asked MSI about this, and a rep told us that the Cubi will come in both black and white models, and that is the difference between the similar models.

As is usually the case with barebones systems, you will need to buy RAM and a storage device to use with the Cubi box.

Unfortunately, in overall specs, these units look to be behind Gigabyte's top BRIX unit and Intel's top NUCs. MSI only goes up to an Intel Core i3 with these units, while Gigabyte and Intel have models containing faster Intel Core i7 processors.

MSI told us that while current models only feature Core i3 or lower CPUs, there will be an option out in the second half of the year featuring an i5 with vPro. There is also potential for a model using an i7, but that has yet to be confirmed.

Although in the U.S. we can only expect to see barebones kits available, in Europe, MSI plans to also launch these as complete systems.

Prices for the barebones Cubi kits range from $149.99 with a Celeron CPU up to $279.99 with a Core i3 CPU. MSI expects the Cubi devices to first reach customers in the second week of April.

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