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Intel’s Alder Lake-N chips are low-cost, low-power processors designed for entry-level laptops, tablets, and mini PCs. Lots, and lots of mini PCs. Since Intel unveiled the chips in January, we’ve seen a whole bunch of computers announced that feature the processor, including a handful of laptops and tablets, but most Alder Lake-N systems unveiled so far appear to be mini desktop computers.

While many of these mini PCs come from small Chinese companies that have a limited presence in the West, the MSI Cubi N ADL is part of the Cubi line of mini PCs that Taiwanese PC maker MSI has been selling for nearly a decade. First introduced in January, an entry-level model with an Intel N100 processor went on sale in April. But I recently noticed that you can now pick up a higher-performance model with an Intel N200 chip for just a little more money. .

The MSI Cubi N ADL is a 4.9″ x 4.9″ x 2.1″ desktop computer with support for at least two different Intel Alder Lake-N processors. The Intel Processor N100 and N200 are both  4-core, 4-thread chips with base power consumption levels of 6 watts, but the ability to go up to 25 watts for short bursts of additional performance.

What’s different is that the Intel N100 processor’s supports CPU frequencies up to 3.4 GHz and features 750 MHz Intel UHD integrated graphics with 24 execution units, while the Intel N200 chip supports speeds up to 3.7 GHz and features an integrated GPU with 32 execution units. That should give the N200 model a modest boost in CPU performance and a bigger advantage when it comes to graphics performance.

But keep in mind that these are both low-cost, low-power chips designed for budgets computers. And the MSI Cubi N ADL is a budget computer. Here’s how much Newegg is currently charging for four configurations:

All four models feature a single SODIMM slot for DDR4-3200 memory and both an M.2 2280 slot and 2.5 inch drive for storage.

You can also find the Cubi N ADL at other stores including Amazon and Walmart (which has a few interesting configurations available, including an N200/4GB/128GB model for $289).

All models also feature a set of ports that includes:

  • 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C (DisplayPort)
  • 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A
  • 2 x USB 2.0 Type-A
  • 1 x HDMI 2.0b
  • 1 x DisplayPort 1.4
  • 2 x Gigabit Ethernet
  • 1 x 3.5mm audio

Other features include a 65W power adapter and support for WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 4.2.

via FanlessTech

This article was first published April 11, 2023 and most recently updated July 17, 2023. 

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  1. If you look at benchmarks, the N200 scores slightly lower on CPU benchmarks (both single-core and multi-core). So I dug deeper to see what the difference is, and the difference is 32EU’s for N200 vs. 24EU’s for N100 in the video processing section of the chip. Based on that, the CPU performance of the two chips should be identical, and the benchmarks show they are “close enough” to identical (though oddly, the N100 is very slightly better) I guess is you are wondering which of these specific chips to buy, the decision should be gaming? (N200) or no gaming? (N100) although a gamer probably would not be satisfied with either of these chips.

    Reply

  2. I just received my Prime Day mini-PC which has a Ryzen 5800u. MSI as a company has a much better reputation than the company I bought from… but the laptop class performance with 4x the ram and 4x the SSD for the same price was enough for me to take a chance. Just my $0.02

    Reply

    1. Olivier from FanlessTech gave me a heads up on this one specifically because it’s not fanless… so it came across his radar, but it wasn’t something he was going to write about.

      Reply

  4. I was able to find out what the items are with google
    CUBINADL019B CUBI N ADL-019BUS BAREBONE PENTIUM BLACK
    CUBINADL020B CUBI N ADL-020BUS BAREBONE CELERON BLACK
    CUBNADL005 CUBI N ADL-005US PENTIUM 4GB 128GBSSD BLACK W11PE
    CUBNADL021 CUBI N ADL-021US CELERON 4GB 128GBSSD BLACK W11PE
    So for Zones the most expensive is the celeron config with ram and ssd, or can get bare bones, Pentium is $40 more than Celeron at 236. Guessing with the rebrand Celeron is N100 while pentium is the now N200, hoenstly not much different between CPU, n200 has slightly better gpu at 32eu vs 24eu and better boost but both are 4 e cores
    https://www.notebookcheck.net/N100-vs-N200_14932_14930.247596.0.html

    Reply

  5. Thought mini PC’s was a good deal a few years ago compared to Android boxes and I connected one to each of our TV set’s.

    But windows is eating memory at every releas so thes mini PC’s age quickly 🙁

    Reply

    1. I recently discovered that Windows (10) can’t properly manage its own page file. Manually setting the page file size to 16 GB stopped persistent crashes in Firefox; Windows wouldn’t utilize the available space when told to manage the page file itself.

      Reply

      1. Amen. There are some apps which aren’t ported to Kodi, and only available on Android and Windoze. I use a Fire Stick and RPi running libreElec on my main TV… that covers all my use cases.

        Reply

      1. Ew. Chromebooks are fine for what they are, but once EOL do yourself a favor and put linux on.

        Putting ChromeOS Flex on something is just silly.

        Reply