Maingear X-Cube

Cube-shaped mini-desktop is a big performer




WE'VE SEEN A LOT OF PORTABLE, small-form-factor (SFF) desktops, but never one quite like the Maingear X-Cube, with a full liquid-cooling system inside.

The system cools both the processor (a 2.83GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550) and the graphics cards (two ATI Radeon HD 4870 cards, in a CrossFireX configuration) while expelling the heat via two fans connected to a vented side panel. This resulted in only a faint bubbling noise, one of the few clues that the X-Cube is something other than a run-of-the-mill LAN-party box.

The cooling and the system's additional components-4GB of DDR2 RAM, the 64-bit version of Windows Vista Home Premium, and two 750GB hard drives in a RAID Level 0 configuration—help make the X-Cube as powerful as it is portable, as it proved by excelling in nearly all our benchmark tests

The X-Cube's $2,884 price puts it right in line with the upper midrange of current Core i7 desktops, but some compromises come along with that price. First, expansion of any kind is practically impossible. Of the four expansion slots visible on the back of the case, all are currently filled by way of those two double-width graphics cards.

Despite the appearance of two free 5.25-inch external drive bays on the system's front, one is filled with cables, and the other is so buried that you'd need to dismantle nearly everything else just to get to it.



Then there's the question of front-panel connectivity: Aside from a single USB port, there is none—not even microphone or headphone jacks. You do get a standard array on the rear panel, however: two PS/2 ports, digital audio connectors, six USB ports, an Ethernet jack, and eight-channel audio ports. -Matthew Murray

Computer Shopper March 2009