Space reserved for You-Tube video
It is the first time we get a non branded Mini Pc for review with a CPU other than the Atom or Celeron series. The XCY X30 Mini PC Intel Core i3-4010Y appears to be (on paper) a great and cost-effective alternative solution to the more expensive branded ones (Intel’s NUC and Gigabyte’s Brick models). Build quality appears to be great too. Let’s see if there any deal breakers…
Packaging
There is nothing fancy with the way the XCY X30 (who picks the names?) arrived. Actually, you can’t tell there is a Mini PC inside since there is no description at all (which may be a good thing if a package is sent from the inner depths of China). The brown-ish cardboard box managed to keep everything in perfect condition with adequate protection.
The box was quite heavy and we were curious to find the reason why. Inside we got the main, barebone unit, the power brick, and documentation in CN language. The omission of EN language is not important since we are dealing with an ordinary PC and no special actions are required. There are other bundles of the XCY X30 unit that also include Wi-Fi antennas and a VESA mount.
Build quality – Specifications
We probably could not get a better build quality for the price. The main unit is all aluminum/metal, with the chassis acting as a heatsink since the design is fanless.
Connectivity is very rich considering its size. All sides are clean and serve as air grilles for heat dissipation (with the bottom as well) and all I/Os are on the front and back sides. All USB ports (4x USB3.0 and 2x USB2.0) are in the front so if you intend to use any of them, cable management would be a challenge. At the back, you get 2x 3.5mm Audio Jacks (for microphone and stereo speakers), an HDMI out (1.4 version), a VGA port for legacy systems and a Gigabit LAN port. Other configurations of the XCY X30 include wireless modules as well. Inside you get two mSATA ports and one normal SATA one. You also get one DIMM slot for DDR3L memory. The only weird thing was the lack of proper mounting for a 2.5″ HDD. You can only connect the SATA cable and close the lid (the HDD should be fairly secure but with no rails or screws. It also blocks a large part of the bottom air grilles. Our tests were performed with a 2.5″ SATA drive since we had no mSATA ones available and an 8GB RAM module.
Our configuration arrived with the Intel i3-4010Y, a dual-core, ultra-low voltage (ULV) processor clocked at 1.3 GHz with no Turbo Boost option. Offers an integrated HD Graphics 4200 that will be enough for everyday tasks. It is probably the perfect choice for our fanless chassis. It should provide boosted performance compared to Celeron and Pentium equivalent solutions usually found in cost-effective MINI PCs.
Since no storage space is pre-installed, there is no operating system included.
Tests-Performance
Intel 2013 i3-4010Y was able to get better than decent day to day performance. If equipped with an 8GB RAM module (or more) and an SSD drive, your experience can also be described as quite good too.
Windows 10 performance was snappy (you will require an SSD drive for that) and you will be able to handle a lot of Google Chrome tabs while listening to Spotify or You-Tube. Microsoft’s Office was handled pretty well too. You should not try heavy tasks like video editing or anything similar since you will soon end up with a lower than expected performance due to thermal throttling.
Media file playback performance was good too. Via KODI or MPHC we could easily stream over Gigabit LAN very high bit-rate BLU-RAY backup video files. 1080p decoding is properly handled and while the SoC supports 4K acceleration, it only includes up to 8bit ones so your recent 10bit HEVC HDR files are not supported. You will be able to get up to Dolby Digital and DTS soundtracks with no issues.
By actually being a Windows PC, you will experience no problems by maxing out You-Tube, Netflix and any other streaming service at a >1080p resolution.
Via the SATA port, our Samsung 860 QVO 1TB drive performed admirably with read speeds up to 350mb/sec.
Gaming performance should be OK as long as you keep it simple with casual 2D and light 3D titles from Microsoft’s store. It performed superbly as a MAME emulator. Just plug two controllers and you are good to go.
Summary
The XCY X30 MINI PC was a nice and very affordable surprise.
The -better than usual- Intel i3 CPU, the rich connectivity and the quality fanless chassis is not something you easily find with ~140$. With ~110$ more, you can add an 8GB RAM module and an SSD drive and you will end up with a capable MINI PC that will handle your basic daily tasks with ease and low power consumption. Certainly a better choice than the MINI PCs equipped with CELERON and Pentium SoC.
- Banggood offered the unit for an honest review and that is exactly what we did.
- If this review helped you towards making your decision, we would appreciate if you made your order through the following affiliate link(s). This way we will be able to review more products in the future.
- Banggood link (for a short period, you can use the BGXCY4010 discount coupon)