Pros: Whisper quiet despite having fan cooling.
Plenty of performance considering the low cost and size.
Mounting kit included in box.

Cons: You're probably going to have to update the BIOS if you plan on using both RAM slots.

Other Thoughts: I needed a small system that I could mount to the wall behind a flat screen TV. Thanks to a combo offer and rebate I was able to assemble this for a decent amount less than a comparable NUC. In fact this Broadwell based system is nearly as low cost as passively cooled Baytrail and Cherrytrail systems which are much less powerful particularly in graphics tasks. Unless you absolutely must have passive cooling I would recommend the performance boost this offers over those kinds of systems.

One annoyance was that the two 4GB sticks of RAM that were included in the Newegg combo were not fully compatible out of the box. I had boot using only 1 stick at first so that I could install a BIOS update. After the update I reinstalled the second stick and it's booted fine ever since.

Occasionally the display out doesn't seem to want to wake up with the rest of the system when it comes out of sleep which means power cycling using the button on the system.

The WiFi reception seemed rather weak, but I only used it for a few days before plugging it into a wired ethernet connection so it's not a concern for me. A Chromecast and Fire Stick both get perfect reception in the exact spot where I have this thing mounted, yet when the Cubi was using WiFi from that location it struggled to maintain a connection with my router and when connected it also struggled to maintain a high enough connection speed to stream YouTube videos in anything higher than 480p. On the wired connection I have no issues and get 90Mbps down on Speedtest.net runs along with 112Mbps downloads from my NAS.

All in all I love the system and I look forward to picking up one more up for another bedroom.

Pros: None that I know of yet...

Cons: Won't work.
Black screen.
Won't boot to bios.

Other Thoughts: I bought this about a week ago, and upon arrival today, I popped in the RAM I bought with it and tried to get it up and running. So far... No good. Spent 6 hours working on it with my laptop open beside me and all I can get is a black screen. Got the BIOS off their website, used the image burner they provide to get it on to a USB drive. Plug in a monitor/mouse/keyboard/BOOT usb and get nothing. And by the way, you're going to need Powerpoint to get any kind of guidance on getting this little thing running. Would a 5 minute instructional video really be that difficult to make? Thought I'd give MSI a chance since I've heard and seen good things. So far I've had nothing but regret. I opened a ticket with them. Hopefully this gets resolved.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Matthew,
Sorry to hear about the issue you reported. Based on the symptom you reported, we suggest you check following steps below since many reasons can cause the situation like this ,
1. Check and make sure that ram is install in slot 1.
2. Check your other major hardware’s (memory, hard drive etc.) to ensure that they are not the cause of the issue.
3. If you need further assistant, please feel free to contact our technical support department directly at our toll free number 888-447-6564 from M to F, 6am to 6pm Pacific standard Time.

Thanks for choosing MSI

Best Regards,
MSI Review Team | usreview@msi.com

Pros: I love this little box. Despite its cons of being a barebones, this thing is a pocket rocket. Hell it runs at 65 watts. I did buy this thing at another store. The current was a DMA so I had to say something.
I put a 120 GB full 2.5 inch PNY SSD as my master drive. Then I am running an 8gb (4gb x 2) Cosair DDR3 PC3-12800's.

Cons: Well the 2.5 inch sata cable is quite hard to put it. Once you got it on there,forget about removing it for any reason. you have to upgrade the bios before even thinking about running at 8gb, so you have to run 4gb on first run. Graphics card does leave a little bit more to be desire, but otherwise great rig.

runs the new counter strike on low settings. I will scale up once windows 10 gets onto this rig.

Pros: None

Cons: Not much to write about. I was excited to receive this and then after installing memory and ssd, the machine would not post. I tried different combinations of ram and hard drive, but nothing worked. DOA! I would not recommend this until this device gets more reviews from big sites. This is what I get for being an early adopter.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,
Based on the symptom you reported, we suggest you checking following steps below since many reasons can cause the situation like this ,
1. Check and make sure power connection are firmly connected.
2. Check your other major hardware’s you have install to system to ensure that they are not the cause of the issue.
3. If you need further assistant, please feel free to contact our technical support department directly at our toll free number 888-447-6564 from M to F, 6am to 6pm Pacific standard Time.

Best Regards,
MSI Review Team | usreview@msi.com