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Building on what was good about the M-Cube WS we reviewed recently, YOYOTech has tried to fit even more processing power into an unfeasibly small package with the M-Cube WS2. Where the M-Cube WS opted for a frequency-enhanced Core i5, the M-Cube WS2 takes a more traditional workstation approach, using an Intel Xeon processor. The Xeon in question is an eight-core E5-2660, for humongous rendering potential.
The M-Cube WS2 has a more conventional workstation specification in other respects, too. There's a solid state disk for operating system and apps, alongside a conventional hard disk for data. The graphics come in the form of the same AMD FirePro W7000 as the MS-Cube WS, and all this is still packed inside a dinky Aerocool Dead Silence DS Cube Case … belying the power of the contents.
YOYOTech M-Cube WS2 Specifications:
- Intel Xeon E5-2660 @ 2.2GHz
- 16GB Corsair DDR3 @ 1333MHz
- ASUS RAMPAGE IV GENE Motherboard
- 240GB Kingston SSDNow SV300S3 SATA III 6Gb/s SSD
- 4TB Seagate Solid State Hybrid Drive SATA III 6Gb/s 7,200rpm HDD
- Samsung DVD Rewriter
- Akasa Baymaster S multi-format card reader
- 4GB GDDR5 AMD FirePro W7000 Graphics
- Enermax Cooler
- Seasonic X-850 80 Plus Gold 850W PSU
- Aerocool Dead Silence DS Cube Case
- Windows 7 64bit
- 3 Year Warranty
Price: £2,949.99 inc VAT & Delivery
The central feature of the YOYOTech M-Cube WS2 is its Intel Xeon E5-2660 processor. This isn't the latest v2, though, which is based on the Ivy Bridge-EP core, but the previous Sandy Bridge-EP.
Both run at 2.2GHz, but the Sandy Bridge-EP version has eight cores rather than the later version's ten. This is still a huge number of cores for a midi-sized workstation. The Xeon E5 supports Hyper-Threading, too, so each core is divided into two virtual ones, giving the system a whopping total of 16 threads for parallel tasks. We've removed the DVD and card reader to allow increase lighting for these internal photos.
The Xeon E5 also supports Turbo Boost, so a single core can hit 3GHz, and all eight cores can run at 2.7GHz. So the E5-2660 doesn't offer the clock speed of the frequency enhanced Core i5 in the M-Cube WS, but it does have twice as many cores.
There's twice as much memory, too. The ASUS RAMPAGE IV GENE supports a maximum of 32GB, and YOYOTech has provided half that in the shape of a pair of 8GB Corsair 1,333MHz DDR3 DIMMs, leaving two slots free. So you could upgrade to the full complement if so desired, although this requires dexterity with the Enermax cooler so close by.
On the downside, this configuration means you aren't getting the benefit from the quad-channel memory controller of the Xeon E5. If you think you can stick with 16GB of memory, four 4GB DIMMs would provide greater bandwidth, or it could be worth specifying the full 32GB from the outset.
It's also worth noting that the ASUS motherboard supports 2400MHz DDR3 memory, so this is an option as well. There are a lot of features here, considering the motherboard's Micro-ATX form factor, including two 16x PCI Express slots, plus a single 8x slot and a 4x slot.
Graphics acceleration is taken care of by an AMD FirePro W7000. This is the entry point for AMD's high-end graphics selection, and is a very cost-effective option.
It sports 1,280 stream processors and 4GB of GDDR5 memory, with 154GB/sec bandwidth. Support is available for DirectX 11.1, OpenGL 4.2 and OpenCL 1.2. We have found NVIDIA's Kepler Quadros to be superior in performance, but the AMD FirePro W7000 still provides a lot of performance for the money. It's also relatively low in power consumption, requiring less than 150W, which is reassuring considering how cramped the chassis is inside.
As we mentioned in our previous M-Cube WS review, the M-Cube WS2's Aerocool Dead Silence DS Cube chassis is pretty exceptional for a workstation. The bright red paneling and side viewing window (although there are other options) are just the beginning.
Space is pretty tight, with the Enermax CPU cooler exceptionally close to the memory, but the interior is very neat. This is also a very light workstation, which is ideal if you do regularly need to move your systems between offices, or are just short of space in your work area.
There are two USB 2.0 and two 3.0 ports on the top, alongside audio connectivity and the power and reset buttons.
The front has space for single 5.25in and 3.5in drives, and our sample came with the usual DVD rewriter and multi-format memory card reader in each of these respectively.
Inside, there's space for one more 2.5in or 3.5in drive, plus a tray for a further two 2.5in drives. The chassis sports a Seasonic 850W X-850 80 Plus Gold PSU, which should be more than adequate for the components.
The storage setup is more what we have come to expect from workstations than the M-Cube WS, too.
There's a 240GB Kingston SSDNow SV300S3 solid state disk taking care of operating system and applications, and a whopping 4TB Seagate Desktop Solid State Hybrid Drive, which partners an 8GB NAND Flash memory cache with its 4TB 7,200 SATA hard disk, for significantly improved performance.
The YOYOTech M-Cube WS2 system is built around an Intel Sandy Bridge-EP Xeon E5-2660 processor. This has eight cores, but YOYOTech keeps it under control with sizeable Enermax cooler. YOYOTech isn't stressing the CPU beyond specification, though.
The Xeon doesn't support the frequency enhancements of the Core i7, so Turbo Boost mode will be the only thing pushing it above its 2.2GHz nominal frequency.
This is an overview of the system that we have discussed earlier in the review. The Xeon E5-2660 Intel Sandy Bridge-EP processor is running at 2.2GHz. The Corsair Memory is actualy running at 1,600MHz in XMP mode with timings of 9-9-9-2T. CPU-Z shows the AMD FirePro W7000 has a 950MHz core and 1,200MHz memory.
GPU-Z shows confirms the 950MHz core and 1,200MHz frequencies for the AMD FirePro W7000.
Software:
PCMark 8
Cinebench R11.5 64 bit
Cinebench R15
SPECviewperf 11
SPECviewpert 12
CrystalDiskMark
SiSoft Sandra
PCMark 8 is the latest version in our series of popular PC benchmarking tools. It is designed to test the performance of all types of PC, from tablets to desktops. With five separate benchmark tests plus battery life testing, PCMark 8 helps you find the devices that offer the perfect combination of efficiency and performance. PCMark 8 is the complete PC benchmark for home and business.
The YOYOTech M-Cube WS2 scores 3,567 points in PC Mark 8, showing decent ability in everyday tasks, although the multiple cores don't provide major benefit here, as can be seen from the comparison with the M-Cube WS.
The SPECgpcSM project group's SPECviewperf 11, released in late June 2010, is totally new graphics performance evaluation software. Among the major changes are a new GUI, fully updated viewsets traced from newer versions of applications, larger models, and advanced OpenGL functionality such as shading and vertex buffer objects (VBOs).
The YOYOTech M-Cube WS2 posts decent scores in SPECviewperf 11. However, the comparison results from the M-Cube WS shows how much modelling benefits from a higher clock speed, even if there are fewer cores.
SPECviewperf 12, released by SPEC's Graphics Performance Characterization group (SPECgpc) on December 18, 2013, is an all-new version of the worldwide standard for measuring graphics performance based on professional applications. SPECgpc members at the time of release include AMD, Dell, Fujitsu, HP, Intel, Lenovo, NEC and NVIDIA.
SPECviewperf 12 measures the 3D graphics performance of systems running under the OpenGL and Direct X application programming interfaces. The benchmark’s test files, called viewsets, represent graphics content and behavior from actual applications.
There is a similar story with SPECviewperf 12, although some of the new applications included in this version are more multi-thread aware, such as Energy-01.
CINEBENCH R11.5 64 Bit is a real-world cross platform test suite that evaluates your computer’s performance capabilities. CINEBENCH is based on MAXON’s award-winning animation software CINEMA 4D, which is used extensively by studios and production houses worldwide for 3D content creation. MAXON software has been used in blockbuster movies such as Spider-Man, Star Wars, The Chronicles of Narnia and many more.
CINEBENCH is the perfect tool to compare CPU and graphics performance across various systems and platforms (Windows and Mac OS X). And best of all: It’s completely free.
Cinebench's CPU rendering test is fully multi-threaded, so the Xeon E5-2660's eight, hyperthreading cores are at an advantage over the frequency-enhanced 4.3GHz Core i5 of the M-Cube WS. But as with SPECviewperf, the OpenGL test prefers the clock speed, so the M-Cube WS is way out in front here.
CINEBENCH 15 is a cross-platform testing suite that measures hardware performance and is the de facto standard benchmarking tool for leading companies and trade journals for conducting real-world hardware performance tests. With the new Release 15, systems with up to 256 threads can be tested.
CINEBENCH is available for both Windows and OS X and is used by almost all hardware manufacturers and trade journals for comparing CPUs and graphics cards.
Results in the latest version of Maxon Cinebench parallel those from the previous version, with the M-Cube WS2's extra cores paying dividends for rendering, but the M-Cube WS's clock speed winning out for Open GL modelling.
SiSoftware Sandra (the System ANalyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant) is an information & diagnostic utility. It should provide most of the information (including undocumented) you need to know about your hardware, software and other devices whether hardware or software.
Sandra is a (girl’s) name of Greek origin that means “defender”, “helper of mankind”. We think that’s quite fitting.
It works along the lines of other Windows utilities, however it tries to go beyond them and show you more of what’s really going on. Giving the user the ability to draw comparisons at both a high and low-level. You can get information about the CPU, chipset, video adapter, ports, printers, sound card, memory, network, Windows internals, AGP, PCI, PCI-X, PCIe (PCI Express), database, USB, USB2, 1394/Firewire, etc.
Native ports for all major operating systems are available:
- Windows XP, 2003/R2, Vista, 7, 2008/R2 (x86)
- Windows XP, 2003/R2, Vista, 7, 2008/R2 (x64)
- Windows 2003/R2, 2008/R2* (IA64)
- Windows Mobile 5.x (ARM CE 5.01)
- Windows Mobile 6.x (ARM CE 5.02)
All major technologies are supported and taken advantage of:
- SMP – Multi-Processor
- MC – Multi-Core
- SMT/HT – Hyper-Threading
- MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE 4.1, SSE 4.2, AVX, FMA – Multi-Media instructions
- GPGPU, DirectX, OpenGL – Graphics
- NUMA – Non-Uniform Memory Access
- AMD64/EM64T/x64 – 64-bit extensions to x86
- IA64 – Intel* Itanium 64-bit
Arithmetic scores are what we would expect for this processor, with a reduced integer but better floating point arithmetic than the MS-Cube WS's Core i5. Memory bandwidth from the Corsair DIMMs is also on par for the dual-channel configuration and frequency.
Crystalmark is a useful benchmark to measure theoretical performance levels of hard drives and SSD’s. We are using V3.0 x64. We use this program to test the onboard Samsung Solid State Drive.
The Kingston SSDNow SV300S3 SSD performs as expected, with superb sequential reads. The Seagate Desktop Solid State Hybrid Disk is still quick, but this 4TB version isn't quite as fast as the 2TB and 1TB editions.
Ambient noise in the room is around 20-25dBa. We measure from a distance of around 1 meter from the closed chassis and 4 foot from the ground to mirror a real world situation.
Why do this? Well this means we can eliminate secondary noise pollution in the test room and concentrate on only the video card. It also brings us slightly closer to industry standards, such as DIN 45635.
KitGuru noise guide
10dBA – Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves
20-25dBA – Whisper
30dBA – High Quality Computer fan
40dBA – A Bubbling Brook, or a Refridgerator
50dBA – Normal Conversation
60dBA – Laughter
70dBA – Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer
80dBA – City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal
90dBA – Motorcycle or Lawnmower
100dBA – MP3 player at maximum output
110dBA – Orchestra
120dBA – Front row rock concert/Jet Engine
130dBA – Threshold of Pain
140dBA – Military Jet takeoff/Gunshot (close range)
160dBA – Instant Perforation of eardrum
The YOYOTech M-Cube WS2 is pretty quiet, even at full load, belying the huge number of processing cores found within.
The M-Cube WS2 is another promising workstation from YOYOTech, but it still contains a few questionable choices.
We would have preferred the ten-core V2 of the Xeon E5-2660, which would only be slightly more expensive. The system performance is also slightly hampered by the use of a dual-channel memory configuration, rather than the quad-channel supported by the processor.
You are also paying a significant premium for the Xeon processor, which is only of benefit when rendering, and even then not by as much as you might expect. With modelling not deriving much from extra cores, and instead preferring faster core clock speeds, the M-Cube WS2 loses out in this respect to its much cheaper M-Cube WS.
Unfortunately, this leaves the M-Cube WS2 in a somewhat limited space. It will render your visualisations more rapidly than the WS, but it would also be possible to purchase two of the latter and still have some change left over, which would give you greater rendering performance with network-aware software.
So if your chosen software doesn't have network rendering, and this is more important than smooth modelling, the M-Cube WS2 could be the compact workstation for you. But otherwise the M-Cube WS or another Intel Core-based workstation would be a cheaper choice.
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Pros:
- Excellent multi-threaded rendering performance
- Decent graphics performance
- Fast, capacious storage
- Compact
Cons:
- Expensive
- Modelling performance behind frequency-enhanced Intel Core workstations
Kitguru says: The YOYOTech M-Cube WS2 is a fast rendering system, but it's expensive.
