Small and power-efficient computers in the form of NUCs and Compute Sticks have emerged as bright spots in the PC market over the last few years. The Compute Stick form factor is the x86 version of the popular ARM-based HDMI sticks. The first-generation x86 Compute Stick came from Intel and used a Bay Trail-T SoC. At the 2016 CES, Intel introduced a Cherry Trail version, as well as two Skylake Core M-based models. We reviewed the Cherry Trail version back in January, and it is now time for one of the Core M versions to be subject to our mini-PC evaluation routine.

Introduction and Setup Impressions

The Intel Compute Stick we are reviewing today is the Core m3-6Y30 model (STK2M3W64CC) that comes with Windows 10 Home (64-bit) pre-installed, making it ready to roll right out of the box. The specifications of our Intel STK2M3W64CC review configuration are summarized in the table below.

Intel Core m3-6Y30 Compute Stick Specifications
Processor	Intel Core m3-6Y30 Skylake x86, 2C/4T, 900 MHz (up to 2.2 GHz), 14nm, 4MB L2 4.5W TDP (cTDP up to 7W, cTDP down to 3.8W)
Memory	4GB LPDDR3 14-17-17-40 @ 1866 MHz
Graphics	Intel HD Graphics 515
Disk Drive(s)	Kingston eMMC M52564 (64 GB; eMMC 5.0-compatible)
Networking	Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 8260 (2x2 802.11ac - 866 Mbps)
Audio	Capable of 5.1/7.1 digital output with HD audio bitstreaming (HDMI)
Miscellaneous I/O Ports	3x USB 3.0 1x micro-SDXC
Operating System	Windows 10 Home x64
Pricing (As configured)	$390
Full Specifications	Intel STK2M3W64CC Specifications

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The Core m3-6Y30 belongs to the Skylake Core M family. It is meant to target the fanless 2-in-1 market, but, in the Compute Stick, it is actively cooled.

The STK2M3W64CC comes with the OS pre-installed, but, it is suggested to update the drivers that ship with the system. Drivers and BIOS updates are available for download on Intel's website. In addition to the main unit, the other components of the package include a 21.44W (5.2V @ 2.2A Type-C + 2x 5V @ 0.9A USB 3.0 Type-A ports) adapter with a Type-C power delivery port that can also ferry data between the main unit and Type-A ports. The cable is more than 3ft in length. We also get a HDMI extender cable to help use the Compute Stick in recessed or otherwise inaccessible HDMI ports.

The gallery below presents a closer look at the chassis design of the Core m3-6Y30 Compute Stick and the packae contents.

We had a very difficult experience managing our previous mini-PC reviews with just 32 GB of eMMC storage and/or 32-bit versions of Windows pre-installed. Fortunately, the STK2M3W64CC comes with 64GB of eMMC and Windows 10 Home x64 pre-installed. We were able to set up the system with a 20GB internal partition after shrinking the partition on which the OS was installed.

The BIOS of the Core M Compute Stick has a lot of interesting features compared to the ones in the Atom-based units. One of the notable optons is the ability to completely turn off the fan. The default setting is to keep it off till needed, and speed it up based on the thermal load.

We also have a good deal of control over the behavior of the front LED from the BIOS. Bluetooth devices can be authorized in the BIOS to make them available even before the OS is up and running.

In the table below, we have an overview of the various systems that we are comparing the Intel Core m3-6Y30 Compute Stick against. Note that they may not belong to the same market segment. The relevant configuration details of the machines are provided so that readers have an understanding of why some benchmark numbers are skewed for or against the Intel Core m3-6Y30 Compute Stick when we come to those sections.

Comparative PC Configurations
Aspect	Intel Core m3-6Y30 Compute Stick	Intel Core m3-6Y30 Compute StickECS LIVA CoreZotac ZBOX CI320 nanoZotac ZBOX CI540 nanoIntel Bay Trail-T Compute StickIntel Cherry Trail Compute StickVoyo V3
CPU	Intel Core m3-6Y30	Intel Core m3-6Y30
GPU	Intel HD Graphics 515	Intel HD Graphics 515
RAM	4GB LPDDR3 14-17-17-40 @ 1866 MHz	4GB LPDDR3 14-17-17-40 @ 1866 MHz
Storage	Kingston eMMC M52564 (64 GB; eMMC 5.0-compatible)	Kingston eMMC M52564 (64 GB; eMMC 5.0-compatible)
Wi-Fi	Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 8260 (2x2 802.11ac - 866 Mbps)	Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 8260 (2x2 802.11ac - 866 Mbps)
Price (in USD, when built)	$390	$390

Performance Metrics - I

The Intel Core m3-6Y30 Compute Stick was evaluated using our standard test suite for low power desktops / industrial PCs. Not all benchmarks were processed on all the machines due to updates in our testing procedures. Therefore, the list of PCs in each graph might not be the same. In the first section, we will be looking at SYSmark 2014, as well as some of the Futuremark benchmarks.

BAPCo SYSmark 2014

BAPCo's SYSmark 2014 is an application-based benchmark that uses real-world applications to replay usage patterns of business users in the areas of office productivity, media creation and data/financial analysis. Scores are meant to be compared against a reference desktop (HP ProDesk 600 G1 with a Core i3-4130, 4GB RAM and a 500GB hard drive) that scores 1000 in each of the scenarios. A score of, say, 2000, would imply that the system under test is twice as fast as the reference system.

Since SYSmark 2014 was not processed on any of of the PCs in our comparison list, we present the scores obtained in the three iterations of the benchmark above. Obviously, a 7.5W TDP Skylake Core M is no match for a 54W Haswell Core i3. However, it still manages to delivery more than 70% of its performance for business workloads.

Futuremark PCMark 8

PCMark 8 provides various usage scenarios (home, creative and work) and offers ways to benchmark both baseline (CPU-only) as well as OpenCL accelerated (CPU + GPU) performance. We benchmarked select PCs for the OpenCL accelerated performance in all three usage scenarios. These scores are heavily influenced by the CPU in the system. Most of the PCs in our comparison list are equipped with anaemic Atom processors, and the Core m3-6Y30 manages to easily better them in performance despite the form factor limitation.

Miscellaneous Futuremark Benchmarks

3D Rendering - CINEBENCH R15

We have moved on from R11.5 to R15 for 3D rendering evaluation. CINEBENCH R15 provides three benchmark modes - OpenGL, single threaded and multi-threaded. Evaluation of select PCs in all three modes provided us the following results.

Performance Metrics - II

In this section, we mainly look at benchmark modes in programs used on a day-to-day basis, i.e, application performance and not synthetic workloads.

x264 Benchmark

First off, we have some video encoding benchmarks courtesy of x264 HD Benchmark v5.0. This is simply a test of CPU performance. The Core m3-6Y30 in the Compute Stick form factor is given a bit of a challenge by the Core i5-4210Y in the Zotac ZBOX CI540 nano, a NUC-form factor machine.

7-Zip

7-Zip is a very effective and efficient compression program, often beating out OpenCL accelerated commercial programs in benchmarks even while using just the CPU power. 7-Zip has a benchmarking program that provides tons of details regarding the underlying CPU's efficiency. In this subsection, we are interested in the compression and decompression MIPS ratings when utilizing all the available threads.

In these multi-threaded benchmarks, the quad-core processors (4C/4T) are able to score better than the 2C/4T configuration of the Core m3-6Y30.

TrueCrypt

As businesses (and even home consumers) become more security conscious, the importance of encryption can't be overstated. The Core m3-6Y30 supports the AES-NI instruction for accelerating the encryption and decryption processes. TrueCrypt, a popular open-source disk encryption program can take advantage of the AES-NI capabilities. The TrueCrypt internal benchmark provides some interesting cryptography-related numbers to ponder. In the graph below, we can get an idea of how fast a TrueCrypt volume would behave in the Intel Core m3-6Y30 Compute Stick and how it would compare with other select PCs. This is a purely CPU feature / clock speed based test.

Agisoft Photoscan

Agisoft PhotoScan is a commercial program that converts 2D images into 3D point maps, meshes and textures. The program designers sent us a command line version in order to evaluate the efficiency of various systems that go under our review scanner. The command line version has two benchmark modes, one using the CPU and the other using both the CPU and GPU (via OpenCL). The benchmark takes around 50 photographs and does four stages of computation:

• Stage 1: Align Photographs
• Stage 2: Build Point Cloud (capable of OpenCL acceleration)
• Stage 3: Build Mesh
• Stage 4: Build Textures

We record the time taken for each stage. Since various elements of the software are single threaded, others multithreaded, and some use GPUs, it is interesting to record the effects of CPU generations, speeds, number of cores, DRAM parameters and the GPU using this software.

Dolphin Emulator

Wrapping up our application benchmark numbers is the Dolphin Emulator benchmark mode results. This is again a test of the CPU capabilities, and the pure single-threaed performance advantage of the Core m3-6Y30 is evident here.

Networking and Storage Performance

Networking and storage are two major aspects which influence our experience with any computing system. This section presents results from our evaluation of these aspects in the Intel Core m3-6Y30 Compute Stick. Despite the absence of a bonafide SSD, we had no trouble in runnng the PCMark 8 storage bench where certain common workloads such as loading games and document processing are replayed on the target drive. Results are presented in two forms, one being a benchmark number and the other, a bandwidth figure. We ran the PCMark 8 storage bench on selected PCs and the results are presented below.

The eMMC is obviously not going to be better than the bonafide SSDs in the other PCs, but, given the form factor and the price, it is good that Intel at least put in a good-quality eMMC module in the system. CrystalDiskMark provides some numbers to give further insight into the performance of the storage subsystem.

On the networking side, we restricted ourselves to the evaluation of the WLAN component. Our standard test router is the Netgear R7000 Nighthawk configured with both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz networks. The router is placed approximately 20 ft. away, separated by a drywall (as in a typical US building). A wired client (Zotac ID89-Plus) is connected to the R7000 and serves as one endpoint for iperf evaluation. The PC under test is made to connect to either the 5 GHz (preferred) or 2.4 GHz SSID and iperf tests are conducted for both TCP and UDP transfers. It is ensured that the PC under test is the only wireless client for the Netgear R7000. We evaluate total throughput for up to 32 simultaneous TCP connections using iperf and present the highest number in the graph below.

In the UDP case, we try to transfer data at the highest rate possible for which we get less than 1% packet loss.

The Intel AC8260 solution is a premium 802.11ac client solution, and it is apt that the Core M Compute Stick adopts it. The WLAN subsystem (including antenna placement) design enables the Core m3-6Y30 Compute Stick to top our Wi-Fi performance charts when compared against systems with a similar platform / form-factor.

HTPC Credentials

The Core m3-6Y30 Compute Stick is definitely a better candidate for home-theater duties compared to the previous ones in the family. The primary reason is that the BIOS allows the fan to be completely turned off. Video decoding is hardly taxing for the system - we even saw the power consumption with the desktop at idle being sometimes more than the power consumption while playing Netflix using the Windows 10 Store app. The second reason is the availability of full HD audio bitstreaming (including DTS-HD MA and Dolby TrueHD), something that was missing in both the Bay Trail-T and Cherry Trail Compute Sticks.

Refresh Rate Accurancy

Starting with Haswell, Intel, AMD and NVIDIA have been on par with respect to display refresh rate accuracy. The most important refresh rate for videophiles is obviously 23.976 Hz (the 23 Hz setting). As expected, the Intel Core m3-6Y30 Compute Stick has no trouble with refreshing the display appropriately in this setting.

The gallery below presents some of the other refresh rates that we tested out. The first statistic in madVR's OSD indicates the display refresh rate.

Network Streaming Efficiency

Evaluation of OTT playback efficiency was done by playing back our standard YouTube test stream and five minutes from our standard Netflix test title. Using HTML5, the YouTube stream plays back a 1080p H.264 encoding. Since YouTube now defaults to HTML5 for video playback, we have stopped evaluating Adobe Flash acceleration. Note that only NVIDIA exposes GPU and VPU loads separately. Both Intel and AMD bundle the decoder load along with the GPU load. The following two graphs show the power consumption at the wall for playback of the HTML5 stream in Mozilla Firefox (v 47.0).

GPU load was around 16.26% for the YouTube HTML5 stream and 0.014% for the steady state 6 Mbps Netflix streaming case.

Netflix streaming evaluation was done using the Windows 10 Netflix app. Manual stream selection is available (Ctrl-Alt-Shift-S) and debug information / statistics can also be viewed (Ctrl-Alt-Shift-D). Statistics collected for the YouTube streaming experiment were also collected here.

Decoding and Rendering Benchmarks

In order to evaluate local file playback, we concentrate on EVR-CP and Kodi. We already know that EVR works quite well even with the Intel IGP for our test streams. The decoder used was LAV Filters bundled with MPC-HC v1.7.7.

In our earlier reviews, we focused on presenting the GPU loading and power consumption at the wall in a table (with problematic streams in bold). Starting with the Broadwell NUC review, we decided to represent the GPU load and power consumption in a graph with dual Y-axes. Nine different test streams of 90 seconds each were played back with a gap of 30 seconds between each of them. The characteristics of each stream are annotated at the bottom of the graph. Note that the GPU usage is graphed in red and needs to be considered against the left axis, while the at-wall power consumption is graphed in green and needs to be considered against the right axis.

Frame drops are evident whenever the GPU load consistently stays above the 85 - 90% mark. We find that MPC-HC with DXVA2 Native decoding can load up the GPU to more than 40%, while Kodi keeps everything around 20% at the maximum.

The Compute Stick has no trouble in playing back any of our test streams.

Moving on to the codec support, the Intel HD Graphics 515 is a known quantity with respect to the scope of supported hardware accelerated codecs. DXVA Checker serves as a confirmation.

Power Consumption and Thermal Performance

The power consumption at the wall was measured with a 1080p display being driven through the HDMI port. In the graphs below, we compare the idle and load power of the Intel Core m3-6Y30 Compute Stick with other low power PCs evaluated before. For load power consumption, we ran Furmark 1.15.0 and Prime95 v28.7 together.

Compared to the Bay Trail and Cherry Trail Compute Sticks, the Core M one has higher idle and load power consumption numbers. Given the upgraded Wi-Fi and the presence of a Core-series CPU, the idle number can probably be justified. The load numbers point to the Core m3-6Y30 being operated in the cTDP-up mode.

Our thermal stress routine starts with the system at idle, followed by 30 minutes of pure CPU loading. This is followed by another 30 minutes of both CPU and GPU being loaded simultaneously. After this, the CPU load gets removed, allowing the GPU to be loaded alone for another 30 minutes. The various clocks in the system as well as the temperatures within the unit are presented below.

According to the official specifications, the junction temperature of the Core m3-6Y30 is 100C. The fan is able to keep it well below that temperature. The system essentially seems limited by the package power. We find that it is only able to sustain 6W for extended time durations, though we do see it spike up higher in the beginning.

Another important aspect to keep note of while evaluating PCs with such a small form factor is the chassis temperature. Using the Android version of the FLIR One thermal imager, we observed the chassis temperature after the CPU package temperature reached the steady state value in the above graph.

We have additional thermal images in the gallery below.

On the whole, the thermals don't give us much cause for concern, though the idling temperature of around 60C for the CPU package seems a little bit too high. It is possible that altering the the default BIOS options may help in improving this aspect.

Miscellaneous Aspects and Concluding Remarks

Intel has also been putting some effort on the software side for the Compute Stick platform. One of the main problems with the platform is the limited availability of USB ports. This is somewhat alleviated in the Core M version, thanks to the two USB 3.0 ports in the power adapter. In certain situations (such as the 'entertainment' use-case), the consumer often has a second screen available (either a tablet or a smartphone). Intel has a free Android / iOS app - the Intel Remote Keyboard - to take advantage of the second screen.

The host application comes pre-installed on the Compute Stick and is active at startup as a service. Therefore, one can use it to even enter credentials for system login. It allows the second screen keyboard to act as the primary keyboard for the Compute Stick and the screen itself to act as a trackpad for the mouse pointer on the Compute Stick's display. In our evaluation, the app worked well. Our only wish is for the in-built keyboard in the app to have a 'Tab' key, and the keyboard to work properly when using a Powershell or Command Prompt window.

Moving on to the business end of the review, we complained in our previous Compute Stick reviews that 32GB of primary storage does not cut it on any computing device other than a tablet or smartphone. Fortunately, the Core m3-6Y30 Compute Stick solves that problem. The two USB 3.0 ports on the power adapter are very welcome. The Wi-Fi solution (2x2 AC8260 802.11ac PCIe WLAN) is also top-notch. The system is also able to bitstream HD audio for HTPC applications. BIOS options t have fine-grained control over the fans is also a nice aspect. Performance-wise, it is hard to find faults when keeping the form factor in mind.

The only complaint we have is the $390 price point. Even though that price includes the OS license, we find it difficult to recommend it in the home PC market - the Cherry Trail Compute Stick and the other sub-$150 Compute Sticks look to be a better option.

However, the SMB / enterprise market might find the Core M Compute Sticks more to their liking. Price is not such a huge deterrent in that market. The availability of vPro features (in the Core m5 model) and TPM (trusted platform module) shows that Intel intends these systems to be primarily adopted in that market segment.

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