Industrial PCs are meant for 24x7 deployment in a wide range of environments. This brings in a host of requirements that are often disregarded by traditional consumer PCs - wide operating temperature range, ruggedness, regulatory requirements, support for specific I/O types, etc. Most industrial PCs are passively cooled, with the absence of moving parts contributing to better reliability. In certain cases, processing power requirements and space constraints make it necessary to include active cooling.

Cincoze is a provider of long life-cycle computing systems for use in demanding industrial and embedded applications. In the North American market, their systems are sold by OnLogic. Rugged embedded fanless PCs make up one of their leading product lines, with the DS series being the flagship. The DS-1300 series based on Intel's Comet Lake offerings are the latest in this family.

The DS-1300 series comes in three flavors with varying support for add-on cards. The choice of processor and add-in cards are factors influencing the choice of active or passive cooling for the system. The review below provides a detailed look into the features and performance profile of the Cincoze DS-1302 - the DS-1300 series member equipped with a dual-slot NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 and active cooling.

Introduction and Product Impressions

Cincoze's DS-1300 series of rugged fanless PCs target the industrial PC market, where reliability and hardiness are key requirements along with long component life cycles and ease of servicing. While the series of systems is primarily fanless, the design can accommodate external fans for cooling the CPU (when TDP is more than 35W). Internal fans for add-in cards such as GPUs are also supported.

Processors meant for the embedded market make it to end customers much later than their consumer counterparts. Cincoze's Comet Lake offering (DS-1300 series) made it to the market late last year. Based on the Intel W480E chipset, these systems come in three varieties - the vanilla DS-1300 doesn't include any PCIe add-on cards support. The DS-1301 includes support for a single PCIe x16 add-in card, while the DS-1302 supports two add-in cards (or, one dual slot add-in card) in either PCIe x16 + PCIe x1 or PCIe x8 + PCIe x8 configurations.

The Cincoze DS-1300 Series - DS-1300, DS-1301, and DS-1302 (from Top to Bottom)

The DS-1300 series can also be customized with CMI (combined multiple I/O) modules based on deployment requirements. Typical CMI modules include ones with quad RJ-45 GbE LAN ports, dual RJ-45 10GBASE-T ports, quad M12 GbE LAN ports, various combinations of serial ports and digital I/Os, etc.

The DS-1302 review sample provided by Cincoze included an Intel Xeon W-1270E octa-core processor, 64GB of DDR4 SODIMMs, a 512GB M.2 2280 NVMe SSD, a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 add-in card, a CMI-10GLAN03 dual 10GBASE-T module, and a CMI-DIO02 8-input / 8-output digital I/O module pre-installed. Since the system expects DC power input (9-48V) via a 3-pin terminal block, Cincoze also shipped across a Mean Well SDR-480-24 480W external PSU with the appropriate wiring.

The DS-1302 review sample included a 80W TDP processor, a FAN-EX101 external fan compatible with the FAN terminal block of the system was also pre-mounted, as shown in the picture above. The full specifications of the review sample are provided below.

Cincoze DS-1302 Specifications (as tested)
Processor	Intel Xeon W-1270E Comet Lake 8C/16T, 3.4 - 4.8 GHz Intel 14nm, 16 MB L2, 80 W
Memory	Cervoz CIR-S4SUSA3232G DDR4-3200 SODIMM 21-21-21-47 @ 2933 MHz 2x 32 GB
Graphics	Intel UHD Graphics 630
Disk Drive(s)	Cervoz Industrial Embedded Module CIE M8 T405 512GB (512 GB; M.2 Type 2280 NVMe 1.3;) (TLC NAND; Silicon Motion SM2263 Controller)
Networking	2 × GbE port (Intel I219-LM and Intel I210AT) 2 × 10GbE port (Intel X550)
Audio	3.5mm speaker and microphone jacks (Realtek ALC888) Capable of 5.1/7.1 digital output with HD audio bitstreaming (HDMI / DP)
Video	1x HDMI 1.4b (4Kp30) + 1x Display Port 1.2 (4Kp60) (front, from IGP) 1x Display Port 1.2 (4Kp60) (rear, from IGP) 1x HDMI 2.0a (4Kp60) + 1x DP 1.4a (8Kp120 with DSC 1.2 support) + DL-DVI-D (from GeForce GTX 1650)
Miscellaneous I/O Ports	2x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A (front) 4x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A (rear) 2x USB 2.0 Type-A (rear) PS/2 port 2x RS232 COM ports
Operating System	Evaluated with Windows 11 Enterprise x64 22000.526
Pricing	$3400+
Full Specifications	Cincoze DS-1302 Specifications

The pricing mentioned in the table above is just the lower bound based on publicly available information. Interested customers can reach out to Cincoze for custom quotes based on their specific requirements.

The Cincoze DS-1302 stands out from previously the industrial PCs reviewed previously by us - such as the OnLogic Helix HX500 and the Shuttle and Habey Kaby Lake units. While those systems were passively cooled and came with sub-35W TDP processors, the Cincoze DS-1302 is actively cooled, and includes an internal fan to keep the temperature of the discrete GPU reasonable. Additionally, the system makes use of multiple custom expansion cards to provide a wide range of I/Os catering to various deployment requirements. The closest we have seen in fanless industrial units are Compulab's FACET cards that we reviewed back in 2016.

The chassis is made of extruded aluminum and is quite massive, with the dGPU-less version coming in at 5.4 Kg. With dimensions of 227mm x 261mm x 128mm, the system is quite hefty compared to the other industrial PCs covered earlier.

Yet another interesting aspect of the Cincoze DS-1300 series is the attention paid to long life-cycle and easier servicing in the field. For example, even the CMOS battery is replaceable by just taking out the front panel, as shown in the gallery below. The pictures in the gallery are from the product manual, and a some of the parts shown in the pictures (such as the riser card for the GPU mounting) are different from the one used in the review sample.

The system also comes with a host of regulatory and ruggedness certificates - MIL-STD-810G for shock and vibration, IEC/EN 62368-1 for safety, ICES-003 Class A for EMC and EN50121-3-2 for usage in railway installations. Overall, this is a truly flexible industrial PC which can be configured and used in either passively-cooled or actively-cooled mode depending on the processing power required.

Setup Notes and Platform Analysis

Our review sample of the Cincoze DS-1302 came with all necessary components pre-installed - we only had to load up the OS to start our evaluation process. Prior to that, we took some time to look into the BIOS interface. It must be noted that the Xeon processor is vPro-enabled, and the Intel Management Engine BIOS Extensions can be activated to set up AMT for remote management. The main BIOS interface is a vanilla American Megatrends one. It has plenty of configuration options, given the large number of internal peripherals slots and overall flexibility. The video below presents the entire gamut of available options.

The overall high-speed I/O distribution relative to the CPU and the PCH is brought out in the diagram below.

An interesting point here is the Intel X550 CMI board that apparently links to the host via a PCIe 3.0 x1 interface according to the I/O distribution. This would make the LAN ports support a maximum of 1GBps (not saturating even a single 10GbE link). We make it a point to always evaluate systems using the default BIOS configuration. It turned out that the BTB_FH2 mode selection entry in the PCH-IO configuration had to be manually updated to 1x4 instead of 4x1 (shown at timestamp 02:49 in the BIOS video). After the update, the CMI card reportedly a x4 uplink.

In today's review, we compare the Cincoze DS-1302 and the OnLogic Helix HX500. Since we recently refreshed our systems benchmark suite, the number of PCs that have been put through the paces and belonging to similar categories is minimal. Though both systems use a 8C/16T Comet Lake CPU, they are chalk and cheese otherwise in terms of graphics capabilities, cooling mechanisms, storage, etc.

Comparative PC Configurations
Aspect	Cincoze DS-1302	OnLogic Helix HX500
CPU	Intel Xeon W-1270E	Intel Core i7-10700T
GPU	Intel UHD Graphics 630 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650	Intel UHD 630
RAM	Cervoz CIR-S4SUSA3232G DDR4-3200 SODIMM 21-21-21-47 @ 2933 MHz 2x 32 GB	InnoDisk M4S0-AGS1O5IK DDR4-2666 SODIMM 19-19-19-43 @ 2666 MHz 2x16 GB
Storage	Cervoz Industrial Embedded Module CIE M8 T405 512GB (512 GB; M.2 Type 2280 NVMe 1.3;) (TLC NAND; Silicon Motion SM2263 Controller)	Transcend TS256GMTS800 (256 GB; M.2 Type 2280 SATA III; MLC NAND)
Price (in USD, when built)	$3400+	$1694

The next few sections will deal with comparative benchmarks for the above two systems.

System Performance : UL and BAPCo Benchmarks

Our updated test suite for Windows 11-based systems carries over some of the standard benchmarks we have been using over the last several years, including UL's PCMark and BAPCo's SYSmark. Starting this year, we are also including BAPCo's CrossMark multi-platform benchmarking tool.

UL Benchmark: PCMark 10

PCMark is a full-system benchmark which highlights CPU performance, but also includes the GPU, memory, and storage as factors in the outcome depending on the test being performed.

UL PCMark 10 Benchmarks (Performance Scores - Higher is Better)
	Cincoze DS-1302	OnLogic Helix HX500
Digital Content Creation	7493	3839
Gaming	7633	1172
Productivity	7587	6609
Essentials	9409	8683
Overall	6234	3126

The presence of a discrete GPU and a higher TDP processor makes all the difference - with the Cincoze DS-1302 emerging on top (albeit at the cost of active cooling and a a bigger physical footprint compared to the fanless OnLogic Helix HX500).

BAPCo SYSmark 25

BAPCo's SYSmark 25 replays traditional business workloads in a tightly controlled environment for consistent reproducibility. Energy measurement is also done to determine efficiency of the PC under test.

BAPCo SYSmark 25 Benchmarks (Performance Scores - Higher is Better) (Energy Consumption in Wh - Lower is Better)
	Cincoze DS-1302	OnLogic Helix HX500
Productivity	1388 (37.92 Wh)	1225 (27.51 Wh)
Creativity	1619 (35.03 Wh)	1410 (26.38 Wh)
Responsiveness	977	914
Overall	1410 (72.95 Wh)	1248 (53.88 Wh)

The Cincoze DS-1302 is around 13% better for business workloads compared to the OnLogic Helix HX500, but consumes 35% extra energy for the same tasks - given the presence of a discrete GPU and a 80W TDP processor, this is to be expected.

BAPCo CrossMark 1.0.1.86

BAPCo's CrossMark aims to simplify benchmark processing while still delivering scores that roughly tally with SYSmark. The main advantage is the cross-platform nature of the tool - allowing it to be run on smartphones and tablets as well.

BAPCo CrossMark 1.0.1.86 Benchmark (Performance Scores - Higher is Better)
	Cincoze DS-1302	OnLogic Helix HX500
Productivity	1341	1081
Creativity	1528	1308
Responsiveness	1096	875
Overall	1378	1138

The relative performance seen in SYSmark 25 translate to CrossMark also, as expected. The responsiveness ratings vary significantly due to the usage of a SATA SSD in the HX500 compared to a NVMe SSD in the Cincoze DS-1302.

System Performance : Miscellaneous Workloads

Standardized benchmarks such as UL's PCMark 10 and BAPCo's SYSmark take a holistic view of the system and process a wide range of workloads to arrive at a single score. Some systems are required to excel at specific tasks - so it is often helpful to see how a computer performs in specific scenarios such as rendering, transcoding, JavaScript execution (web browsing), etc. This section presents focused benchmark numbers for specific application scenarios.

Rendering: Cinebench R23

The Cinebench rendering benchmark can operate in two modes - single-threaded and multi-threaded.

Cinebench R23 Benchmarks (Performance Scores - Higher is Better)
	Cincoze DS-1302	OnLogic Helix HX500
Single Thread	1284.44	974.35
Multiple Threads	9650.49	5412.78

Both Comet Lake systems have the same number of cores. However, the DS-1302's higher TDP allows for faster sustained clocks, delivering a hefty performance boost for workloads involving algorithms used in 3D rendering.

Transcoding: Handbrake 1.5.1

Handbrake is one of the most user-friendly open source transcoding front-ends in the market. It allows users to opt for either software-based higher quality processing or hardware-based fast processing in their transcoding jobs. Our new test suite uses the 'Tears of Steel' 4K AVC video as input and transcodes it with a quality setting of 19 to create a 720p AVC stream and a 1080p HEVC stream.

Handbrake 1.5.1 Transcoding Benchmarks (Transcoding FPS - Higher is Better)
	Cincoze DS-1302	OnLogic Helix HX500
Software (4K AVC to 720p AVC)	71.04 (x264)	41.03 (x264)
Hardware (4K AVC to 720p AVC)	98.20 (nvenc_h264)	67.25 (qsv_h264)
Software (4K AVC to 1080p HEVC)	19.40 (x265_10bit)	11.30 (x265_10bit)
Hardware (4K AVC to 1080p HEVC)	84.30 (nvenc_h265)	53.06 (qsv_h265_10bit)

Hardware transcoding for HEVC is a lot faster than software (when compared to AVC in the same modes). Comparison between the hardware encoders is not ideal here because of the usage of QuickSync in the OnLogic HX500 and NVENC in the Cincoze DS-1302. While QSV provides 10b encode support for HEVC, that capability is not exposed in the GeForce GTX 1650 / Handbrake 1.5.1 combination.

Archiving: 7-Zip 21.7

The 7-Zip benchmark is carried over from our previous test suite with an update to the latest version of the open source compression / decompression software.

7-Zip 21.7 Benchmarks (LZMA:x5:MT2 Algorithm Processing Rate in MBps - Higher is Better)
	Cincoze DS-1302	OnLogic Helix HX500
Compression	55.62	39.81
Decompression	756.54	509.32

The higher sustained clock rates in the Cincoze DS-1302 enable it to easily best the fanless HX500 despite the same number of cores in both systems.

Web Browsing: JetStream, Speedometer, and Principled Technologies WebXPRT4

Web browser-based workloads have emerged as a major component of the typical home and business PC usage scenarios. We are carrying over the browser-focused benchmarks from the WebKit developers used in our notebook reviews. Hosted at BrowserBench, JetStream 2.0 benchmarks JavaScript and WebAssembly performance, while Speedometer measures web application responsiveness. From a real-life workload perspective, we also process WebXPRT4 from Principled Technologies. WebXPRT4 benchmarks the performance of some popular JavaScript libraries that are widely used in websites.

CINCOZE-DS1300 Browser Bench
	Speedometer 2.0	JetStream 2.0	WebXPRT4
Microsoft Edge (90.0.818.66)	141.2 ± 0.76	161.339	158 ± 5
Google Chrome (99.0.4844.51)	180 ± 4.2	187.952	167 ± 4
Mozilla Firefox (98.0)	134 ± 2.4	111.24	167 ± 3

 

OnLogic Helix HX500 Browser Bench
	Speedometer 2.0	JetStream 2.0	WebXPRT4
Microsoft Edge (90.0.818.66)	152 ± 2.5	154.434	162 ± 3
Google Chrome (99.0.4844.51)	161 ± 2.4	156.485	163 ± 3
Mozilla Firefox (98.0)	116 ± 1.3	94.825	168 ± 3

 

The higher TDP CPU in the Cincoze DS-1302 helps it in the JavaScript benchmarks. However, for real-world workloads in Principled Technologies WebXPRT4, the performance of the fanless OnLogic HX500 is very similar to the Cincoze unit across all three browsers.

Application Startup: GIMP 2.10.30

A new addition to our systems test suite is AppTimer - a benchmark that loads up a program and determines how long it takes for it to accept user inputs. We use GIMP 2.10.30 with a 50MB multi-layered xcf file as input. What we test here is the first run as well as the cached run - normally on the first time a user loads the GIMP package from a fresh install, the system has to configure a few dozen files that remain optimized on subsequent opening. For our test we delete those configured optimized files in order to force a ‘fresh load’ every second time the software is run. As it turns out, GIMP does optimizations for every CPU thread in the system, which requires that higher thread-count processors take a lot longer to run. So the test runs quick on systems with fewer threads, however fast cores are also needed.

AppTimer: GIMP 2.10.30 Startup (Time in Seconds - Lower is Better)
	Cincoze DS-1302	OnLogic Helix HX500
Cold Start	8.62	9.79
Cached Start	4.4	4.98

Both systems have the same number of cores, and the loading time is small enough that clock rates for both systems are bound to be approximately the same throughout the testing. However, the SATA SSD in the HX500 (compared to the NVMe drive in the DS-1302) might be a contributing factor to the latter's slight advantage.

GPU Performance

GPUs in industrial PCs are more likely to be used for machine-learning tasks. GPU performance evaluation typically involves gaming workloads, which we will present in this section. However, given the target market, we will first look at the GPU compute performance (that also includes caffe as part of its workload set). Prior to that, a look at the capabilities of the GPU in the Cincoze DS-1302 is warranted.

The GTX 1650 inside the Cincoze DS-1302 is a Zotac card based on the TU117 Turing GPU. It is equipped with 4GB of GDDR6, and has all computing technologies other than ray tracing support.

GPU Compute Performance

All workloads in the SPECworkstation 3.1 benchmark were processed in 1080p resolution (system display running at 4Kp60). Scores are reported in the form of a SPEC ratio, with the performance of a HP Z240 tower system (using an Intel Xeon E3-1240 v5 / AMD Radeon Pro WX3100 GPU) in the denominator.

SPECworkstation 3.1.0 - GPU Compute (SPEC Ratio - Higher is Better)
	Cincoze DS-1302	OnLogic Helix HX500
LuxRender	1.74	0.46
caffe	2.14	N/A
fah	1.86	N/A
Overall	1.91	N/A

LuxRender uses LuxMark, a benchmark based on the new LuxCore physically based renderer, to render a chrome sphere resting on a grid of numbers in a beach scene. It supports heterogenous compute, utilizing both the CPU and GPU in the system. Caffe is a deep-learning framework benchmark, while the Folding@Home (fah) benchmark simulates protein folding and other types of molecular dynamics.

The presence of a discrete GPU enables the Cincoze DS-1302 to complete all the components successfully, with a significant performance uplift over the reference system. The HX500, with its iGPU, was not so lucky - only the LuxRender tests completed successfully.

SPECviewperf 2020.3

The SPECviewperf 2020.3 benchmark was processed with both official resolutions - 2K and 4K. These benchmarks are a measure of OpenGL performance. These tests do not run well on integrated GPUs - so, only results from the Cincoze DS-1302 are presented here.

SPECviewperf 2020.3 (Composite Scores - Higher is Better)
	2K (1900 x 1060)	4K (3800 x 2120)
catia-06	24.5	10.28
solidworks-07	93.73	22.69
medical-03	14.21	4.61
snx-04	11.17	7.86
3dsmax-07	47.2	24.49
creo-03	52.28	35.47
energy-03	7.22	4.23
maya-06	162.34	70.03

The SPECviewperf 2020 results site does have a number of systems that can be compared against the scores in the table above.

GFXBench

The DirectX 12-based GFXBench tests from Kishonti are cross-platform, and available all the way down to smartphones, so it is not too difficult for discrete GPUs and modern integrated GPUs. We processed the offscreen versions of the 'Aztec Ruins' benchmark.

GFXBench 'Aztec Ruins' Offscreen Benchmark (Frame Rate (fps) - Higher is Better)
	Cincoze DS-1302	OnLogic Helix HX500
Normal (1080p)	243.65	39.32
High (1440p)	90.25	14.42

There is obviously a significant difference in the dGPU and iGPU performance for the 'Aztec Ruins' DX12 benchmark.

UL 3DMark

Four different workload sets were processed in 3DMark - Fire Strike, Time Spy, Night Raid, and Wild Life.

UL 3DMark Benchmarks (Performance Scores - Higher is Better)
	Cincoze DS-1302	OnLogic Helix HX500
Fire Strike Extreme	4283	672
Fire Strike Ultra	1888	346
Time Spy Performance	3861	548
Time Spy Extreme	1762	243
Night Raid Performance	34250	6923
Wild Life Performance	20866	3444
Wild Life Extreme	6925	997

As expected, the discrete GPU-equipped Cincoze DS-1302 outscores the HX500 with its integrated GPU in the 3DMark workloads.

Power Consumption and Thermal Characteristics

The power consumption at the wall was measured with a 4K display being driven through the HDMI port of the dGPU. In the table below, we compare the various power consumption numbers of the Cincoze DS-1302 and the OnLogic Helix HX500. For load power consumption, we ran the AIDA64 System Stability Test with various stress components, as well as our custom stress test with Prime95 / Furmark, and noted the peak, as well as maximum sustained power consumption at the wall.

At-Wall Power Consumption (Lower is Better)
	Cincoze DS-1302	OnLogic Helix HX500
Peak Load	220.57 W	137.92 W
Sustained Load	203 W	63 W
Idle	38.20 W	15.57 W

The numbers are consistent with the TDP and suggested PL1 / PL2 values for the processors in both systems, and do not come as any surprise.

Our first thermal stress routine starts with the system at idle, followed by four stages of different system loading profiles using the AIDA64 System Stability Test (each of 30 minutes duration). In the first stage, we stress the CPU, caches and RAM. In the second stage, we add the GPU to the above list. In the third stage, we stress the GPU standalone. In the final stage, we stress all the system components (including the disks). Beyond this, we leave the unit idle in order to determine how quickly the various temperatures in the system can come back to normal idling range. Traditionally, this test used to record the clock frequencies - however, with the increasing number of cores in modern processors and fine-grained clock control, frequency information makes the graphs cluttered and doesn't contribute much to understanding the thermal performance of the system. The focus is now on the power consumption and temperature profiles to determine if throttling is in play.

The AIDA64 SST workloads place the sustained at-wall load power consumption around 180W for the system. The CPU occasionally spikes up to around 150W by itself, but maintains its 80W package power consumption throughout the test whenever it is kept busy. The GeForce GTX 1650 is a 75W GPU and that is evident in the power consumption graph. On the temperatures side, AIDA64 SST doesn't appear to be much of a challenge for the thermal solution. The internal fan's RPM tops out around 2500 RPM and the massive heat sink of a chassis and the fan on top keeps the CPU and GPU below 90C.

The second thermal stress routine is our custom stress test with Prime95 and Furmark. The Prime95 stress test is allowed to run for 30 minutes before the Furmark load is added. After 30 minutes of simultaneous Prime95 and Furmark, the Prime95 process is terminated and Furmark is allowed free run for another 30 minutes. The system is allowed to idle after being subject to this 90-minute stress routine. The parameters recorded in the course of the AIDA64 SST are also recorded here.

The custom stress test manages to stress the system a lot more - while the CPU manages to keep itself relatively cool in the presence of the Prime95 power virus, the Furmark test makes the GPU toasty - around 95C. Cramming a discrete GPU (despite its relatively low 75W TDP) in a chassis with airflow dictated by a small fan does have some shortcomings - though it is not clear if normal GPU workloads can stress the GPU as extensively as Furmark's stress test. We did see the GPU temperature remaining under 90C during the course of the AIDA64 system stability test.

Miscellaneous Aspects and Concluding Remarks

Networking and storage are aspects that may be of vital importance in specific industrial PC use-cases. The Cincoze DS-1302 has an easily accessible SIM card slot and appropriate support on the board for 4G LTE mini-PCIe cards. Support for CMI modules mean that specific project requirements can always be added later on by the end-user - be it 10GBASE-T support or non-RJ45 LAN support (such as the M12 four-pin plug connector popular in industrial installations). From a management perspective, the system configuration that we reviewed comes with vPro enabled - AMT and native dual LAN support allows out-of-band management with a dedicated LAN port, if necessary.

On the storage side, some applications require wide-temperature range and/or high endurance SSDs. For example, the Helix HX500 that we reviewed last year came with a Transcend M.2 SATA SSD - no match for the performance provided by NVMe SSDs such as the Silicon Motion SM2263-equipped Cervoz M8 T405 in the Cincoze DS-1302 sample. However, the drop in performance is compensated by the MLC NAND - providing much higher endurance compared to the TLC-equipped NVMe SSD. From a benchmarking perspective, we provide results from the wpcStorage test of SPECworkstation 3.1. This benchmark replays access traces from various programs used in different verticals and compares the score against the one obtained with a 2017 SanDisk 512GB NVMe SSD in the SPECworkstation 3.1 reference system.

SPECworkstation 3.1.0 - wpcStorage (SPEC Ratio - Higher is Better)
Workloads Category	Cincoze DS-1302	OnLogic Helix HX500
Product Development	2.31	2.23
Life Sciences	1.03	0.70
General Operations	1.07	0.98
Energy	2.0	1.04
Media and Entertainment	1.18	1.69
Overall Subsystem Score	1.33	1.31

The table above presents results on the basis of different verticals, as grouped by SPECworkstation 3.1. The storage workload consists of 60 subtests. Access traces from CFD solvers and programs such as Catia, Creo, and Soidworks come under 'Product Development'. Storage access traces from the NAMD and LAMMPS molecular dynamics simulator are under the 'Life Sciences' category. 'General Operations' includes access traces from 7-Zip and Mozilla programs. The 'Energy' category replays traces from the energy-02 SPECviewperf workload. The 'Media and Entertainment' vertical includes Handbrake, Maya, and 3dsmax. Given that the comparison is between a NVMe SSD and a SATA SSD, the relative numbers for most workloads are not surprising. The SATA SSD performs very well in the Media and Entertainment category, which enables it to almost get the same overall score as the NVMe SSD. From an industrial PC perspective, the key aspect is the industrial rating for the SSD itself - ability to withstand operation in demanding environment conditions and guaranteed long-term supply / support.

We opted to forego the evaluation of gaming and HTPC capabilities of the Cincoze DS-1302 - the system is simply not meant for those use-cases. In niche circumstances (say, industrial PCs requiring processing of video feeds delivered over the network), the GeForce GTX 1650 provides reasonable decoding capabilities, as evidenced in the DXVAChecker screenshot below. It must be mentioned here that the Intel UHD Graphics 630 iGPU can also be activated with its QuickSync capabilities to provide similar features.

Our industrial PC reviews typically include thermal photographs due to the fanless nature of the systems. However, the Cincoze DS-1302 is actively cooled - the massive aluminum casing was actually cool to touch even when our custom stress test was being processed. This obviously comes at the cost of an extremely noisy external fan mounted on the top of the chassis. Most industrial environments would probably be much noisier - the external nature makes the fan easy to replace in case of any damage. That said, the fan is also quite sturdy and well-protected. Cincoze's thermal solution does an excellent job of keeping the CPU cool even under demanding workloads.

Closing Thoughts

The Cincoze DS-1302 provided us with the opportunity to evaluate an actively-cooled industrial PC targeting installations requiring considerable processing power. From our evaluation, it is clear that Cincoze delivers effectively on the promise of a rugged computer with extreme performance. Cincoze allows fine-grained customization with its CMI (combined multiple I/O) modules that can tweak the system for any use-case. For example, applications in manufacturing and industrial automation (SCADA) may require supervisory control for which the Digital I/O CMIs could be useful. CMI modules with multiple network ports can take care of the data acquisition requirements. They are also useful in security and surveillance applications. The advantage of the Xeon W-1270E platform in the Cincoze DS-1302 is that it has enough processing power to handle all these and more.

The only area of concern that we had from our evaluation was GPU cooling. The internal fan and the GPU fan seem to be good enough to handle normal workloads. However, we did observe Furmark driving the GPU temperature quite high - lack of adequate ventilation (despite the presence of the single fan opening with dust filtering) is definitely a challenge. In terms of scope for improvement, we would like to see Cincoze tie in the thermal solution for the discrete GPU with the CPU's (i.e, the chassis as a heat sink for both hot spots).

Despite this minor quibble, we have to say that Cincoze's DS-1300 series presents a wide range of compelling options for industrial deployments. Prices start at around $1700 for a very basic fanless configuration with a Celeron processor, which is par for the course for systems sold in the B2B market. Technically, it would be interesting to see if there is scope for an AMD EPYC Embedded play in this market segment - given Intel's power efficiency struggles for the past few generations. As it stands, the Cincoze DS-1300 series is a solid offering for industrial PC applications - particularly for those whose requirements can't be met by systems based on sub-35W TDP processors.