Intel NUC 4" x 4" micro-PC - $299 shipped (1.8ghz i3, motherboard, case, PSU)

[ch33zw1z]

Hey, I'm still using a PC like this as my main gaming rig.

Haven't had the budget to upgrade yet.
I've been trying to secure some good cheap parts for at least a year, no luck so far.

you're still using an Athlon XP?

dude... http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2358552

huge step up.

 

[EliteRetard]

you're still using an Athlon XP?

dude... http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2358552

huge step up.

I guess I wasn't totally clear, my main gamin rig is an E6600 (2.4GHz 4MB), 2x2GB, 8800 320MB, OLD ~120GB HDD ('02?) XP Home 32bit.

I had bought a 1TB for it 2 or 3 years ago, but that one seems to have *edit* the bed...so I tossed my old drive back in. Still had the OS/files/drivers and booted right up. Dunno why old HDDs are so vastly more durable...

 

[DaveSimmons]

SilentPCReview has an article on the i5 Haswell NUC with comparisons to the older i3 and others.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/Intel_NUC_Haswell_D54250WYK

Power draw of only 9 watts decoding H.264 vs. 15 watts for the older i3 NUC, nice!

~$500 for a system once you add the disk and RAM though

 

[Kaido]

I guess I wasn't totally clear, my main gamin rig is an E6600 (2.4GHz 4MB), 2x2GB, 8800 320MB, OLD ~120GB HDD ('02?) XP Home 32bit.

I had bought a 1TB for it 2 or 3 years ago, but that one seems to have *edit* the bed...so I tossed my old drive back in. Still had the OS/files/drivers and booted right up. Dunno why old HDDs are so vastly more durable...

Oh okay...that HP was like circa 2001/2002 haha.

 

[EliteRetard]

Oh okay...that HP was like circa 2001/2002 haha.

I actually do still have a Barton 2500, A7N8X, ATI 9800 hooked up as a secondary to my monitor. It's the last computer I built for myself that still runs. I have an AMD 64, just looked and its an FX55 on a K8N Neo4. Don't recall why it was parted out. Just thought of it, I could probably swap that instead of the 2500. If I could figure out the software...

Most of the C2D system was a hand me down from a friend when he upgraded.
I also have bits of the system which he upgraded to after that.
Though he hasn't officially given it to me...it's just broken/parted so he doesn't use it.

Phenom II X3 720 (unlockable) on a GA-MA790GPT. Both are unstable/broken.
A 4850 that is also unstable/broken. Water cooling currently just the CPU.
When it was running it constantly crashed even sitting idle (even set at stock).

This was supposed to be a "more future proof" platform vs 775...
AM3 has lived a lot longer, but perhaps not the MOBO itself lol.
I'm hoping to maybe one day get this thing working.

So far no luck on getting good cheap used parts though.
I've been looking for the last year or more.

 

[ch33zw1z]

I guess I wasn't totally clear, my main gamin rig is an E6600 (2.4GHz 4MB), 2x2GB, 8800 320MB, OLD ~120GB HDD ('02?) XP Home 32bit.

I had bought a 1TB for it 2 or 3 years ago, but that one seems to have *edit* the bed...so I tossed my old drive back in. Still had the OS/files/drivers and booted right up. Dunno why old HDDs are so vastly more durable...

That's not too bad. another 2x2GB RAM, and an SSD...still a solid system.

I'm running a Q9550, 8GB (literally just upgrade from 4GB)...just the RAM makes things feel faster. I'm running Ubuntu 12.04 x64...on a 750GB WD Black...someday I'll get a SSD for the OS, not yet though. This is my box that does everything, not a big gamer though.

 

[FriendlyGhost]

Is there any news/updates on the Intel NUC where the case can hold a 2,5" HDD?

 

[Kaido]

Samsung has announced a 1TB mSATA:

http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/news-events/press-releases/detail?newsId=13182

MSRP is $860:

http://www.thessdreview.com/daily-n...announced-10-higher-present-samsung-evo-ssds/

That's...incredible.

 

[you2]

Isnt't he evo model the one that has very limited writes till failure ?

 

[Kaido]

Is there any news/updates on the Intel NUC where the case can hold a 2,5" HDD?

Supposedly available before the end of the month:

http://www.ubergizmo.com/2013/12/intel-nuc-mini-desktop-computer/

Although I haven't read any updates in the last week or two, so who knows. If you need something sooner, you can get a Zotac ZBOX with a 2.5" drive:

http://www.fudzilla.com/home/item/33404-zotac-quietly-introduces-another-haswell-nettop

 

[Kaido]

Isnt't he evo model the one that has very limited writes till failure ?

Maybe, but not that I've heard of - it's one of the more popular solid-state drives on the market. I didn't even know they had an mSATA line until today!

 

[EliteRetard]

That's not too bad. another 2x2GB RAM, and an SSD...still a solid system.

I'm running a Q9550, 8GB (literally just upgrade from 4GB)...just the RAM makes things feel faster. I'm running Ubuntu 12.04 x64...on a 750GB WD Black...someday I'll get a SSD for the OS, not yet though. This is my box that does everything, not a big gamer though.

XP Home 32bit supports no more than ~3.5GB RAM.
Parts are to old for a new OS.

 

[ch33zw1z]

XP Home 32bit supports no more than ~3.5GB RAM.
Parts are to old for a new OS.

Right, I ran 4x1GB under windows xp 32bit for a few years. It doesn't care. 3.5GB is better than 2GB.

You're gonna have to buy that OS eventually

 

[superxero044]

We got i5 Haswell Nuc in for the office. Man that thing is slick. Crucial m500 240 GB. Intel wifi card and 4 GB ram (on one stick so we can add 4 more later if needed).

The only annoying thing is needing to get the display adapter cables but I guess thats just how it goes.

If anyone is on the fence about getting one of these GO FOR IT.

 

[Kaido]

XP Home 32bit supports no more than ~3.5GB RAM.
Parts are to old for a new OS.

Well, there are some ways...like having the 32-bit OS recognize say 3.25gb & then using the rest as a RAMdisk

 

[ElFenix]

I actually do still have a Barton 2500, A7N8X, ATI 9800

i had that exact same setup

 

[you2]

I had one of those (barton with 9800) and gave it to my dad; sadly it developed an 'issue' last year so I replaced the motherboard (and gpu) with an old system I had (that was still newer than the barton ).

 

[Aikouka]

So, now I've got to figure out whether I'm dealing with a bad NUC or bad Intel drivers! I'm figuring that the latter is definitely a good possibility.

I set up the HTPC in a "proper" fashion by using two accounts. The normal user account is for usual HTPC stuff, and it is set to automatically login on boot up. Unfortunately, I keep running into a bug where Windows 7 just goes to a black screen when I log out. There doesn't seem to be much information out there other than "update your drivers" and "it might be your hardware". :\

Also, sometimes when I log in, the Intel HDMI audio just doesn't work. It has a caution on it in the device manager, and Windows reports that it was unable to start the hardware. I'm really hoping that the NUC isn't bad, because Intel's hardware support for it is ABYSMAL. They give you a toll phone number (out in California) to call with normal 9-5 business hours.

I might have to try whatever drivers my Streacom is using. It isn't a Haswell machine, but it also isn't having any issues. Although, I also don't have the dual user scheme setup on it.

Is there any news/updates on the Intel NUC where the case can hold a 2,5" HDD?

I'm waiting for Streacom's upcoming fanless case that will hold a 2.5" HDD.

http://www.fanlesstech.com/2013/11/exclusive-streacom-nc1-wy-and-nc3.html

The only negative aspect is that the only Streacom vendor in the US doesn't seem all that interested in bringing them over. :\ Fortunately, Akasa has already announced their case that supports not one but two 2.5" drives (you use a mSATA-to-SATA converter):

http://www.techpowerup.com/195547/akasa-rolls-out-tesla-h-nuc-case.html

 

[niksus]

There are announced 2.5" drive supporting cases from at least 4 other companies.
Also Intel confirmed the launch of the WYKH model in January.

 

[jaydee]

Kaido,

So what do you have or have access to regarding NUC's? I'm curious to see what the performance difference is between the i5 and i7 ULV CPU's, because I'm hearing the i7's get throttled by the 15W TDP, thus eliminating the benefit of the higher turbo clockspeeds.

Do you happen to have an i5 and i7 in your collection?

Beyond i5 vs i7, I'd really love to see some sort of comparison between the standard voltage i3, i5, i7 parts and the ULV i3, i5, i7 parts to evaluate the cost of "ultramobility". Just a few benchmarks and power draw charts.

 

[Kaido]

Kaido,

So what do you have or have access to regarding NUC's? I'm curious to see what the performance difference is between the i5 and i7 ULV CPU's, because I'm hearing the i7's get throttled by the 15W TDP, thus eliminating the benefit of the higher turbo clockspeeds.

Do you happen to have an i5 and i7 in your collection?

Beyond i5 vs i7, I'd really love to see some sort of comparison between the standard voltage i3, i5, i7 parts and the ULV i3, i5, i7 parts to evaluate the cost of "ultramobility". Just a few benchmarks and power draw charts.

Yeah nearly all of the models now, IVB/Haswell, Celeron/i3/i5/i7.

From a power user's perspective: I like the i5 & up. I can tell there's a lag (very slight) on the i3 version. A regular desktop user or like a mom/grandma type of user would never notice it and my office users think they're awesome because they boot fast & open the basic applications like Office apps & Internet browsers instantly. When I have a bunch of stuff open & I'm whizzing around though, I do notice some hesitation. Nothing bad, but for me, I like things super quick with no hangups at all when I'm juggling a lot of windows & tabs. And it's more to do with the processor than anything because my standard build is a 400/500 MB/s mSATA SSD & 16GB RAM, so it's not like it's slow at loading apps or choking on a RAM limit.

The Celeron versions have more of a performance hit. They run one or maybe two applications well, but if I'm running Windows 7 and installing OS updates while doing other stuff, you can really feel the CPU start to slog down. It's pretty zippy beyond that though, so for a kiosk or basic Word/Internet machine, it'd be fine. All depends on the intended usage.

I've been backlogged lately, but I do have a pile of new Haswell NUC's (Intel & Gigabyte) waiting to be setup - I'm curious to see how the Haswell i5 vs. i7 fares. I'm betting the i5 will be the model to get for cost vs. performance. I can tell a big difference between the Celeron, i3, etc. as a power user. I am interested to see how the Iris Pro fares, since you're kind of stuck with integrated graphics no matter which model you get.

 

[Kaido]

I installed a 240gb MyDigitalSSD. Results:

1. Slower performance compared to other brands
2. Inconsistent speed tests

In the AJA System Test 16gb test, I got 275 MB/s read & 333.6 MB/s write, which is far slower than the Mushkins I typically go with (which clock well into the 400-450 MB/s range). Also, the tests weren't consistent. I ran 1GB tests, 2GB tests, etc. with very different results, such as 217.5 MB/s write & 325.5 MB/s write. I can't say this is the case for all MyDigitalSSD models, but my first piece in-house does not look good. I'll continue to stick with Mushkins for now!

Edit: Also it's a BP4 model on a Celeron IVB NUC, if that makes any difference. Perhaps the CPU is limiting it, I don't know. Running Windows 7 64-bit with all the latest updates.

 

[finbarqs]

any info on transcoding 1080p with i5 haswell?

 

[jrichrds]

I installed a 240gb MyDigitalSSD. Results:

1. Slower performance compared to other brands
2. Inconsistent speed tests

In the AJA System Test 16gb test, I got 275 MB/s read & 333.6 MB/s write, which is far slower than the Mushkins I typically go with (which clock well into the 400-450 MB/s range). Also, the tests weren't consistent. I ran 1GB tests, 2GB tests, etc. with very different results, such as 217.5 MB/s write & 325.5 MB/s write. I can't say this is the case for all MyDigitalSSD models, but my first piece in-house does not look good. I'll continue to stick with Mushkins for now!

Edit: Also it's a BP4 model on a Celeron IVB NUC, if that makes any difference. Perhaps the CPU is limiting it, I don't know. Running Windows 7 64-bit with all the latest updates.

Interesting...there was a MyDigitalSSD rep on another board that was saying how they only use high quality Toshiba toggle NANDs while Mushkin only used them in the initial run and then switched to the cheaper, lower performing stuff. Wonder how true that is.

 

[jaydee]

Yeah nearly all of the models now, IVB/Haswell, Celeron/i3/i5/i7.

From a power user's perspective: I like the i5 & up. I can tell there's a lag (very slight) on the i3 version. A regular desktop user or like a mom/grandma type of user would never notice it and my office users think they're awesome because they boot fast & open the basic applications like Office apps & Internet browsers instantly. When I have a bunch of stuff open & I'm whizzing around though, I do notice some hesitation. Nothing bad, but for me, I like things super quick with no hangups at all when I'm juggling a lot of windows & tabs. And it's more to do with the processor than anything because my standard build is a 400/500 MB/s mSATA SSD & 16GB RAM, so it's not like it's slow at loading apps or choking on a RAM limit.

The Celeron versions have more of a performance hit. They run one or maybe two applications well, but if I'm running Windows 7 and installing OS updates while doing other stuff, you can really feel the CPU start to slog down. It's pretty zippy beyond that though, so for a kiosk or basic Word/Internet machine, it'd be fine. All depends on the intended usage.

I've been backlogged lately, but I do have a pile of new Haswell NUC's (Intel & Gigabyte) waiting to be setup - I'm curious to see how the Haswell i5 vs. i7 fares. I'm betting the i5 will be the model to get for cost vs. performance. I can tell a big difference between the Celeron, i3, etc. as a power user. I am interested to see how the Iris Pro fares, since you're kind of stuck with integrated graphics no matter which model you get.

Sounds like you're really busy, but if you had time to run Cinebench 11.5 and/or Handbrake benchmarks on Celeron vs i3 vs i5 vs i7, that would be terrific. I can't find any published results comparing these ULVs.

Regarding the Iris Pros, I thought I read somewhere (AT?) that there's probably not much of a performance gain with the same TDP as the non Iris Pros (eg i5-4200U vs i5-4250U). I don't think I've seen actual benchmarks there either though...