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

Page 6 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.

Blackjack200

Lifer
May 28, 2007
15,995
1,685
126
Anyone care to speculate when we might see Haswell in one of these? I'm not usually one to wait for a hardware release, but Haswell just seems like a perfect match. Any possibility Intel will launch a Haswell NUC at the same time they launch the chip itself?
 

Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
48,517
5,340
136
Anyone care to speculate when we might see Haswell in one of these? I'm not usually one to wait for a hardware release, but Haswell just seems like a perfect match. Any possibility Intel will launch a Haswell NUC at the same time they launch the chip itself?

Well, Intel has announced that new models are coming soon...a Celeron model in February and an i5 model in April. Gigabyte is releasing their own i5 and i7 NUC models in April as well.

That, and Intel has announced they're getting out of the motherboard business and will only be selling NUC's, so that's extremely promising. And honestly, I don't see any reason for an average joe consumer to get anything else...if you don't game and don't need a laptop, the NUC is perfect.

Haswell in a NUC should be awesome...I'd imagine we won't see one until late this year, or more likely, sometime next year.
 

Blackjack200

Lifer
May 28, 2007
15,995
1,685
126
Maybe I'll bite the bullet and just get the Thunderbolt model now. I have a Macbook Air (early 2012) with TB, so I thought it would be perfect to get one of these and an Apple Cinema display that I can plug into either machine.
 

Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
48,517
5,340
136
New Celeron NUC model for $194.04 shipped on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B58MVYY

Uses a dual-core 1.1ghz Intel Celeron 847 processor:

http://ark.intel.com/products/56056/Intel-Celeron-Processor-847-2M-Cache-1_10-GHz

MSRP on that chip is $134 :biggrin: So you're basically getting the rest of the computer for $60, haha. CPU benchmark here:

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Celeron+847+@+1.10GHz

Notebook Check info here:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Celeron-847-Notebook-Processor.56835.0.html

Reviews on Newegg (integrated system) say it can handle Netflix HD & HD MKV's just fine:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813138368

This has Intel HD graphics, so this unit is not Hackintosh-compatible, but it looks like it'd be a great media player with Windows 7 or something similar. A single 4GB DDR3-1600 SODIMM is $24:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231481

Cheapest SSD I could find is a $55 Crucial 32gb model:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820148610

So $195 NUC + $24 4GB + $55 32gb mSATA = approximately $275 if you want a basic little media player box (plus OS, KVM, etc.). This would also make a great DeepFreeze-enabled Internet surfing box for kids or the kitchen. Very cool!
 

SithSolo1

Diamond Member
Mar 19, 2001
7,740
11
81
Not to thread crap but this unit is viable alternative to the Celeron NUC:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16856173042

My mother's has been running Windows 7 64-bit flawlessly for about 4 months now. Granted she only surfs the net and checks email but YouTube ran fine when I was setting it up.

Cons:
Slightly larger than the NUC
Questionable build quality on some parts
Max 8GB of ram
External WiFi antenna
Not silent

Pros:
Faster CPU
Fits standard size SSDs
Additional connectivity (USB 3.0, eSATA, DisplayPort)
SD Card Reader
Headphone & Mic Jacks
Media Center Remote
the AC cord
Not loud
 
Last edited:

Puddle Jumper

Platinum Member
Nov 4, 2009
2,835
1
0
Not to thread crap but this unit is viable alternative to the Celeron NUC:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16856173042

My mother's has been running Windows 7 64-bit flawlessly for about 4 months now. Granted she only surfs the net and checks email but YouTube ran fine when I was setting it up.

Cons:
Slightly larger than the NUC
Questionable build quality on some parts
Max 8GB of ram
External WiFi antenna
Not silent

Pros:
Faster CPU
Fits standard size SSDs
Additional connectivity (USB 3.0, eSATA, DisplayPort)
SD Card Reader
Headphone & Mic Jacks
Media Center Remote
the AC cord
Not loud

As much as I like the NUC that's very tempting since it doesn't need a wifi card and I can use one of the spare 2.5" SSDs or hard drives I have laying around to cut costs.
 

SithSolo1

Diamond Member
Mar 19, 2001
7,740
11
81
Interesting. Is that bundled remote IR or BlueTooth?

EDIT: I see it includes "USB IR receiver." Is that integrated or is it an external dongle?

There is an IR receiver on the unit, its that black rectangle next to the card reader on the front. There is also a USB IR receiver with an extension cord you can plug into the unit.


Looks like iffy support from Zotac and it doesn't play mkv file without stuttering. Gladly take the NUC over Zotac made stuff...

I don't see how this integrated solution will play mkvs just fine and the Zotac with better hardware won't. In fact one of the reviews on Newegg clearly states "it plays 1080p MKV blu-ray rips without any trouble at all."


Btw- for anyone who does buy the Zotac, updating the bios really does cut out a lot of the fan noise under all but heavy loads.
 
Last edited:

Demitre

Member
Mar 6, 2001
83
0
0
The AD10 is pretty good htpc option. You certainly don't need an i5 for that..

Hmm, this is cool and all, but what market is this aimed at? It seems the cheap amd zortec is enough for everything one looking for cheap prebuilt htpc.

That said, I want one. June is gonna be a while.
 
Last edited:

Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
48,517
5,340
136

ravana

Platinum Member
Jul 18, 2002
2,149
1
76
I'm really torn between the NUC and the Zotac ID-42 or 42-Plus. However I cannot find a release date for the Zotac.

After pricing things out this morning, I think I am gonna wait another couple of weeks and buy whatever is on the market at that point.
 

Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
48,517
5,340
136
I'm really torn between the NUC and the Zotac ID-42 or 42-Plus. However I cannot find a release date for the Zotac.

After pricing things out this morning, I think I am gonna wait another couple of weeks and buy whatever is on the market at that point.

If you're not in any rush, the new NUC models will be out in April with i5 & i7 options, as well as USB 3.0. That will be much nicer from both a performance perspective and from the ability to add high-speed external storage.
 

jalaram

Lifer
Aug 14, 2000
12,920
2
81
The current model is back down to $279.99 at Newegg.

Also saw this at SD :

10% Off @ Newegg.com [$50 Max Discount] with V.me Checkout - Expires 03-21-13
 
Last edited:

WiseUp216

Platinum Member
Mar 12, 2012
2,251
51
101
www.heatware.com

Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
48,517
5,340
136
So just a quick update six months in -

I've installed several of these at work. They are working awesome, people love them - virtually silent & wicked fast (my standard install is a 240GB SATA3 SSD + 16GB RAM running Win7). They have performed extremely well - zero issues after installing any of them. No failures, no glitches, no issues, no bugs. Very happy with them so far. I've been installing a lot of these relatively inexpensive Planar dual-monitor arms as well, usually with 21" Asus IPS 1080p LED monitors with HDMI. Great, great setup - lots of space savings on the desk with a $40 Logitech MK320 wireless keyboard & mouse set. Link to the $85 dual monitor arm:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824995006

I recently installed a NUC with the included wall-mount bracket for an informational display along with an LED HDTV & iPazzport wireless keyboard/trackpad. Super simple - bolt the VESA plate to the wall, put the two standoff screws in the bottom of the NUC, and slide onto the wallplate - voila! Would be handy for mounting vertically inside an entertainment center as well, if needed.
 

Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
48,517
5,340
136
Wow, a NUC with a built-in pico projector?

If they could bump the lumens up (most consumer LED projectors are in the 500-700 lumen range, which is garbage unless you're in a super dark room), maybe with lasers (I think Sharp has one coming out with 4000 lumens), this would be an awesome corporate boardroom projector system - just mount it on the ceiling and run power to it, add a wireless keyboard & mouse, boom - business presentation system in a box :thumbsup:

On the flip side, it would also be an excellent HTIB setup - add Plex or XBMC (HD video is great, but gaming is fairly limited on the integrated GPU) and set it on your coffee table. Full 1080p high-bitrate MKV playback, plus real Internet browsing capabilities. Would be pretty neat!
 

Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
48,517
5,340
136
Also there are a couple other fun projects you can do with these:

Business: My opinion is that desktop virtualization over a network from a server still blows chunks (for most applications, anyway), especially from thin clients. My fleet of Wyse thin clients are garbage. So for starters, these are roughly the same size as a C10, but you get a full/real desktop experience (with the 450 MB/s+ SSD's, they wipe the floor with a lot of our standard Dell Optiplex towers), and you get it without the software/hardware headaches of the thin clients (overheating, lockups, inability to set resolutions correctly, etc.).

So as a thin client alternative, that's one option. Another is to actually use them as a thin client. Using Deep Freeze & doing some restrictions in Windows, you can set it up just for RDP access with a bulletproof OS that wipes itself back to your stock settings upon reboot. I've been able to recycle old machines doing this - a single Deep Freeze license runs $45, so if you add in a copy of Windows 7 or 8 ($140), a Celeron NUC ($165), a 4-gig RAM stick ($40), a Wi-fi card ($20), and a small 30gb or 60gb SSD ($65), you'd only be looking at $475, which is not much more than a Wyse box. With plenty of speed & power to spare, while only using up 20 watts of power.

Home: You can basically roll your own Chromebox with this. Yes, there's Hexxeh's setup with Chrome OS, but you'd be much better off just doing the DIY thin client idea above. The Samsung Chromebox is $299 on Amazon right now, so for $175 more you'd get an actual computer that you can throw Chrome + DeepFreeze on, and still use other apps like LogMeIn, Office, Photoshop, Dropbox, etc. and not be limited to only the Chrome OS, while also controlling what updates you choose to do (Windows, Office, Java, etc.). I've done a setup like this for a family member - everything is saved to either Dropbox or a USB stick and has a standard install of Windows, Chrome, Word/Excel/Powerpoint, etc. and just resets itself upon every room, so it's basically like an iPad - no fuss, always works, and if something breaks, just reboot. Really really neat system.
 

Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
48,517
5,340
136
Any idea when Intel Haswell NUCs are coming?

I haven't seen any specific dates other than "forthcoming". The Anandtech post at Computex yesterday said "the first models with the BRIX design should be on sale shortly, with these Kabini and Haswell models to follow" -

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7011/computex-2013-kabini-in-a-brix-haswell-too

Gigabyte's site shows off i3, i5, and i7 BRIX, so I'm guessing these NUC-esqe designs are all pulling from the leftovers bin - once a chip has been out for awhile, they'll release it in the NUC platform, so we'll see Ivy Bridge for awhile (i3 out now, i5/i7 upcoming) and then see Haswell later on down the road. Hopefully this year! However, even the Haswell i7 chips are just the dual-core 15-watt notebook CPU's, so no true quad-core tiny desktops yet.
 
sale-70-410-exam    | Exam-200-125-pdf    | we-sale-70-410-exam    | hot-sale-70-410-exam    | Latest-exam-700-603-Dumps    | Dumps-98-363-exams-date    | Certs-200-125-date    | Dumps-300-075-exams-date    | hot-sale-book-C8010-726-book    | Hot-Sale-200-310-Exam    | Exam-Description-200-310-dumps?    | hot-sale-book-200-125-book    | Latest-Updated-300-209-Exam    | Dumps-210-260-exams-date    | Download-200-125-Exam-PDF    | Exam-Description-300-101-dumps    | Certs-300-101-date    | Hot-Sale-300-075-Exam    | Latest-exam-200-125-Dumps    | Exam-Description-200-125-dumps    | Latest-Updated-300-075-Exam    | hot-sale-book-210-260-book    | Dumps-200-901-exams-date    | Certs-200-901-date    | Latest-exam-1Z0-062-Dumps    | Hot-Sale-1Z0-062-Exam    | Certs-CSSLP-date    | 100%-Pass-70-383-Exams    | Latest-JN0-360-real-exam-questions    | 100%-Pass-4A0-100-Real-Exam-Questions    | Dumps-300-135-exams-date    | Passed-200-105-Tech-Exams    | Latest-Updated-200-310-Exam    | Download-300-070-Exam-PDF    | Hot-Sale-JN0-360-Exam    | 100%-Pass-JN0-360-Exams    | 100%-Pass-JN0-360-Real-Exam-Questions    | Dumps-JN0-360-exams-date    | Exam-Description-1Z0-876-dumps    | Latest-exam-1Z0-876-Dumps    | Dumps-HPE0-Y53-exams-date    | 2017-Latest-HPE0-Y53-Exam    | 100%-Pass-HPE0-Y53-Real-Exam-Questions    | Pass-4A0-100-Exam    | Latest-4A0-100-Questions    | Dumps-98-365-exams-date    | 2017-Latest-98-365-Exam    | 100%-Pass-VCS-254-Exams    | 2017-Latest-VCS-273-Exam    | Dumps-200-355-exams-date    | 2017-Latest-300-320-Exam    | Pass-300-101-Exam    | 100%-Pass-300-115-Exams    |
http://www.portvapes.co.uk/    | http://www.portvapes.co.uk/    |