Intel sub mini PC's

50Twuncle

Have any of you tried one of these ?
http://www.intel.co.uk/content/www/uk/en/nuc/overview.html
They are extremely small (about 4 inches by 4 inches by 2 inches)
They have a 4th gen i5 processor, upto 16Gb RAM , SSD, All
the ports that you could ever need, Bluetooth / Wireless, HDMI....


Novatech have given us one to try at work - they are absolutely brilliant (fast booting and portable (all you need is a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse and of course - a display)
Can anyone see a downside to them ?

jaydeeuk1

I've got one at work as my main development PC (low profile 4th gen i3 version. Has 8gb ram and a 128gb Msata ssd, and a usb DVD drive for rare occassions I need it. You'll also need a mini pcie wifi card, I got one for £10 off ebuyer which also had bluetooth

I use it for IIS and about 20 dev websites, SQL server 2008 R2 with 10 databases on, some several gb and with millions of rows, dreamweaver, photoshop and steam.

It never feels sluggish, or overheats, best PC I've ever bought.

Downsides.... once tried to access a file on my PC but left it off, wanted one of the girls in the office to switch it on. Except they couldn't find the effin thing :rotfl:

The USB ports on rear close together, if you have a wide usb stick you can't use other port. Has mini HDMI and mini display port, so you may need a converter and or other cable too. Officially supports 2 monitors, but I believe with display port you could daisy chain more.


Other than that, I'm stuggling to think of any advantages the great whacking AMD phenom ii x6 it replaced had.

50Twuncle

jaydeeuk1 wrote: »

I've got one at work as my main development PC (low profile 4th gen i3 version. Has 8gb ram and a 128gb Msata ssd, and a usb DVD drive for rare occassions I need it. You'll also need a mini pcie wifi card, I got one for £10 off ebuyer which also had bluetooth

I use it for IIS and about 20 dev websites, SQL server 2008 R2 with 10 databases on, some several gb and with millions of rows, dreamweaver, photoshop and steam.

It never feels sluggish, or overheats, best PC I've ever bought.

Downsides.... once tried to access a file on my PC but left it off, wanted one of the girls in the office to switch it on. Except they couldn't find the effin thing :rotfl:

The USB ports on rear close together, if you have a wide usb stick you can't use other port. Has mini HDMI and mini display port, so you may need a converter and or other cable too. Officially supports 2 monitors, but I believe with display port you could daisy chain more.


Other than that, I'm stuggling to think of any advantages the great whacking AMD phenom ii x6 it replaced had.

Ours supposedly comes with WiFi and bluetooth built in...
Absolutely brilliant AND with 512Gb SSD adequate storage too !

RobTang

I like then but the main downside is cost, all-in they are just too expensive for consumer use.
The newer ones are a bit better as you don't need a mSata drive.


However as business workstations or little microservers they are pretty good.

Cisco001

They are expensive when compare to regular desktop.

50Twuncle

Cisco001 wrote: »

They are expensive when compare to regular desktop.

£ per punch - I am not too sure - we have yet to try a WEI on it.
but I reckon that it will beat most "normal" desktops (even those with SSD's and a similar amount of RAM)
The problem being that the memory is almost unique - standard 1.5v ddr3 is not compatible - it needs 1.35v ddr3L - Which has gold plated contacts !!

NiftyDigits

50Twuncle wrote: »

£ per punch - I am not too sure - we have yet to try a WEI on it.
but I reckon that it will beat most "normal" desktops (even those with SSD's and a similar amount of RAM)
The problem being that the memory is almost unique - standard 1.5v ddr3 is not compatible - it needs 1.35v ddr3L - Which has gold plated contacts !!

What kind of nonsense is this?

50Twuncle

NiftyDigits wrote: »

What kind of nonsense is this?

It is fact...
http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/sb/CS-034475.htm
and speedwise - it is stormingly fast at booting up !!
Ours has 16Gb DDR3L RAM...

NiftyDigits

50Twuncle wrote: »

It is fact...
http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/sb/CS-034475.htm
and speedwise - it is stormingly fast at booting up !!

Did you actually take note of what I placed in Bold?

50Twuncle

NiftyDigits wrote: »

Did you actually take note of what I placed in Bold?

Yes I did - and I stand by my comments - it is extremely quick
see similar comments by JAYDEEUK above and theirs only has 8Gb RAM and an i3 !!

NiftyDigits

50Twuncle wrote: »

Yes I did - and I stand by my comments - it is extremely quick

Yes, but how will it beat a normal sized tower with the same spec? That is just nonsense.

Apart from anything else, look at the costs.

Basic unit £270
Then you need RAM. 2 x4GB @ £70
Then you need Storage (mSATA) Crucial 480GB M500 mSATA SSD £160
Then a Wireless mini PCIe card
No space left for PCIe cards

You are already at £500 for just the basics.
Nice little thing no doubt, but you are limited in comparison to a full size tower.
From the very beginning you are limiting the kind of Processor you have fitted. I certainly would not use a 'U' suffixed processor in a Desktop. So at the source I would already have more processing power.