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Intel Updates NUC Mini PC Line With Broadwell-U, Tested and Benchmarked
MojoKid writes Intel recently released its latest generation of NUC small form factor systems, based on the company's new low-power Broadwell-U series processors. The primary advantages of Intel's 5th Generation Core Series Broadwell-U-based processors are better performance-per-watt, stronger integrated graphics, and a smaller footprint, all things that are perfectly suited to the company's NUC (Next Unit of Computing) products. The Intel NUC5i5RYK packs a Core i5-5250U processor with on-die Intel HD 6000 series graphics. The system also sports built-in 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Gigabit Ethernet, USB 3.0 and USB 2.0, M.2 SSD support, and a host of other features, all in a 115mm x 111mm x 32.7mm enclosure. Performance-wise the new 5th Gen Core Series-powered NUC benchmarks like a midrange notebook and is actually up for a bit of light-duty gaming, though it's probably more at home as a Home Theater PC, media streamer or kiosk desktop machine.
That i7-4770R and 4K-capable onboard Intel Iris Pro 5200 is hard to beat in this form factor (if you can handle the hurricane fan noise). They were available around $400 at Black Friday. This new NUC is a nice small form factor, but kinda pricey for the performance.
The first generation Raspberry Pi did SD pretty well and could do HD with a few caveats. The RPi 2 has even more CPU and memory and does quite well with the HD movies I've thrown at it. And it's 1/10 the price of the Intel offering.
GTFO
Add a 12v [1] to 19v DC-DC converter, and this would make a decent HTPC and mini-NAS [2] for a RV. The fact that it has no moving parts, other than a fan, make it decently resistant to vibration, and also allow it to be hidden, so a smash and grab tweaker goes for the LCD television, but that's it.
[1]: Battery voltage tends to vary between 10-17 volts, so this is assuming the DC-DC converter has some decent regulation.
[2]: Even though it isn't optimal, adding SSDs through the USB 3.0 ports can be doable for more storage and RAID. The reason SSDs are used is due to vibration and shock in a RV.
I'm excited to nab a Shuttle DS57U. The package is larger but still very small, VESA mountable, Broadwell-powered, and is fanless so you don't need to worry about dust or noise.
More shit articles from a behind the times hardware site. Is this just mojokid spamming these articles or is Slashdot somehow linked to hothardware? can't understand why else we would be posting articles from this site which publishes reviews weeks or sometimes months after every reputable site has already done it and then it somehow becomes news here.
you raise a good point but the NUC isn't a *desktop*. It's a small x86-64 box, not much bigger than a vhs cassette, that screws into the back of a monitor.
This is designed for large corporates with lots of cubicle monkeys for whom performance of those Core 2 Duos from 7 years ago was sufficient but they want to save a heap of money on electricity bills. These will be popular when adopting Windows 10. XP --> 10, HDD --> SSD and with better integrated graphics. Did I mention the energy savings?
Relax, you can still buy a performance smashing i7 residing in an enormous watercooled tower if you wish.
a nice fanless i7 (haswell) build, with the magic being a heatpipe heatsink case and a 45w i7 chip:
https://farm8.staticflickr.com...
search for streacom fc8 as the case. then, stay under 65w (to be safe) and you can be fully fanless.
for htpc use, there is NO reason to ever have a fan, again. even the i3 has a 35w chip that works just fine for movies and desktop stuff.
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
A Japanese company is the only one in the Intel's ecosystem brochure making small cube style cases for NUCs. Perhaps a cube NUC with a larger, silent fan would allow that 24/7 full load workload I'd like to submit it to. Lenovo have those stackable extension modules for laptops for storage and other uses. Perhaps a similar storage extension could be developed for the NUCs once they get some more serial port bandwidth with usb3.1 or thunderbolt.
I looked at these NUC, but happily settled on the ECS LIVA. It doesn't have SATA, but the USB3 works and the internal 32 SSD is fast enough. Alot less $$$.
I run mine caseless, and it is really like a x86_64 RPi (even the RPi2 is not fast enough to run even chrome).
Yeah, you make absolutely no sense. They have what they call "product segmentation". These low-power chips are for different purposes than the normal desktop chips. Maybe you missed out on the part about what NUC is - and is not.
I think you're confusing two things. While in PC-land the GPU may (or may not) be involved in video decoding (stuff like Intel's VAAPI or nVidia's VDPAU), in ARM SoC-land, the GPU is quite often another beast from the part of the chip that decodes the video. The GPU, of course, is involved in rendering all those 3D Android games you play. But for showing stuff like so-called H265 video, an Android settop box would rely on a custom hardware video decoder separate from the GPU. This is quite similar to the way some PC chips have built in AES support.
This makes sense even if I'm to lazy to include links to back up my post. Everybody knows how GPU's are used for 3D games and those horrid wobbly desktop effects, while videos, whether they're plain MPEG or H26x, are strictly 2D. Intel's power-hungry CPUs can effectively brute-force the higher end video codecs like H265, while the lower-power Android SoCs require a hardware-based solution.
NUC Pricing is crazy! They need to be $150 or less.
If they added a second GigE port, I'd have already bought two for a NAS AND a pfSense router.
The Alix boxes have been hugely underpowered at this price point or hugely over priced for even half this CPU power.
I have used them and they're not fast enough to draw the slashdot homepage in under 10 seconds. I can't think of any use they might have if they can't even browse the web.