Anyone try the Intel NUC?

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Jeggs101

Well-Known Member
Dec 29, 2010
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Wanted to hear feedback. Was considering getting: Intel DC3217IYE and a USB gigabit adapter.

AT has them encoding video at under 20w.

iSCSI boot server?
 

odditory

Moderator
Dec 23, 2010
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I was following the news for a while then got tired of waiting for retail availability and put together a mini-ITX based HTPC instead. I may still get one of these to play around with, but price is a little on the high side when factoring you have to bring your own SSD, Memory, even power cord. I will say the Intel HD4000 on-die GPU is excellent though. And it supports Quicksync transcoding with apps like MediaEspresso.

Edit: The initial MSRP of $399 concerned me, but getting one for $250-$275 makes it more interesting. This certainly isnt an econo box by any means.
 
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Patrick

Administrator
Staff member
Dec 21, 2010
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I have been looking at these also. The other consideration to me is the fact that you get only one NIC. If you did have a PXE boot environment, that would make these much more cost effective.

I do really wish this became a standard microserver form factor.
 

Nnyan

Active Member
Mar 5, 2012
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I'm waiting to see how well my Raspberry suits my minimal HTPC needs before I bite the bullet on this.
 

dealcorn

New Member
Oct 12, 2011
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I ordered a DC3217IYE NUC when I accepted that Linux support for the graphics on my Cedar Trail motherboard was not adequate. My two issues are that I am unable to access the BIOS (F2 key is recognized but processed incorrectly) and the 1.35v Samsung DRAM I bought did not work. I use the NUC for media consumption and Internet browsing so I have a rather low bar here, but I am delighted. Still, a Linux kernal update is known to enhance graphics and ACPI support so I will get around to that eventually. I have no rush because I am pleased using Debian Wheezy.

The unit feels substantive and is solid state inside other than the CPU fan. There is no fear manhandling it to replace USB cables. Right now the fan is spinning at 2755 rpm which I know because I monitor it. My room has some background noise and I have never heard the NUC fan. My core temperatures typically run from 48-56 degrees. As I write this, my Kill-A-Watt says I am using 18.8 watts. I installed a redeployed 40 GB Intel msata drive which is plenty given that media files are stored on a separate server that exports NFS shares. Later, just because it is interesting, I want to look at performance when it is configured as a diskless media consumption station using PXE boot. The NUC fully met my expectations and it's small size and discrete lighting make it easy to live with.
 

Biren78

Active Member
Jan 16, 2013
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Great review! Dealcorn. Have you ever put the processor under load? SuperPi, Folding@Home maybe.?

Wonder if you could build a private cloud platform off of these.
 

RimBlock

Active Member
Sep 18, 2011
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Singapore
Looking at the NUC where I am I had great hopes that it would sell well. That has not been the case so far but then I believe the distributors are setting the price at SRP so it is hard to make it that competitive.

Going on current local pricing, the NUC is only a bit less than getting a Intel DQ77KP Thin ITX board with an Intel E3-1220L v2 cpu. Size is bigger and have to factor in for a case but much better expandability and around the same power usage. Also supports Intels VT-d instruction set if you want Direct IO passthrough for virtualation.

For people who don't have a need for playing games of heavy processing then it is pretty good. I would be tempted to get one for my folks back home once their current machine dies.

RB