Intel NUC9VXQNX Review an 8 Core Xeon and GPU Capable NUC Option

[Patrick Kennedy]

In our Intel NUC9VXQNX review, we see how this NUC 9 Pro generation codenamed Quartz Canyon performs as well as how expandable and manageable it can be

The post Intel NUC9VXQNX Review an 8 Core Xeon and GPU Capable NUC Option appeared first on ServeTheHome.

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[PigLover]

Very nice looking little package. Nice to have a compact platform with this kind of expansion options.

Too bad its priced like a NUC. Guess I'll have to wait a couple of years for them to show up used...

 

[Deslok]

I don't think the history goes back quite far enough, I have a pentium 3 on a card with ISA and PCI (it's one of advantechs PCA series boards) but the whole design goes back further than that.

I'm honestly disappointed we don't see it applied to more modern servers it would make a great design for gpu compute to keep all the cooling in line like that.

Also pcie allows for up to a 32x connector, instead of any odd bifurcation they could have simply exposed more lanes(16 from the cpu and 24 from the chipset depending on configuration) i'm surprised they didn't.

 

[TLN]

I've just picked up Asus RTX 2070 Dual Mini OC. It's a shorter card and was advertised as one can fit into those Intel NUC boxes. Card runs perfectly fine: short and cool. Not sure about Intel NUC at $1500 though.

 

[WANg]

It's definitely an interesting product - when I saw the video and the little NUC computing unit being pulled out with its 2 M.2 NVMe slots, my first reaction was "gee, with a Mellanox 40GbE card and a pair or 2 of DIMMs it'll make a very good replacement for the t730 currently attached to my NAS". Then I saw the (only) 2 RAM slots. And a pair of Intel i219LM NICs (no SR-IOV). And then @Patrick mentioned the listing price as 1600 USD. YEEEEOUCH.

 

[Patrick]

Intel is in a tough spot. If they priced it at $1000 (~$550 for CPU, $350 for case and PSU) that would seem relatively reasonable, but then Intel's OEM partners would probably not be happy. $1500 makes it essentially a product for people who need the exact form factor/ capability mix. Still, using this thing all I can see is 25GbE NICs + NVMe storage demos at trade shows happening with them in clustered storage configurations.

Also, if you think about it, this is a decent competitor to some of the Xeon D systems that are not inexpensive either. You lose 10GbE but gain a GPU.

@Deslok I was aiming just for PCIe x16 slot with an 8 core Xeon 45W soldered part. Amazing how close that is.

 

[Deslok]

Intel is in a tough spot. If they priced it at $1000 (~$550 for CPU, $350 for case and PSU) that would seem relatively reasonable, but then Intel's OEM partners would probably not be happy. $1500 makes it essentially a product for people who need the exact form factor/ capability mix. Still, using this thing all I can see is 25GbE NICs + NVMe storage demos at trade shows happening with them in clustered storage configurations.

Also, if you think about it, this is a decent competitor to some of the Xeon D systems that are not inexpensive either. You lose 10GbE but gain a GPU.

@Deslok I was aiming just for PCIe x16 slot with an 8 core Xeon 45W soldered part. Amazing how close that is.

Actually, I forgot PICMIG 1.3 yesterday when I made that post(the system I have is 1.0 so isa+pci) It covers PCI express with 20 lanes as the design goal
PICMG 1.3 - Wikipedia
Here's an example board, it's an older design so it's only C226(industrial gear moves slow)
SPCIE-C2260-i2 PICMG 1.3 Full-Size CPU Card | BSIComputer.com
and an example backplane(although they get bigger and weirder)
5 Slot PICMG 1.3 Full Size Backplane - BPFAB110

 

[Deslok]

Here we go, I knew someone had to have a shipping C246 board SPCIE-C246 full size single board computer

 

[PigLover]

Intel is in a tough spot. If they priced it at $1000 (~$550 for CPU, $350 for case and PSU) that would seem relatively reasonable, but then Intel's OEM partners would probably not be happy...

Agree completely. This is more of a reference design/product proof than something Intel wants to mass produce. It creates a model the OEMs can reach for.

Also, if you think about it, this is a decent competitor to some of the Xeon D systems that are not inexpensive either. You lose 10GbE but gain a GPU...

You don't really "lose 10G", you just get a decent option to provide it yourself in a way that makes sense for you. Or to provide 25G. Or even 50/100G, though you'd bottleneck on the PCIe lanes.

 

[WANg]

I don't think the history goes back quite far enough, I have a pentium 3 on a card with ISA and PCI (it's one of advantechs PCA series boards) but the whole design goes back further than that.

I'm honestly disappointed we don't see it applied to more modern servers it would make a great design for gpu compute to keep all the cooling in line like that.

Also pcie allows for up to a 32x connector, instead of any odd bifurcation they could have simply exposed more lanes(16 from the cpu and 24 from the chipset depending on configuration) i'm surprised they didn't.

Oh, I can go (slightly) older than that. The Cobalt Qube 3 technically runs off a PCI daughterboard with the CPU, RAM and SCSI all sitting pretty.

But yeah, I was hoping that more hardware would be on compact compute modules, like blade servers but even smaller. I guess COM Express Type 6 is about the most we can hope for.

 

[i386]

Spoiler: off topic :D

 

[Evan]

Intel is in a tough spot. If they priced it at $1000 (~$550 for CPU, $350 for case and PSU) that would seem relatively reasonable, but then Intel's OEM partners would probably not be happy. $1500 makes it essentially a product for people who need the exact form factor/ capability mix. Still, using this thing all I can see is 25GbE NICs + NVMe storage demos at trade shows happening with them in clustered storage configurations.

Also, if you think about it, this is a decent competitor to some of the Xeon D systems that are not inexpensive either. You lose 10GbE but gain a GPU.

@Deslok I was aiming just for PCIe x16 slot with an 8 core Xeon 45W soldered part. Amazing how close that is.

Looks great little system for sure but the price :-O at that money your almost into the price of the Airtop3's.
Was surprised when i saw it stacked on the Gen10+, i didn't imagine it was a big as it was going to be. (NUC in mind was always so small i guess)

 

[WANg]

Looks great little system for sure but the price :-O at that money your almost into the price of the Airtop3's.
Was surprised when i saw it stacked on the Gen10+, i didn't imagine it was a big as it was going to be. (NUC in mind was always so small i guess)

Yeah, but then the funny thing is that the comparison between the NUCPro and the MSG10+ makes the MSG10+ look good (and a steal) for the homelab (i.e. something with okay grunt, 4 bays that can also take a >10Gbit PCIe network card for a SAN). I mean, if it's a lab machine, 600 USD for something that can boot off a Sandisk Cruzer Fit sitting in the back will work fine - but good luck making sense of this for an enterprise environment.
Weakest thing about the MSG10+? Lack of other storage slots.
Weakest thing about the NUC10 Pro for the price? Not enough RAM slots.

If they make it 4 RAM slots it'll be a killer machine, and I will order one instead of a t740.
Seriously, Intel. A Lenovo ThinkPad P53 is close to those specs and have 4 slots, and that's a professional workstation good for the next 3-4 years. And I'll gladly spend corporate IT dollars on them (even if it's 4k+ each).
2 slots/64GB RAM max, 1500+ USD, and I'll have to spend an extra premium on 32GB DIMMS to populate them (instead of 4 cheaper 16GB modules, which might give me more memory bandwidth)?
That's a waste of a Xeon mobile and a limit to its relevance in the IT inventory.
Hell no.

 

[Evan]

Can’t believe I would be actually considering this... felt like playing some games (older child has shown a real interest in some VR games), so looking at possible systems and small being a priority, what does it come back to... a DAN A4, ncase M1 kind of self built or NUC, either a model with thunderbolt external GPU of the new extreme/pro version.

$1500 is massive for what it is but it is an 8-core Xeon that can hit 5ghz.... and can double up as a portable demo system as well. (Clearly a good justification right ??)

I thought intel had lost the plot with price, but after looking around if you want something almost plug and play SFF gaming system then this is a solution, also I guess design guys will love it.

 

[WANg]

Can’t believe I would be actually considering this... felt like playing some games (older child has shown a real interest in some VR games), so looking at possible systems and small being a priority, what does it come back to... a DAN A4, ncase M1 kind of self built or NUC, either a model with thunderbolt external GPU of the new extreme/pro version.

$1500 is massive for what it is but it is an 8-core Xeon that can hit 5ghz.... and can double up as a portable demo system as well. (Clearly a good justification right ??)

I thought intel had lost the plot with price, but after looking around if you want something almost plug and play SFF gaming system then this is a solution, also I guess design guys will love it.

Still a difficult preposition, considering that 1600 USD will net you a fairly decent gaming laptop at CostCo.



It'll come packed with RAM, storage and a solid GPU. And a screen, and a keyboard, and a trackpad. And for giggles, a 90 minute battery life when gaming. Otherwise, for a booth demo machine I'll still take a Microserver Gen10 Plus - easier on my wallet and not that much less capable.

Then of course, there's AMD Ryzen 4000/Renoir. I would like to see if any SI will drop a Ryzen 5 4600H on an SFF machine with a PCIe x16 slot (Paging Shuttle, come in Shuttle...). That would likely match or better the performance on the current crop of Xeon-E 2000s and not carry Intel's pricing. Like I said...the NUC9 Pro is not a great value proposition to begin with, and I got this distinct feeling it will be like the Ghost Canyon/Kaby Lake-G of 18 months ago - hyped to hell and back and quickly rendered last week's news.

 

[Evan]

But a cheap laptop does not have a alternative or later use in life really where a Xeon with vPro has other uses
going to think for for a while, by that logic could also spend the $$ replacing 2017 15” MacBook Pro with 16”, but no idea how a Radeon 5300M or 5500M would work for games.

ponders replacing 6 x 4tb SATA ssd with 1 x 16tb NVMe ssd... probably not cost effective at all !

maybe i am loosing my mind avoiding a virus locked down at home. hmmm.

 

[WANg]

But a cheap laptop does not have a alternative or later use in life really where a Xeon with vPro has other uses
going to think for for a while, by that logic could also spend the $$ replacing 2017 15” MacBook Pro with 16”, but no idea how a Radeon 5300M or 5500M would work for games.

ponders replacing 6 x 4tb SATA ssd with 1 x 16tb NVMe ssd... probably not cost effective at all !

maybe i am loosing my mind avoiding a virus locked down at home. hmmm.

Heh. I heard that COVID19 causes chills, fevers, difficulties breathing and loss of sense of smell and wallet control. I already blew close to 1k on geek toys in the past 6 weeks. Eeeeeh, you also can't raidz2 or raid10 on a single NVMe SSD, so...eeeeeeh, not a great idea either.

To be clear - You don't have a use for a cheap gamer laptop later in life? Your son will very likely beg to differ.

The Radeon 5300/5500Ms are Navi based, and probably somewhat similar to a GTX1050/1060M (well, minus AMD's piss-poor VCE video encoding support, but that's on my t740 thread). As a proud owner of a 2014 MBP13 and someone who buys and provisions hardware for my gig..the MBP16 is significantly better than the entire fleet of touchbar MBP15s that we had - I still hold the Retinas and Unibody at a higher regard (RAM slots and SSD swaps, hells yeah), but it's a definite improvement over Jonny boy's prison lunch tray (what I call the Touchbar MBPs). I would rather buy one for sure than that NUC9 Extreme. Hell, I like the MBP16 so much I might even do it out of my own credit card*.

The other problem with the NUC9 extreme is that the Xeon is an E2286M, and from what I remember, its not socketed but soldered onto that entire NUC module - no possibility of re-use somewhere else, it sits on a prison of its own existence (take that, Jean-Paul Sartre). I am not even sure if Intel will stick with the form factor going forward, pending uptake (my guess from the gamers not on the Intel payroll is..."*meh*, don't care, BRB Ryzen instead"). Having an E2286M and only 64GB of RAM just seem...pointless. If you spend 2k on a NUC9 extreme loaded up, might as well spend 4k for a Lenovo P53 (or whatever the latest one is called) and at least get 4 SODIMM slots right off the bat and built into a serious quality laptop. Or wait 6 months and see if there's a Ryzen 4000 Mini-ITX with the same features at half the price.

The usual cynical IT director adage comes to mind -> "Interesting gear. But not out of MY budget".

* Pending approval from the minister for financial affairs. AKA the missus. AKA the one who shall be obeyed.