(Part 2) Best products from r/intelnuc

I was waiting for the SM961 or 960 Pro too. But came up with a solution. Get this https://www.amazon.com/Plugable-Upright-Supports-Systems-Compatible/dp/B01E80N2E8 and plugin one of your existing/old SSDs. Use that till the 960 Pro lands! Working well for me on my old Intel X25-M 160GB drive. :) I was going to buy one of those Plugable docks anyway, main system drive on Linux Mint or Antergos, Windows 10 on an SSD for LoL.

Totally agree on the quadcore being the marquee feature. It works pretty well for gaming if you're not big into AAA graphics-oriented titles. If you're more of a hardcore competitive gamer, CSGo, LoL etc then it works great. Those are the good games anyway if you ask me.

If you want wireless because you're using a non-desk setup (i.e. some sort of living room/couch scenario) then I'd recommend a combination keyboard/trackpad. Sure, you can buy a wireless mouse to go along with a wireless keyboard, but unless you're trying to play a shooter game from the couch without a gamepad, one device is better than two.

I use a Logitech K830 and it's really great. I also own the cheaper K400 for another setup and the K830 is infinitely better. Even though I also have a nice wired mechanical keyboard for when I'm using the NUC as a desktop PC, I'll occasionally find myself using this keyboard along with a regular mouse, just for the sake of convenience.

Both items limit the models you'll have to choose from, but the most restrictive is the memory. Since it's 1.5v it will only work in first gen NUCs. For an i5 you're going to be limited to the DC53427HYE, which is out of production.https://www.amazon.com/Intel-Computing-BOXDC53427HYE-Desktop-Black/dp/B00C5K8FRI

As older models go, it's pretty well configured. It comes with 1 HDMI and 2 mini displayport for video, so you can run up to 3 monitors. it looks like your monitors are loaded up with ports, so that's good. But you'll need either mini displayport to HDMI or mini displayport to displayport adapters to connect. Good luck!

Not sure what kind of adapter you're thinking of.

I did some checking, though, and you can use the front-panel jack as a microphone input if the audio drivers support software-defined jack allocations (and the Windows and Linux drivers both do AFAIK), but as is the case with sound cards, each connector is either input or output but not both at the same time. If your boom mic has a separate cord/connection, you can use the front-panel jack set to mic-in and connect the headphones to the back-panel jack set to audio-out. If the mic piggybacks on the existing headphone cable (read: there's a four-contact cable like what's commonly seen with earbud/mic combinations for cellphones) it won't be usable.

As an alternative, there are adapters that can basically "USB-ize" a headset. These are essentially micro-packaged pseudo-soundcards with speaker and mic jacks that plug into a USB port and act like a bridge. Plugable makes one that sells for $8 on Amazon (Linky!), just by way of example. Something like that might actually be a far easier/simpler solution than playing musical jack settings.

Does she HAVE to have Word and Excel? If those aren't hard requirements, a Chromebox and Google Docs might serve her better and be simpler to administer.

For what it's worth, my wife runs a NUC (not sure of exact model) and plays WoW on it without issue.

I can confirm that the 6i5 will indeed work for your purposes. I have one myself which runs hyperspin, rocketlauncher, and a SHIT ton of emulators including Dolphin, MAME, Saturn... I f'ing love this thing.

One piece of advice - Since the NUCs use an onboard GPU, you will need to configure most of your emulators to use Direct 3D instead of Open GL. Also, with regards to Dolphin, each game has specific graphics settings that you'll need to tweak. Mario Kart Wii was one game that I had to spend some time troubleshooting and tweaking to get working just right. But it runs great now!

Speaking of Dolphin - If you need a sensor bar, get this one. It works perfectly with the official Wiimote controllers.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HZWEB74/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

If your nuc is current, get these
32gb is a waste of money on something like this and even the ones I linked {16gb) is a bit overboard but not too expensive.

Use the money use save towards a decent nvme m.2 and you should be ready to go. They dropped significantly in price and you can get a 1 tb stick for less than 100 bucks.

Enjoy

Hi Retropug, I have a Hades Canyon NUC8i7HVK 8809G hooked up to an Apple Thunderbolt Display using USB C.

The cables I'm using are:

1. Apple Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter
   
2. Apple Thunderbolt Cable
   
   Some notes:
   
   

• The Thunderbolt Display did not work the first time it was plugged in. Used a HDMI monitor to find this driver: Thunderbolt™ Bus Driver for Windows® 10 64-bit for Intel® NUC Kit NUC8i7HNK, NUC8i7HVK to get it going.
  
• After installing the Intel Thunderbolt driver and getting the Thunderbolt Display working, there was a notification "this Thunderbolt device is not certified for PC use" each time I started up Windows 10. The notification can be switched it off using Notifications & Actions under "Thunderbolt Software".
  
• If the Thunderbolt cable is disconnected from the Thunderbolt Display it may take a few cable reinsertions into the display to get it to work again.
  
• Volume adjustments work fine, but I cannot figure out how to adjust screen brightness. The default brightness is not unpleasant though.
  
  Hope that helps!

Interesting... if they can be fed 12v, I've got a couple different Mean Well DIN rail supplies. I got one to replace a Synology brick, but they might be a good, reliable option for a couple NUCs.


This is a 10A model, but they have some that are larger & I think most are passively cooled (pretty efficient too):


https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00R5CHZAO

• also, they're pretty similar in size. Here's a pic of a NUC sitting on one for scale:
  https://imgur.com/3FpJQcb
  

I got you. But you'll find so much more stuff to do with this then you ever thought of.

NUCs are so much better than Raspberry Pis/Banana Pis/etc., etc. Welcome to the family!

If the i3 plus 8GB of RAM is too much money for you, and you end up thinking about only getting 4GB of RAM, you have one more option:

The Pentium NUC. For my purposes the Pentium NUC with 8GB of RAM is better than the i3 with 4GB. (Your purposes as a server may be different).

Skip the Celeron though, the Pentium isn't much more money and is well worth it.

Here's the link to the Pentium. It only comes in one version: https://www.amazon.com/Intel-Nuc5ppyh-Components-Silver-BOXNUC5PPYH/dp/B00XPVQHDU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1478853349&sr=8-1&keywords=nuc+5ppyh

Alternatively to your battery backup idea, you could wire up an external switch and run it somewhere in your vehicle. I'm assuming the reason for asking about this is because you're going to put your NUC somewhere out of reach.

The subject of external power switch for NUCs comes up from time to time in various applications and there are solutions that come with varied degrees of cost and complexity. It all centers around supplementing or replacing the internal wires connected to what is called the "header" (located on the mainboard) and running them to an exterior switch. If you want to investigate this route go to Intel's website and find the "technical product specifications" for your model. This is not the users manual. Its a long technical document and in it will most likely be a section with the pinout specs for the header that controls the things on the front panel such as the power button, the reset button, and activity lights.

With the knowledge of what each pin does you can then go hunting for something like this or this (btw I'm not saying these will necessarily work for you, they're just an examples). Of course that solution depends on the ability to remove the original connectors from the header. I don't know how every NUC model is designed and so I cant say for sure that there doesn't exist an NUC model where these pins are soldered to the header and that you own such a model. If that be the case then the concept is the same except now you're faced with the task of soldering.

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At best case scenario you will have one NVMe drive, one SSD, and some potential external USB drives. Are you interested in adding a JBOD?

Your options for RAID are going to be limited to mirroring and rather low capacity as well unless you add external storage.

If you are adding a JBOD and only using it as a NAS I would go with a NUC8i5BEH. You can save $100-$200 vs buying the NUC8i7BEH. The 8i5 are plenty capable for this machine and will even leave headroom to spin up VMs or containers.


All of this is assuming you are dead set on using the NUC platform. There are many other options that would make a more robust NAS.

In case you hadn't already seen it, Intel has a whitepaper (PDF warning) on USB3 messing with 2.4GHz. Using short extensions is pretty much the cheapest/easiest fix.

There's still plenty of extensions on Amazon like these. There were plenty of other short USB2 extensions for sale as well.

If you really value your data, I recommend getting something a bit more quality than that. After years of being burned by failing hard disks in cheap enclosures, I decided to get this beast.

It just exudes quality from every pore, I can highly recommend it. It also has a built-in PSU, so there's no need to fiddle around with power adapters (that are usually poor quality).

Sure, the TB interface is really unnecessary since the drives aren't going to saturate it, but it supports pass-through if you're into that.

Edit: forgot to mention, akitio makes a bunch of other stuff as well.

1. HDMI Ultra HD Deep Colour is enabled on the 4 HDMI inputs on the set manually from when I purchased it and I have double checked that is still the case. It is.
   
2. In Windows 10 "HDR + WCG" is in the toggled "on" position.
   
3. I was using a bog standard HDMI cable, but I had a spare one of these from when I ordered two for my AppleTV:
   
   https://www.amazon.es/gp/product/B075N83B9X/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
   
   No change in behaviour with the Belkin cable over the bog standard one.
   
   
4. I have not tried MadVR + MPC yet, will see if I can energise myself to try that over the weekend.
   
   Thanks for your input.

There are a number of <200mm(20cm) GPU out there:

https://www.amazon.com/GIGABYTE-GeForce-DisplayPort-Windforce-Gv-N166TIXOC-6GD/dp/B07NJQLYHH/ref=pd_sbs_147_t_0/146-0109578-6882276?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B07NJQLYHH&pd_rd_r=0f605fbe-2c9c-48ec-b816-e90f28888d8d&pd_rd_w=tOMWW&pd_rd_wg=e8lx1&pf_rd_p=5cfcfe89-300f-47d2-b1ad-a4e27203a02a&pf_rd_r=RT5EGJTSAY55FPYY7R2V&psc=1&refRID=RT5EGJTSAY55FPYY7R2V

Unfortunately most are Nvidia. I personally would prefer an AMD gpu, but that's just me. I like to mix and match hardware from different vendors, hence why I own a Hades-Canyon.

Thunderbolt 2 Ethernet - https://www.amazon.com/Apple-Thunderbolt-Gigabit-Ethernet-MD463LL/dp/B011K4RKFW/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1540852371&sr=8-3&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=apple+thunderbolt+ethernet&dpPl=1&dpID=11jOHzBzFAL&ref=plSrch

Thunderbolt 2 to 3 - https://www.amazon.com/Apple-MMEL2AM-Thunderbolt-USB-C-Adapter/dp/B01MQ26QIY/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1540852412&sr=8-3&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=thunderbolt+2+to+thunderbolt+3&dpPl=1&dpID=21TovN-97mL&ref=plSrch