I got this NUC about a week ago for a deployment. I paired it with a 256 GB SSD (
MyDigitalSSD 240GB (256GB) BP5e 80mm SATA III 6G M.2 2280 NGFF SSD Solid State Drive (Bullet Proof 5 Eco)
) and 16 GB of DDR4 RAM (
Kingston Technology HyperX Impact 16GB RAM DDR4 2133 HX421S13IBK2/16
). It took about 8 hours to get it set up with Windows 7 installed, plus patches, plus drivers.
Pros:
-Very portable. I can't express how easy this particular device is to move around and set up in places where it needs to go. The power brick is admittedly rather large, but still, it's easy to set up in many different places with minimal hassle.
-Quiet. I can barely hear this thing when it's running in normal operation (web browsing / document editing / watching videos or listening to music). I set the minimum fan speed to 10% in BIOS, I'm sure it can be made even more quiet by turning that down. Seriously, if you're not gaming, I firmly believe this could be put in a fanless case for absolutely no noise and be just fine. But even with the fan, it's near silent.
-Gaming. Ok, now admittedly this is a biased judgment. I came from an NVidia GTX 260 to the Intel Iris Pro 580 in the NUC. But it is a WORLD of difference for me. I can play almost all modern games at 1920x1080 resolution, medium settings, 30 FPS. Games that are maybe a year old or older? Same resolution, ultra/highest settings, 60 FPS no problem. Integrated graphics have come a very long way since I last looked at them, and for anyone who is not a "hardcore" gamer, this machine will do just fine.
Cons:
-Setup. So Intel says that the NUC is compatible with any M.2 SSD that is SATA III compliant. This isn't exactly true. I ended up having to switch from a 1 TB SSD (
SanDisk SD8SN8U-1T00-1122 X400 M.2 SSD 1TB
) to the 256 GB one I have now because the 1 TB was not recognized at all. Neither slot of the two could even see it. I wish Intel had put out a slightly more detailed compatibility list if they aren't able to support a blanket statement like "all M.2 SSDs that are SATA III compliant."
-Heat. If you are a gamer and you are playing the modern games at the aforementioned medium (or higher) settings at 1920x1080, you'll notice that the NUC runs a bit hot. And by "a bit hot" I mean "don't touch near the exhaust after a good 30+ minute gaming session for at least 5 minutes." It can come very close to burning you if you aren't careful. However, that is a sign of the good heat management, as the CPU/internals don't come close to overheating - just the exhaust.
Overall:
I would recommend this computer to most people. It has the ability to do what 80%+ of the PC market needs it to do, it can play most games quite well, it has the horsepower and storage capabilities to do media editing and general workstation tasks. While it does have the Thunderbolt interface for external graphics cards, I wouldn't recommend this to someone who would need that. Given the extra cost, it would be more effective to just get a high end gaming desktop or laptop. For everyone else - casual/mainstream gamer, office user, home theater PC enthusiast, etc... I would say, "Go for it." It's absolutely more than worth the money you'll pay.
| Standing screen display size | 1 |
|---|---|
| Processor | 2.6 GHz core_i7 |
| Hard Drive | 250 GB Hybrid Drive |
| Graphics Coprocessor | Intel Iris Pro Graphics 580 |
| Chipset Brand | Intel |
| Card Description | Integrated |
| Wireless Type | 802.11ac |
| Number of USB 3.0 Ports | 4 |
