The Remarkable Intel NUC
Source: John C. Dvorak
Since the 1980s, Intel has created smallish computers that were always interesting, but never commercial. This has all changed with the little Intel NUC (New Unit of Computing), a ludicrously powerful full-featured machine that weighs less than 18 ounces and runs silently and cool.
Intel has had this little so-called barebones device available for a few years now, but the most recent version has the best specs so far, thanks to a 22-nanometer chip technology that allowed a remarkable shrink.
With USB 3.0 ports, HDMI, DisplayPort, and Gigabit Ethernet, as well as a Core i5 Haswell chip, this unit address all the complaints about the previous unit reviewed by PCMag.
You can buy the basic NUC unit for as little as $350. To make the machine useful requires an internal 120GB SSD for $90 and up, 8GB of internal memory for $85, as well as an optional wireless card for $26. You can find these machines semi-configured or empty.
One of these NUC devices loaded with everything will run just over $500. This is an excellent price for a powerful yet diminutive and easily transportable device utilizing an Intel 4th-Generation Intel Core i5-4250U processor. You can tell by reading the spec sheet. Intel thinks NUC will be a great home entertainment box for the enthusiast. According to the specs it can even drive a 4K monitor; I only used it on my 1,920-by-1,080 unit, where it performed perfectly.
Opinions
My unit had Win 8.1 pre-installed on the SSD, but I could easily install various versions of Linux. I'm currently playing with the MINT distro. The NUC easily booted from any of the USB CD Drives I had laying around the house and quickly into Linux Mint. The machine immediately recognized all the weird USB devices I had hooked to a hub connected to the little box.
The NUC comes with a mounting bracket to attach to the back of a monitor or wherever you'd like to place it if you believe the tiny thing is taking up too much space. This is a desktop machine equivalent in a 4- by 4- by 2-inch box. It is much smaller than the 7-by-7-inch Mac mini with equivalent power and has a lower price.
Since the storage is all solid state, I'd have no problem throwing it in a suitcase and travelling with it as an essentially portable computer that I can hook up to pretty much any screen using a DisplayPort to DVI connector. You can add one of the $110 3TB USB 3.0 portable disk drives you can find everywhere nowadays and have a pretty hot machine that has a non-existent footprint. You use the cloud or a nice NAS on the network for large storage needs. With the built-in graphics, sound and networking, a NUC is a complete solution for anyone.
Whatever the case, this appears to be a very small and complete work horse system that would be an ideal device for the corporation, despite the ease with which it could be stolen. Anyone can easily stuff one of these computers into a front pocket of their pants. There are security options, but that adds to the cost. If there is any drawback left for the device it's the external power supply. But even that is not that big of a deal.
I've always been a fan of small box computers. Some are more powerful than others, none as high-powered as I'd like. The NUC mini-box is the first I've found to be tremendously powerful. Plus, it can be boosted if necessary. Comparisons to similarly priced machines make the NUC look good. What a great little project computer for you next invention that needs a standardized CPU that can be easily programmed.
This is a highly recommended fun little machine. A gem. Get one.
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