Would Asus or ASRock be interested in continuing the PC Engines APU2 line of low-power, fanless x86 embedded systems with coreboot?
ASUS to manufacture and sell Intel’s NUC products
91–100 of 341 posts
Re: ASUS to manufacture and sell Intel’s NUC products
#92Re: ASUS to manufacture and sell Intel’s NUC products
#93It's funny and sad how the NUC started as a super small form factor device but eventually ended up as mini-ITX. Intel's own models have been mini-itx for years now.
That said, I see zero reason to buy anything Intel as AMD is spanking them pretty much everywhere. That may change soon if rumours of hoarding all the latest EXE machines are true.
Re: ASUS to manufacture and sell Intel’s NUC products
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have been using a NUC as an HTPC for several years now and it's great, though the comments in the previous conversation about them ending the line were right about the noise. I'm in the market for a similar device to replace my dangerously past EOL desktop, and funny enough I have been circling around Asus' SFF line.
I had an htpc for over a decade in various forms. I finally just settled on the Nvidia shield reading over NFS. It's so much better than the htpc I don't regret it for a minute.
After owning and using the same shield since 2016 I was advising to get it if anyone asked for a streaming and local playback of media. But now days I think Apple TV beats it easily as a streaming device. If Apple moved to an M chip and added audio passthrough it would be no contest. I would not advise people to get Shield if they want to get a device for the next 5-6 years unless it has a hardware refresh.
Re: ASUS to manufacture and sell Intel’s NUC products
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
The key is to use an external SSD via USB. Much better bang for your buck than Apple’s storage pricing.
While that’s true it kind of ruins the point in getting a small factor computer like a Mac Mini. You want as small a footprint as possible. Personally I have a USB disk plugged into my router and my HTPC just grabs files over the network.
> as small a form factor as possible
This is what I want. And the Mac Mini does it better than the nuc as the power bricks the Nucs use are big, ugly and annoying to deal with.
Re: ASUS to manufacture and sell Intel’s NUC products
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
Costco occasionally has sales on Mac Mini for $299.00 (M1 Mac Mini). Right now a Mac mini – Apple M2 Chip 8-core CPU, 10-core GPU – 8GB Memory – 256GB SSD – Silver is $499 Hard pressed to buy a decent NUC for less.
Just checked on ebay, a 12500H NUC with 16GB ram and 1TB SSD is $518. You have to be in a completely distorted reality field to choose Apple in these circumstances.
Or price is of little consequence and you just want a nice machine.
I have several Nucs and would love a Max mini server. I think I’d prefer that option but the price is too high to justify it.
The bits I like are the built in 10gbe and the huge transcoding power.
Re: ASUS to manufacture and sell Intel’s NUC products
#97I find the development quite interesting, and it lends credence to the theory Intel's NUC line was technically profitable (or at least not horrifically in the red), but just didn't make strategic sense - especially from a 'competing with your own customers' view. While I never bought one of these NUCs myself, I've used quite a few deployed as thin clients and kiosk machines. Let's see what ASUS ends up doing with the…
I have been using a NUC as an HTPC for several years now and it's great, though the comments in the previous conversation about them ending the line were right about the noise. I'm in the market for a similar device to replace my dangerously past EOL desktop, and funny enough I have been circling around Asus' SFF line.
> about the noise
I've been thinking of getting a fanless case[1] for my Asus PN51. Akasa also makes some for Intel NUCs too[2], amongst others.
[1]: https://www.akasa.com.tw/update.php?tpl=list%2FCHASSIS+POWER...
[2]: https://www.akasa.com.tw/update.php?tpl=list%2FCHASSIS+POWER...
Re: ASUS to manufacture and sell Intel’s NUC products
#98Meanwhile there's also the Gigabyte Brix. https://www.gigabyte.com/au/Mini-PcBarebone
While in the past I have used a pair of Gigabyte Brix with good results, I no longer consider them for any new purchase.
The reason is that all the Gigabyte Brix are designed for a maximum working ambient temperature of 35 Celsius degrees. Where I live, in Europe, the ambient temperature is frequently higher than that.
Now, a condition for buying any new computer is to have a maximum working ambient temperature of at least 40 Celsius degrees, like it was true for most Intel NUC models.
Re: ASUS to manufacture and sell Intel’s NUC products
#99About a week ago we had an article about Intel leaving the NUC market. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36680674 It seems a bit slapdash to announce that ASUS is taking the brand forward a week later. Like if they were planning on doing this for a while, it would be an orderly transfer, right? So, what, did somebody at ASUS see that ServeTheHome article and decide to just go for it? Anyway, I really like NUCs, an…
I don't really know how computers are made so I assumed that ASUS or someone like them was already the OEM for most of a NUC anyway. I didn't think Intel had any ability to make anything other than chips.
This sort of device is usually made by OEMs, so the NUC was quite unusual, so that’s a reasonable thing to mix up.
Actually, this has made me curious—I’m not sure if Intel, like, physically made the cases. But it could be a deal like with Apple, they don’t actually physically make iPhones of course, they contract it out to Foxconn. Wasn’t able to find any info about a contract manufacturer for NUCs, does anyone know if they used one?
Re: ASUS to manufacture and sell Intel’s NUC products
#100About a week ago we had an article about Intel leaving the NUC market. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36680674 It seems a bit slapdash to announce that ASUS is taking the brand forward a week later. Like if they were planning on doing this for a while, it would be an orderly transfer, right? So, what, did somebody at ASUS see that ServeTheHome article and decide to just go for it? Anyway, I really like NUCs, an…
Asus seems to be on the ball in looking for new markets to expand into with whoever is managing it at the moment. After Valve Steam Deck proving that there was an addressable market for handheld gaming pc they have come out with probably the best device so to match steam deck