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ASUS to manufacture and sell Intel’s NUC products

intel.com

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Re: ASUS to manufacture and sell Intel’s NUC products

#281

Post by tracker1 »

hengheng wrote: post #275
washadjeffmad wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's just a dream, but with TB4 or another high bandwidth PCIe interconnect, I'd be interested in seeing dockable cases not unlike the e-ports of yesteryear. The case design would slot in the otherwise independent NUC formfactor, providing power and airflow, housing the (e)GPU and other cards, and re-enabling all the benefits of cramming things in the 5.25" drive bays on the front of your PC. I got really frustrated…

I've been wanting for monitors to get PCIe slots for GPUs. Lots of space to get creative with cooling as well. My guess why it hasn't caught on is Thunderbolt timing issues. I could never get USB audio to work parallel to an eGPU on the same cable, which buries that whole one-cable-to-rule-them-all narrative.

In addition to the relatively short Thunderbolt cables, there's also the limited number of PCIe lanes that Thunderbolt offers, which will bottleneck higher end graphics cards.

Re: ASUS to manufacture and sell Intel’s NUC products

#282

Post by tracker1 »

dacryn wrote: post #181
o1y32 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would remove the word "inexpensive". Many alternatives cost less. I know people buy Intel for brand, quality and warranty but definitely not price.

at those form factors, they were quite price competitive. Yes many alternatives cost less, but if you want to tape them to the back of a TV that generates heat and has to be turned on 24/7 to display advertisements, video,..., they were cheapest by far. Or in meeting rooms to display zoom/teams, ... A raspberry pi just doesn't handle those scenario's

An RPi actually can handle those scenarios in many usecases. A Chromecast devices with a server feed can as well.

Re: ASUS to manufacture and sell Intel’s NUC products

#283

Post by tracker1 »

HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #260
sofixa wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For just running a screen not only is Windows a massive waste in terms of resources and costs, but so is a NUC. A Raspberry Pi (equivalent) is more than sufficient.

Depends on what the screen is doing. We deployed a system with multiple Raspberry Pi's running Chrome in kiosk mode, each driving a TV showing different data. For one of them we had to switch from a Raspberry Pi to a small NUC to display a page with 3-6 videos running. The pi could show 1 or 2 videos but with all 6 going, it was very stuttery playback.

I'm actually surprised it handles two videos without issue... It's a good option a lot of the time. When the scalping got bad, I started using the cheaper intel boxes, smaller than NUC but more powerful than rpi and included a case and enough storage.

Re: ASUS to manufacture and sell Intel’s NUC products

#284

Post by tracker1 »

SSLy wrote: post #138
o1y32 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would remove the word "inexpensive". Many alternatives cost less. I know people buy Intel for brand, quality and warranty but definitely not price.

What would be some of the alternatives? I don't even need a gpu. It will be a home server.

Depends on your needs, I've been using a Minisforum HX90 for a couple years now. AMD 5900HX, 32gb ram, 2tb nvme drive. Runs great, relatively low power in standby.

Re: ASUS to manufacture and sell Intel’s NUC products

#285

Post by tracker1 »

lhl wrote: post #187
SSLy wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would be some of the alternatives? I don't even need a gpu. It will be a home server.

I'd suggest checking out ServeTheHome, which has been reviewing tons of mini PCs or CNX Software or Liliputing which cover all the SBCs and minipcs that get announced/launched. There are way too many options to list and it largely depends on your exact needs. Personally, I bought a cheap fanless Chinese (Topton) router (N5105, 4xi225v3) system from AliExpress running OPNsense that's worked flawlessly for the past yea…

Running one of those same routers myself, been great. Setting up a friend with a topton N305 box that will host proxmox, about half resources going to OPNSense for routing, while also running pihole and wireguard... it may also share a usb connected HD for file sharing if/until he gets a separate nas.

I do wish there were one of them that included even two 3.5" drive bays so it can run as a forbidden home server doing all the things.

Re: ASUS to manufacture and sell Intel’s NUC products

#286

Post by jzb »

sandreas wrote: post #132

I personally used an old NUC6i5 with 16GB Ram and 1TB SSD as my private "HomeServer" / "Media-PC" / "RemoteMachine" for a long time, mainly bought because it was (and still is) 5.9W idle power consumption while reasonable performance (way more than a raspberry PI at the time). I also spent the money on an Akasa Passive case[1], which made the device very expensive in total, but it was worth it at the time. It's still…

The time for media PCs may be over, they may not. I have a Plex server and the NUC is a great form factor for that.

But, even leaving aside media PCs, the form factor is great. They're powerful enough for me to use happily as a desktop, and I love having a tiny PC that doesn't take up acres of desktop.

Re: ASUS to manufacture and sell Intel’s NUC products

#287

Post by UnixSchizoid »

kingrazor wrote: post #276
UnixSchizoid wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve gotten used Lenovo ThinkCenters for $30 on eBay. Sure they’re used and have a 3rd generation i3, but it’s the best budget home server option out there! They can easily replace whatever done on a pi and even more.

Yep ThinkCentres, Optiplexes, and Elite Desks go for pennies on eBay.

Got to love used office equipment! I’m a big Optiplex fan and I use one as my daily personal pc for everything. I use ThinkCenters for most of my Homelab due to the fact that I’ve found them the cheapest, but I use Optiplexs when I need something stronger. But I’ve never used an Elite Desk in a homelab, how do they compare to Optiplexs and ThinkCenters?

Re: ASUS to manufacture and sell Intel’s NUC products

#288

Post by sandreas »

jzb wrote: post #286
sandreas wrote: post #132

I personally used an old NUC6i5 with 16GB Ram and 1TB SSD as my private "HomeServer" / "Media-PC" / "RemoteMachine" for a long time, mainly bought because it was (and still is) 5.9W idle power consumption while reasonable performance (way more than a raspberry PI at the time). I also spent the money on an Akasa Passive case[1], which made the device very expensive in total, but it was worth it at the time. It's still…

The time for media PCs may be over, they may not. I have a Plex server and the NUC is a great form factor for that. But, even leaving aside media PCs, the form factor is great. They're powerful enough for me to use happily as a desktop, and I love having a tiny PC that doesn't take up acres of desktop.

I'm not sure if I can totally agree with that. The form factor may be nice but, in my case the NUC has always been very noisy and hot until I decided to buy the akasa case. This is no wonder, because the small packed hardware cannot be cooled as efficient as bigger cases, even slightly bigger onces.

The NUC is also limited in extensability and even if the form factor as such is nice, they are slow compared to only slightly bigger sized Ryzen workstations (e.g. Minisforum X400 or ASRock DeskMini).

I'm also running a Plex server (as Proxmox Guest) and in my opinion servers do not need to be small or fanless in general, if you can place them somewhere in a room where noise and space are not this problematic (my server is in the kitchen ON the fridge... I consider the living room and the bedroom as quiet places)

The NUC is pretty good for very specific use cases (presentations, fairs, etc.) because they can easily be transported and are small and the hardware is ok, but for most other use cases, especially servers, there are definitely better systems.

Re: ASUS to manufacture and sell Intel’s NUC products

#289

Post by tracker1 »

bfdm wrote: post #25
RandomBK wrote: post #5

I 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.

I'd love to go back to HTPC, but really want a full-screen friendly interface that includes the various streaming services. What have you been using for the UI/UX?

Aside: been using NVidia Shield TV(s) and Kodi for local/nas media.

Re: ASUS to manufacture and sell Intel’s NUC products

#290

Post by hguant »

sandreas wrote: post #132

I personally used an old NUC6i5 with 16GB Ram and 1TB SSD as my private "HomeServer" / "Media-PC" / "RemoteMachine" for a long time, mainly bought because it was (and still is) 5.9W idle power consumption while reasonable performance (way more than a raspberry PI at the time). I also spent the money on an Akasa Passive case[1], which made the device very expensive in total, but it was worth it at the time. It's still…

I would argue that media pcs and home servers are becoming _more_ not less important, precisely because Netflix, Disney+ et al have become such bad stewards of movies and shows, both in terms of deleting content, and no longer being "worth it" for the price. Anecdotally, I know more and more friends and coworkers who are moving to having their own media servers because they don't want to have to hunt through different services for their favourite shows or movies, or they've been burned by Amazon changing the streaming license of their "purchase."
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