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Intel exiting the PC business as it stops investment in the Intel NUC

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Re: Intel exiting the PC business as it stops investment in the Intel NUC

#231

Post by unmole »

touisteur wrote: post #183
Aromasin wrote: post #140

Funny enough, I predicted this in a previous HZ comment 3 months ago when they cut their server systems business. > "My guess is that they're cutting the portfolio down to feature only chipsets and add-in cards. Just CPUs, GPUs, FPGAs, ASICs, networking. It makes sense if anything - it really focuses on their core business. No more side-projects with questionable profitability. In the last 2 years since Pat Gelsinger…

A bit off mark on networking, looking at Tofino there. Could have maybe left barefoot alone, but no, buy it, hype it, actually tape out and start delivering nextgen, then cancel before people rack them.

> then cancel before people rack them

It's worse than that. We built Tofino powered boxes. We have multiple paying customers who bought and deployed them. Intel then cancelled it, screwing us and our customers.

Re: Intel exiting the PC business as it stops investment in the Intel NUC

#232

Post by fomine3 »

tiffanyh wrote: post #177
JoshTriplett wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For that kind of use case, you'd want a blade server or similar, not a NUC. In particular, you'd want something that works with a rack.

Something like this? https://hackaday.com/2012/12/09/160-mac-minis-one-rack/ 160 Mac Mini’s in a rack. That’s ~4-nodes / 1U. And you don’t have the added expense of the blade enclosure.

It's a thing because Apple doesn't sell rack mount Mac. Blade servers must be better for cost, cooling and high reliability.

Re: Intel exiting the PC business as it stops investment in the Intel NUC

#233

Post by hinkley »

nextos wrote: post #161
Aromasin wrote: post #140

Funny enough, I predicted this in a previous HZ comment 3 months ago when they cut their server systems business. > "My guess is that they're cutting the portfolio down to feature only chipsets and add-in cards. Just CPUs, GPUs, FPGAs, ASICs, networking. It makes sense if anything - it really focuses on their core business. No more side-projects with questionable profitability. In the last 2 years since Pat Gelsinger…

Sad news. NUCs could have been an excellent platform if they had tried to work a bit more on cooling. On third-party cases, NUCs were great. But on stock cases, some models were too noisy. Still, they provided great value. Nonetheless, I agree it's better for Intel to focus on their core business and leave this market to others. Some niche PC makers such as Cirrus7 offer great NUC-like systems.

> if they had tried to work a bit more on cooling

If Intel had 'worked more on [thermals]' we probably wouldn't have the M2 chip.

At nearly every phase of Intel's history they've had the second-worst chips for instructions per watt, occasionally taking over first place.

In a world where a large and ever-growing percentage of all CPUs are not fronted by giant cooling fans... It's like Intel decided what they wanted on their tombstone in 1995 and haven't felt the need to change it since.

Re: Intel exiting the PC business as it stops investment in the Intel NUC

#234

Post by brewdad »

CameronNemo wrote: post #206
justsomehnguy wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> “regular people use”. For quite some years I just said "buy a notebook and (if you really need it) monitor with keyboard/ mouse". With an SSD and a decent amount of RAM any notebook is fine for 95% of what people want from the home computer, with a small exception of gaming with a better settings than low/middle. At this point nor Mini, nor any other SFF 'desktop' doesn't make sense, because you can't take it with…

IMO a laptop is bulky and inconvenient to place on my desk. The battery is an unnecessary hazard. Having to open the screen to power on the device is inconvenient I think there are lots of reasons to prefer a minipc to laptop. Personally if I need a computer on the go, I use my phone. Much lighter and smaller.

I’ve found I have little use for my laptop, as a portable machine, since adding an iPad alongside my phone. I doubt I’ll buy another laptop in the future and certainly not a new one (3 y/o Thinkpad maybe).

I’ll probably go with a gaming desktop or a NUC sized machine and a gaming console depending on what the market looks like in a couple years.

Re: Intel exiting the PC business as it stops investment in the Intel NUC

#235

Post by wpm »

gowld wrote: post #172
nextos wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sad news. NUCs could have been an excellent platform if they had tried to work a bit more on cooling. On third-party cases, NUCs were great. But on stock cases, some models were too noisy. Still, they provided great value. Nonetheless, I agree it's better for Intel to focus on their core business and leave this market to others. Some niche PC makers such as Cirrus7 offer great NUC-like systems.

Apple worked hard to make cooling work in the Mac Mini, and now the M series of CPUs. Intel just slapped a chip in a generic case.

My 2018 i7 begs to differ. The cooling was never adequate enough for that chip even at 65W.

Now it’s comically overpowered. For 25-35W TDPs the chassis is fine, but Intel couldn’t deliver performance there. Apple should have retooled the case, not slapped it in there anyways. At one point when I had to use that i7 everyday I debated if it would be worth it to hack a proper PC tower cooler onto it and operate it outside the case.

Re: Intel exiting the PC business as it stops investment in the Intel NUC

#237

Post by brianm »

b212 wrote: post #219

Argh as a Mac user I was thinking about getting a NUC for gaming as the Iris chipsets were getting more powerful. Can you guys recommend something NUC- sized that runs Windows and could handle, let’s say, GTA V?

beelink or minisforum have you covered

Re: Intel exiting the PC business as it stops investment in the Intel NUC

#238

Post by NovaDudely »

nextos wrote: post #161
Aromasin wrote: post #140

Funny enough, I predicted this in a previous HZ comment 3 months ago when they cut their server systems business. > "My guess is that they're cutting the portfolio down to feature only chipsets and add-in cards. Just CPUs, GPUs, FPGAs, ASICs, networking. It makes sense if anything - it really focuses on their core business. No more side-projects with questionable profitability. In the last 2 years since Pat Gelsinger…

Sad news. NUCs could have been an excellent platform if they had tried to work a bit more on cooling. On third-party cases, NUCs were great. But on stock cases, some models were too noisy. Still, they provided great value. Nonetheless, I agree it's better for Intel to focus on their core business and leave this market to others. Some niche PC makers such as Cirrus7 offer great NUC-like systems.

Things like the Dell Optiplex Micro and Lenovo Mini ThinkCenters can provide a similar experience. Generally I have found that they haven't had any major noise issues but a part of that was being very conservative with clock rates.

NUC isn't exactly the same as those, it is designed to be much more user upgradable and the price was very competitive. But even nowadays it is surprising to see them in the wild because they just aren't that common.

Re: Intel exiting the PC business as it stops investment in the Intel NUC

#239

Post by simondotau »

mike_d wrote: post #200
gowld wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple worked hard to make cooling work in the Mac Mini, and now the M series of CPUs. Intel just slapped a chip in a generic case.

> Intel just slapped a chip in a generic case. The "NUC" was actually an Intel developed form factor, smaller than Micro ATX. They had to engineer motherboards, power supplies, and cooling for the extremely small footprint. They were available as barebones kits (without a CPU), so literally the exact opposite of what you suggest.

An alternative take is that the NUC is made of laptop parts, with a footprint, thermal capacity and level of bespoke-ness similar to a typical laptop.

Re: Intel exiting the PC business as it stops investment in the Intel NUC

#240

Post by Turskarama »

dangus wrote: post #135
alwillis wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Is there data on how well they actually sell? I always vaguely assumed it was a pretty low-volume product that they couldn't actually get rid of due to niche customer applications. They've historically often been very slow to _update_ it; they definitely don't treat it as one of their more important products. The Mac mini has always been Apple's low-cost trojan horse product for existing PC users who already have a…

I don’t think a lot of people still buy desktops outside of the gaming segment. I would make a bet that the MacBook Air outsells both the iMac and Mac mini by a ratio of 10 to 1.

Maybe they should though. A lot of people buy a laptop just to only ever use it on their desk and never actually take it anywhere. A desktop computer with equivalent performance will generally be several hundred dollars cheaper and run quieter as well.
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