5 ms·
I had the same experience as the OP. My Mac Mini was getting old, and the fan was making a worrisome noise. I wasn't going to buy the "latest" Mini, since it is
by esfandia 10y ago
I had the same experience as the OP. My Mac Mini was getting old, and the fan was making a worrisome noise. I wasn't going to buy the "latest" Mini, since it is very stale, hard to upgrade and expensive for what it is. Funnily enough I was already running Windows on that Mini anyway, so my next computer didn't have to be a Mac. But I did enjoy the small footprint, and I have to say that the Mac is probably the easiest hardware to run Windows on. The drivers have been tested and everything just works.
I ended up with the latest "Skull Canyon" NUC as well. Even though it is thinner than my old Mini, its footprint on my desk is about the same, it's just less square. I'm not a fan of the color or the design; it seems marketed at teenage gamerzzz, not at the boring middle aged guy who prefers a minimalist Scandinavian style. But that's not very important. I did have to buy the SSD and the RAM separately, I had to install Windows myself (so that's no better than buying a Mini to run Windows on), and I did have to hunt for a couple of drivers. I don't know why they don't sell a fully configured machine.
Its fan is not as quiet as the Mini, and it has some weird transient behavior when it wakes up from hibernation. It didn't come cheap (I maxed pretty much every spec though). It is very fast, it does the job competently, but I don't Love it like I Loved the Mini. Sad that Apple has abandoned this cute nifty little machine.
- nextos 10y agoThere are brands that build absolutely awesome fanless cases on top of Intel NUC boards. I recommend those: http://www.aleutia.com/computers/ http://www.aleutia.com/computers/ http://www.cirrus7.com/produkte http://www.cirrus7.com/produkte Intel is a bit lazy. Many manufacturers are selling cheap fanless devices for a lot less money. Their Core m3 is a fanless CPU. They should release a fanless NUC themselves. I love NUCs because their hardware just works on Linux and they are relatively affordable. Fanless cooling would make them perfect.
- lobster_johnson 10y agoLast year I got a fanless box from Atlast to use as a headless Linux server running Plex Media Server. Really excellent little box. Quad-core i5, 120GB SSD, 8GB RAM, Ubuntu preinstalled. $600 plus $50 shipping to the US (they're in the UK): http://www.atlastsolutions.com/fanless-mini-itx http://www.atlastsolutions.com/fanless-mini-itx They Atlast guys are also very friendly, and they know Linux.
- nextos 10y agoCool. Seems they are using Akasa cases?
- lobster_johnson 10y agoI believe so. There's no logo or any markings on the case, however.
- pixelcloud 10y agoI believe NUCs are targeted towards businesses to be honest. I have a couple of them, and they are very boring, but high quality. Plenty of different configurations, but Intel isnt really trying to sell pre-built windows boxes (unless you buy a bunch of them consistently)
- intrasight 10y agoActually, that's exactly what Intel is doing with the NUC. http://www.pcmag.com/news/350980/intels-latest-nuc-costs-232-including-windows-10 http://www.pcmag.com/news/350980/intels-latest-nuc-costs-232...
- rilut 10y agoDoesn't Windows 10 installs all your drivers automatically?
- scott_karana 10y agoThe regular NUC has a much quieter fan than the more powerful "gamer" one you selected. Often, bigger/faster is not better... :)