I'm really not convinced you have looked into NUCs before because (at least in England) I've found the exact opposite is true: they've been really affordable wh

I'm really not convinced you have looked into NUCs before because (at least in England) I've found the exact opposite is true: they've been really affordable when compared to hardware of a similar price point. Sure you can get a really cheap laptop but you end up with a low quality storage medium, lower quality memory, or other shortcuts taken and you can guarantee the device will break after two years. Plus they'll run louder and/or draw more power too. This is particularly true with budget desktops too. The point of the NUC isn't that it's an entry level board (we already have Raspberry Pi and various copycat boards for that). The NUC is intended to be an upgrade from that but still in the compact form factor. Which is why many compared the first NUCs to Mac Minis. And to that end I know of some businesses that replaced their desktops with NUCs because of their cheap cost (relative to other business machines), low noise, low power usage, and compact form factor. Additionally NUCs have been used as the basis for quite a number of devices in the broadcasting industry too. My last company had a few NUC-powered devices handed to them from various broadcasting partners. I've also bought a NUC for myself for personal use. I bought it from a consumer web site and decided upon it after a recommendation from other consumers. So it's appeal isn't just as a low cost business machine. Other comments in here have been equally glowing about the NUC as well. So I find it really hard to believe you had given any serious time investigating them before now. I mean you haven't even capitalised the product name correctly and didn't realise USB et al was onboard until halfway through our discussion. If this product isn't for you then that's fine. I'm not here to convince you to buy one. And equally just because you don't see a value it doesn't mean others can't either.