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I don't really care about super high performance - I need a small NUC that I can cool passively with reasonable performance for typical business stuff I do on t

by bitL 12y ago

I don't really care about super high performance - I need a small NUC that I can cool passively with reasonable performance for typical business stuff I do on the desktop. I understand the difference between mobile i5 vs i7 is almost none even on Haswell (both are dual-core with hyperthreading unlike desktop versions). I already have a 17W IvyBridge i7-3517U in one of my notebooks so I know what I am talking about. I also can't wait for 19W Kaveri for another tiny desktop setup... EDIT: i7 details

mitchty 12y ago
I have a low power i3 I use in a nas freebsd box for the same reason. The things a bit overpowered even for its use as is. I even started setting up vm's on the box to give it more to do. I also love these low power cpus for desktops/home systems. When they use less power than a lightbulb, i'm all for it.
DuskStar 12y ago
From Wikipedia, Intel also has quad-core + hyperthreading mobile CPUs, with model numbers 4700 and up. The top mobile i7 is about equivalent to a 4770S desktop chip, but with a bit lower TDP. So don't lump all the mobile parts in with the ultrabook-optimised chips.
- bitL 12y ago
  Sure, there is a 47W i7-4960HQ in rMBP which has significantly higher power consumption than what I am looking for. If you look at low power U versions of i5 and i7, they seem almost identical (with i7 having larger cache and a bit higher frequency; both are dual core and have hyperthreading). In desktop, you can see i5 is without HT contrary to i7. If Broadwell can bring 20W quadcore i5/i7 - that would be even better! Currently only BayTrail Pentium J can offer that.
zanny 12y ago
I just recently built and tested out a Kaveri based mini NUC scale computer. I used this case: www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129185 and it runs really swell. I even gave it a nice workout in kdenlive baking a multi-track video project I made on my i7 desktop - on my desktop it took 50 minutes, on the Kaveri it took 4 hours. But that is still within the realm of reason. The part is 25w TDP, but there are passive heatsinks for it, but even with the fan I have it at 25% speed and its quieter than a mechanical hard drive.
mng2 12y ago
I don't see why you need an i7. I have a passively-cooled Celeron NUC (Zotac CI320) that's fine for web browsing and 'productivity'. It gets hotter than I'd like though.
xorcist 12y ago
There are excellent passively cooled cases for the HTPC crowd, that work very well for regular desktop use. Some can cool the real deal desktop Intel processors. The performance is something else entirely from the super low power NUC stuff. Video editing and processing is suddenly not a problem. I got the H1 from HD-Plex.com myself. It's specified to cool 55W but I run the 65W version of the i7 (so it's semi-low power) without any problems, not even at full load for extended periods of time. It takes mini-ITX motherboards and stuffing it with 16 GB RAM was not a problem. It was a bit fiddly to everything together but the build quality is great. No relation, just a satisfied customer.
justincormack 12y ago
I have an 8 core server Atom which is around 20W. Single thread performance is slow but its pretty good overall.

by bitL 12y ago

mitchty 12y ago

I have a low power i3 I use in a nas freebsd box for the same reason. The things a bit overpowered even for its use as is. I even started setting up vm's on the box to give it more to do. I also love these low power cpus for desktops/home systems. When they use less power than a lightbulb, i'm all for it.

DuskStar 12y ago

From Wikipedia, Intel also has quad-core + hyperthreading mobile CPUs, with model numbers 4700 and up. The top mobile i7 is about equivalent to a 4770S desktop chip, but with a bit lower TDP. So don't lump all the mobile parts in with the ultrabook-optimised chips.

bitL 12y ago
Sure, there is a 47W i7-4960HQ in rMBP which has significantly higher power consumption than what I am looking for. If you look at low power U versions of i5 and i7, they seem almost identical (with i7 having larger cache and a bit higher frequency; both are dual core and have hyperthreading). In desktop, you can see i5 is without HT contrary to i7. If Broadwell can bring 20W quadcore i5/i7 - that would be even better! Currently only BayTrail Pentium J can offer that.

zanny 12y ago

I just recently built and tested out a Kaveri based mini NUC scale computer. I used this case: www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129185 and it runs really swell. I even gave it a nice workout in kdenlive baking a multi-track video project I made on my i7 desktop - on my desktop it took 50 minutes, on the Kaveri it took 4 hours. But that is still within the realm of reason. The part is 25w TDP, but there are passive heatsinks for it, but even with the fan I have it at 25% speed and its quieter than a mechanical hard drive.

mng2 12y ago

I don't see why you need an i7. I have a passively-cooled Celeron NUC (Zotac CI320) that's fine for web browsing and 'productivity'. It gets hotter than I'd like though.

xorcist 12y ago

There are excellent passively cooled cases for the HTPC crowd, that work very well for regular desktop use. Some can cool the real deal desktop Intel processors. The performance is something else entirely from the super low power NUC stuff. Video editing and processing is suddenly not a problem. I got the H1 from HD-Plex.com myself. It's specified to cool 55W but I run the 65W version of the i7 (so it's semi-low power) without any problems, not even at full load for extended periods of time. It takes mini-ITX motherboards and stuffing it with 16 GB RAM was not a problem. It was a bit fiddly to everything together but the build quality is great. No relation, just a satisfied customer.

justincormack 12y ago

I have an 8 core server Atom which is around 20W. Single thread performance is slow but its pretty good overall.