The headline is a little misleading. This isn't an "official launch." All of this info was taken from a PDF full of technical specifications that was intended for system builders and OEM companies.
I woulnd't say it's super niche at all. It's aimed at corporate deployments, for which it's perfect. Particularly now it's 4c/8t. It's been a growing market since 2014 and I doon't see any reason why it won't continue to grow.
I'd bet for most typical business users (excluding media or power users) they're a perfect use case. Why bother with a huge tower taking up space when you can mount one of these on the back of a screen. Excellent performance, security, and impressive IO all in a tiny box.
Yes, and a very good idea. SKU's of retail products are commonly reconfigured by the distributor like CDW for large orders anyway. In our case we have our laptops ordered with more memory because Lenovo doesn't have a SKU with the memory we want. Then we have them install our image before they ship. Saves us time and money.
Forgot to add they stream 4k just fine before someone spouts off some bullshit saying they can't. YOu don't need a lot to stream 4k despite what people think.
All octane really does is act as a cache for your storage, allowing some of your hdd data to be processed as quickly as ssd data. Almost useless to add octane to a system running only an ssd.
Just a thought; but arent we supposed to have PoE NUCs by now? In school districts and businesses this would be a very attractive feature for convenience and security, and I thought that was a part of the original move towards the low power NUC design, but I have not seen any real options for it yet. Sure, we still need power for the monitor. But in a computer lab situation it means half of the outlets required (or in the case of school districts, half of the daisy-chained power strips lol). Plus, the ability to set up port security so it makes the device unable to power on at all if it gets tampered with. With PoE able to deliver 50+W I am just a little surprised that this is not a thing yet on devices that take a max of ~45W, and could probably take less if some of the device charging features were removed from the USB ports.
I guarantee you will see complaints about the noise produced by the cooling system. I have both 28W i7 NUCs in this form factor (5i7 & 7i7) and under a constant 28W CPU+GPU load, the fans need to spin up to full noisy speed to keep it "cool" (under 90°C).
However you can manually set the TDP in the BIOS of all NUCs to whatever you want and you can also set the fan speed ramp up however you want. So you can choose whatever balance of performance, heat, and noise you prefer.
What's really annoying here is they're using CPUs with fewer cores. The i3-8100t is 35w and has 4 cores. That's what I was looking forward to buying because that's the promise of Coffee Lake, that's what makes it interesting. This? This isn't interesting at all. I3s with 2 cores, i5s/i7s with 4.
Buy the i5 if you want 4 cores. If you want 6 cores, that requires a higher TDP than the small NUCs' cooling can manage. Maybe Gigabyte or Zotac have something for you but it'll be bigger to handle that TDP increase.
Thanks for the helpful tip, buddy. Obviously I could spend more for more cores. The beauty of coffee lake is you get more cores for your money. That's what makes them cool, suddenly i3s are interesting options. Except in these NUCs, where they aren't.
The i5-8500t and i5-8700t have 6 physical cores and are 35w, so they would work just fine in a NUC too.
35W desktop CPUs have no chance of working in a NUC unless Intel changes the cooling and the motherboard chipset. NUCs use laptop class CPUs and their associated lower power motherboard chipsets and sockets.
The i5-8500t and i7-8700t are desktop-class LGA1151 CPUs which have never been the type of CPUs used in the 4x4" NUCs. That's why I said to look at other classes of units which use low power desktop class CPUs, Intel's offerings are laptop-class and have always been so.
There is no ~28W 4 core i3 laptop CPU from Intel, nor are there ~28W 6 core i5 or i7 CPUs. Intel could certainly redesign to add a better cooler and then pop in either the 45W laptop 4 (i3) to 6 (i5&i7) core units, or 35W desktop CPUs but that means a larger class of NUC sitting between these and the Hades Canyon ones. I'd love it if they made something like this but I'm not counting on it.
But this yammering isn't addressing your source of annoyance. The only reason Intel released the 4 and 6 core i3s, 5s, and 7s at similar prices to lower core previous gen CPUs is because of Ryzen on the desktop.
The only reason they *don't* need to extend those benefits to lower power chips on the laptop side (why *not* a 35W laptop 4-6 core?) is because Ryzen is not nearly the same threat in the laptop space. If that changes in the next year or two (very doubtful), then I'll wager that Intel will make and price those chips accordingly.
Intel makes the CPUs, the chipsets, the motherboard, and the entire system. It's a fully integrated product. They could do whatever they want here, and they chose to limit the NUCs to pre-coffee lake core counts. That sucks, they should do better, and I'm a disappointed consumer who will not be purchasing one due to this mistake.
I see no mistake from Intel as you're asking for a product class that Intel has never made. The current 4x4" NUCs have the best CPUs in them that Intel offers in their 28W laptop class. You want something more which Intel is not interested in making so they lose a sale from you, but that's why I suggested Gigabyte or Zotac. They make USFF PCs with desktop class processors. For a price and size premium, unfortunately.
As a point of reference, have a look at the core counts of the pre Coffee Lake NUCs. The i5s and i7s all have lower core counts and the i3s did not have Turbo Boost. Increased core count and i3 Turbo boost are new features of the Coffee Lake laptop CPUs and are among the many improvements in this year's NUC line.
Put another way: assuming that Intel would upgrade the i5 and i7 NUC from a 2 core to a 6 core CPU in one generation makes no sense.
From the article: there are things other than CPU cores on the U-series silicon, such as eDRAM, PCH, and Wi-Fi & Bluetooth. It's not a CPU, it's a SOC. Comparisons to CPUs with less integration are invalid.
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stanleyipkiss - Wednesday, July 25, 2018 - link
I'd buy a fanless version of the i5 K-model with no SATA3 2.5 inch HDD.psychobriggsy - Wednesday, July 25, 2018 - link
Did they stop to think about that name at all?Bean Canyon? :D
FreckledTrout - Wednesday, July 25, 2018 - link
Im sure they had fun with it. It is a real Canyon in Cali which does fit with the other internal names.brakdoo - Wednesday, July 25, 2018 - link
Just call it gen 8 or something but this is getting confusing.FreckledTrout - Wednesday, July 25, 2018 - link
That coffee lake came from filling up the bean canyon.psychobriggsy - Wednesday, July 25, 2018 - link
There's a Butte Lake as well, so I'm looking forward to that CPU on 14++++JediMetaKnight - Wednesday, July 25, 2018 - link
I think it's like coffee bean, because it uses a coffee lake cpu.MrSpadge - Wednesday, July 25, 2018 - link
They're really deep into those canyons.boozed - Wednesday, July 25, 2018 - link
Maybe Intel has a sense of humour after all.I hope it comes with a water cooling option.
Gunbuster - Wednesday, July 25, 2018 - link
One would think a press release with some professional product images would be a better way to "officially launch"?Meh, NUC is super niche, wouldn't be supprised if the department responsible for it is on life support or just trying to stay under the radar.
Nsummy - Wednesday, July 25, 2018 - link
The headline is a little misleading. This isn't an "official launch." All of this info was taken from a PDF full of technical specifications that was intended for system builders and OEM companies.MattMe - Wednesday, July 25, 2018 - link
I woulnd't say it's super niche at all. It's aimed at corporate deployments, for which it's perfect. Particularly now it's 4c/8t. It's been a growing market since 2014 and I doon't see any reason why it won't continue to grow.I'd bet for most typical business users (excluding media or power users) they're a perfect use case. Why bother with a huge tower taking up space when you can mount one of these on the back of a screen. Excellent performance, security, and impressive IO all in a tiny box.
I'm convinced.
Icehawk - Wednesday, July 25, 2018 - link
I agree, I have been pushing for mini PCs (Dell 3060) at work for our retail stores - why waste space for an empty box?nico_mach - Wednesday, July 25, 2018 - link
A hobbyist box that you have to add RAM and SSD to manually is for corporate deployments? Really?ganeshts - Wednesday, July 25, 2018 - link
You do understand that there are VARs (like SimplyNUC) who kit them out for mass deployment, right?Dug - Friday, July 27, 2018 - link
Yes, and a very good idea. SKU's of retail products are commonly reconfigured by the distributor like CDW for large orders anyway. In our case we have our laptops ordered with more memory because Lenovo doesn't have a SKU with the memory we want. Then we have them install our image before they ship. Saves us time and money.imaheadcase - Thursday, July 26, 2018 - link
What are you smoking? These are perfect for small entertainment hubs or work hubs at business. They sell really well.imaheadcase - Thursday, July 26, 2018 - link
Not only that, but they run KODI like a champ, perfect SFF to put next to TV to stream all downloaded content.imaheadcase - Thursday, July 26, 2018 - link
Forgot to add they stream 4k just fine before someone spouts off some bullshit saying they can't. YOu don't need a lot to stream 4k despite what people think.K_Space - Monday, July 30, 2018 - link
...and with support for HDCP2.2 -finally- I'm sold!close - Wednesday, July 25, 2018 - link
Is this the kind of system where Optane prices are justified?JediMetaKnight - Wednesday, July 25, 2018 - link
All octane really does is act as a cache for your storage, allowing some of your hdd data to be processed as quickly as ssd data. Almost useless to add octane to a system running only an ssd.sor - Wednesday, July 25, 2018 - link
Not if you use Optane as the SSD. You could pair this NUC with an inexpensive 800p or something like that if you don’t need tons of storage.OFelix - Wednesday, July 25, 2018 - link
Want!CaedenV - Wednesday, July 25, 2018 - link
Just a thought; but arent we supposed to have PoE NUCs by now?In school districts and businesses this would be a very attractive feature for convenience and security, and I thought that was a part of the original move towards the low power NUC design, but I have not seen any real options for it yet.
Sure, we still need power for the monitor. But in a computer lab situation it means half of the outlets required (or in the case of school districts, half of the daisy-chained power strips lol). Plus, the ability to set up port security so it makes the device unable to power on at all if it gets tampered with. With PoE able to deliver 50+W I am just a little surprised that this is not a thing yet on devices that take a max of ~45W, and could probably take less if some of the device charging features were removed from the USB ports.
JediMetaKnight - Wednesday, July 25, 2018 - link
Waited for the launch, now I'll wait for the reviews to see if these puppies have any heating or noise issues, if not then i'll get one.Lew Zealand - Wednesday, July 25, 2018 - link
I guarantee you will see complaints about the noise produced by the cooling system. I have both 28W i7 NUCs in this form factor (5i7 & 7i7) and under a constant 28W CPU+GPU load, the fans need to spin up to full noisy speed to keep it "cool" (under 90°C).However you can manually set the TDP in the BIOS of all NUCs to whatever you want and you can also set the fan speed ramp up however you want. So you can choose whatever balance of performance, heat, and noise you prefer.
schizoide - Wednesday, July 25, 2018 - link
What's really annoying here is they're using CPUs with fewer cores. The i3-8100t is 35w and has 4 cores. That's what I was looking forward to buying because that's the promise of Coffee Lake, that's what makes it interesting. This? This isn't interesting at all. I3s with 2 cores, i5s/i7s with 4.Pfffffffft.
Lew Zealand - Wednesday, July 25, 2018 - link
Buy the i5 if you want 4 cores. If you want 6 cores, that requires a higher TDP than the small NUCs' cooling can manage. Maybe Gigabyte or Zotac have something for you but it'll be bigger to handle that TDP increase.schizoide - Wednesday, July 25, 2018 - link
Thanks for the helpful tip, buddy. Obviously I could spend more for more cores. The beauty of coffee lake is you get more cores for your money. That's what makes them cool, suddenly i3s are interesting options. Except in these NUCs, where they aren't.The i5-8500t and i5-8700t have 6 physical cores and are 35w, so they would work just fine in a NUC too.
schizoide - Wednesday, July 25, 2018 - link
Sorry, meant the i7-8700t there.Lew Zealand - Wednesday, July 25, 2018 - link
35W desktop CPUs have no chance of working in a NUC unless Intel changes the cooling and the motherboard chipset. NUCs use laptop class CPUs and their associated lower power motherboard chipsets and sockets.The i5-8500t and i7-8700t are desktop-class LGA1151 CPUs which have never been the type of CPUs used in the 4x4" NUCs. That's why I said to look at other classes of units which use low power desktop class CPUs, Intel's offerings are laptop-class and have always been so.
There is no ~28W 4 core i3 laptop CPU from Intel, nor are there ~28W 6 core i5 or i7 CPUs. Intel could certainly redesign to add a better cooler and then pop in either the 45W laptop 4 (i3) to 6 (i5&i7) core units, or 35W desktop CPUs but that means a larger class of NUC sitting between these and the Hades Canyon ones. I'd love it if they made something like this but I'm not counting on it.
Lew Zealand - Wednesday, July 25, 2018 - link
But this yammering isn't addressing your source of annoyance. The only reason Intel released the 4 and 6 core i3s, 5s, and 7s at similar prices to lower core previous gen CPUs is because of Ryzen on the desktop.The only reason they *don't* need to extend those benefits to lower power chips on the laptop side (why *not* a 35W laptop 4-6 core?) is because Ryzen is not nearly the same threat in the laptop space. If that changes in the next year or two (very doubtful), then I'll wager that Intel will make and price those chips accordingly.
schizoide - Thursday, July 26, 2018 - link
Intel makes the CPUs, the chipsets, the motherboard, and the entire system. It's a fully integrated product. They could do whatever they want here, and they chose to limit the NUCs to pre-coffee lake core counts. That sucks, they should do better, and I'm a disappointed consumer who will not be purchasing one due to this mistake.Jaybus - Thursday, July 26, 2018 - link
They can do whatever they want EXCEPT defy the laws of physics.Lew Zealand - Thursday, July 26, 2018 - link
I see no mistake from Intel as you're asking for a product class that Intel has never made. The current 4x4" NUCs have the best CPUs in them that Intel offers in their 28W laptop class. You want something more which Intel is not interested in making so they lose a sale from you, but that's why I suggested Gigabyte or Zotac. They make USFF PCs with desktop class processors. For a price and size premium, unfortunately.As a point of reference, have a look at the core counts of the pre Coffee Lake NUCs. The i5s and i7s all have lower core counts and the i3s did not have Turbo Boost. Increased core count and i3 Turbo boost are new features of the Coffee Lake laptop CPUs and are among the many improvements in this year's NUC line.
Put another way: assuming that Intel would upgrade the i5 and i7 NUC from a 2 core to a 6 core CPU in one generation makes no sense.
wbwb - Monday, July 30, 2018 - link
From the article: there are things other than CPU cores on the U-series silicon, such as eDRAM, PCH, and Wi-Fi & Bluetooth. It's not a CPU, it's a SOC. Comparisons to CPUs with less integration are invalid.maroon1 - Friday, July 27, 2018 - link
This thing has Iris iGPU with 128MB ram