You say "Iris Graphics" and then you say that these parts have eDRAM but that's not always true.
Intel has numerous models that have "Iris Graphics" with the largest (GT3) IGP configuration but do not include the eDRAM. Instead, Iris *Pro* Graphics has been used to designate the use of eDRAM. Do you have confirmation from Intel that this has changed or does the article need correction?
OK, it looks like Intel has changed its naming conventions for Skylake. For example, both of those Broadwell NUCs have "Iris" 6100 GPUs, but they lack the eDRAM. It looks like Intel is pushing eDRAM into more models now, which is a good thing.
I have the NUC615SYH model in front of me now with the following: -HyperX Impact 16 GB 2400 MHz -Samsung 250GB 850 EVO M.2 -Samsung 850 500GB evo 2.5"
All okay, updated to the latest firmward, installed Win10 fine BUT, as is often the case, the auto-driver facility from Intel fails to install a few drivers. You have to manually download and install.
Issues? Yes... The ethernet connection states that there's no internet connection despite being able to get onto the net. No other driver to try at this point in time so I'm using a USB nic.
NUC5i7RYH - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 16GB (2 x 8G) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) - Micron M510 M.2 128GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) - Intel X25M G2 80GB :)
Except for updating BIOS, do NOT install any drivers from Intel. You will get random crashes and issues. Only use what Windows Update gives. Has been rock solid once i did a clean install. Intel's Update tool was broken several months back too. Very surprising that it could not install drivers on a NUC.
From reading the benchmarks, the new 6i5 is a just because release. Unless you really want card reader, but you need a HUB to attack K,M, printer,.. anyway...
I wish they'd gone another direction.
It would be nicer if there was a plain office/developer and non HTPC version. Strip out all the radios, SDXC, HDMI,... Just - TPM, - Lan(dual for VMs would be great), - DP(1.3 chaining is fine, soon enough real 39"-44" 4k monitors will allow one monitor setups), - USB (2 USB 2.0: KB,M; 4 USB 3.0: Webcam, printer, UPS, spare; 2 USB 3.0 front: spare, dedicated cellphone charger) - combined headphone/mic - 2x M.2 slots. Boot and data. Able to do backups internally. Also for VMs. Running Hyper-V VMs on mine is super smooth. - the 2.5" drive option is really out of place/ancient. Without it, the bottom plate could be vented instead of sides. - The removal of radios would allow the cooling solution to be almost doubled in size. I personally have the plastic top removed to allow better cooling.
2.5" isnt out of place until M.2 can actually catch up. M.2 is still limited to 512GB drives, and a 512GB m.2 cost more than a 1TB 2.5" SSD. And M.2 runs much hotter than 2.5"
Having the 5i7 in hand and using it for about 4 months now, the 2.5" is out of place in it. It interferes with cooling of everything on underside. It adds almost 3/4" height to the NUC where it was only 4.53" x 4.37" x 1.26" to begin with.
Besides a vented bottom plate allowing the RAM, M.2(air flow is all they need) and other chips much better cooling its really the size issue.
I am running VMs on it with no issue. Taking a tiny NUC with you is much better than a laptop. For all the non-email jobs that require larger display and real keyboard. Again, saying a second non-HTPC line, the HTPC version can be used by folks just doing email.
The 5i7 was only offered in the larger format. I would not have gotten it given a choice. Hibernate, put in pocket. That 3/4" makes huge difference in usability.
Just a different point of view. For developers, engineers you need two internal drives and two M.2 drives are just fine.
As someone who uses a lot of VMs, I don't see how this is better than a laptop. Needing power, keyboard, mouse, and a monitor any time you need to use it doesn't sound convenient. I'm the opposite extreme, using a 17" laptop and 1.2TB of SSD space - but it's great for running software development VMs anywhere I need it, and I dock it to a 24" monitor in the office.
+1. Furthermore, there seems no enough space to include power-loss protection in M.2 SSD. PLP is important for NUC which, unlike laptops, has no battery to act as backup. I live in third world where the electricity fails about once in a month...
The real star of the Skylake is the GPU. CPU wise, its not much faster than Broadwell. And quite disappointed in areas where performance actually regress.
Keep in mind that the older i7 NUC is a 28 watt TDP part with a 3.1GHz *base* clock (turbo to 3.4GHz) while this is a 15 watt part with only a 2.9GHz *turbo* maximum clock. It seems to beat the older i5 Broadwell at CPU benchmarks too.
I've been buying NUCs for desktop replacements at work now for the last year. We have around 40 Broadwell units and so far around 20 Skylake units. I've never experienced any of the issues mentioned in this article, so it's a shame to have what I see as excellent SFF PCs receive a poor review based on that. Understandable, of course.
The only issues we have experienced is the power supplies which are universal, interchangeable plug units. We have had 5 or 6 that have started buzzing and crackling due to arcing on the contact points. A little persuasion with a screwdriver fixes it, but they really let the whole thing down in my opinion.
Otherwise the performance, price, low power and near-silent operation make them perfect office PCs for all except power users and devs. Mounted on the supplied VESA bracket behind the monitor saves a lot of space too. You can set the BIOS to allow power on USB so the users simply press a keyboard key or move the mouse to switch it on in the morning. Perfect.
If what you want is the tiny NUC form factor, then 15W seems to be spot on. Anything higer would require a very noticeable size increase to help with cooling - unless you're willing to increase noise dramatically, which ... no.
Is >30W in a NUC-ish form factor doable, and with low enough noise? Absolutely. Skull Canyon will be intriguing. But it will also undoubtedly be quite a bit larger than the standard NUCs.
yes it would have to be noticeably larger, but still tiny. 45W is a better sweetspot IMO for this kind of SFF PC... and please for skull canyon... please use a regular CPU cooler, and not a noisy blower like gigabyte tried with their brixxx.
It will most likely still be a blower, since the case will most likely be too small for a typical cooler, which needs more space and a different design than what the NUCs use.
That being said, intel does a much better job with their blower coolers then gigabyte does.
the intel retail HSF that comes with 65W CPUs is pretty small, yes taller than the NUC blowers, but only by like an inch... no bigger in other dims.
Intel may do better than gigabyte with blowers, but gigabyte tried to cool a 65W cpu with a blower, intel is only trying on 5,15 or 28w CPUs... it's easy to be quiet when you are dealing with 15W vs 65W
I've owned the i7 nuc for a few months now, perfect little computer. I've had a few glitches here and there like the display/graphic drivers not working properly but normally uninstalling them and reinstalling the latest version from the intel website fixes it. If you're not a gamer or power user they are perfect computers, no reason to buy a full sized desktop computer for just basic computer use.
Given that this is the first reasonably priced NUC with Iris graphics, I for one would like to see you run some of your laptop gaming benchmarks on this. Otherwise, great review!
If you are interested in NUCs, check out Shuttle's DH170 slim PC. It's about the same size and you can install your own CPU. It is compatible with regular 65W skylakes. Cooling isn't the greatest. I've found turning off turbo helps keep temps under 80C during load.
But, 'till date' is definitely common where I grew up / learned English: http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/146767/... ; It might not be the best thing to use in other parts of the world, but it is not wrong.
I also disagree with your statement that it is not wrong. I don't doubt that it has entered common usage in Indian English but I have never heard or seen this phrase in the UK, North America, or even Latin America. So while it may be correct in Indian English it is incorrect in any other forms of English.
Sunrise Point-LP has PCIe 3.0 lanes, and the M.2 slot uses four of them. All I can say is that, with the appropriate M.2 SSD, you can utilize four PCIe 3.0 lanes' bandwidth.
Sorry, but you sound like a politician. Isn't there some contact at Intel that can provide some reasoning and confirmation for this limit or has Anandtech lost all of it's industry clout?
I completely agree. It's a shame that this review did not address this issue. Really, it's the only thing I came to this review hoping to learn. I have seen reports from users indicating that the M.2 on these is, for some reason, capped at 1600MB/s.
This review states... "full support for PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 SSDs"... yet there's obviously some other factor that prevents these units from getting the most out of it. Given that, I would expect a review on this site to cover it and at least investigate and explain this limitation so that the readers get a better understanding of when PCIe 3.0 x4 really is PCIe 3.0 x4 and when it's not.
Can anyone explain why this alleged PCIe 3.0 x4 essentially perfoms as if it were PCIE 2.0 x4 or PCIe 3.0 x2.
Sorry, I should also mention that Intel's own specs on these also confirm this 1600MB/s limit. So we know it's there. I just want to understand how it's PCIe 3.0 x4 but then it isn't.
I benchmarked both the SM951 and 950 PRO NVMe SSDs, and the best-case bandwidth (large sequential reads) is around 1710 MBps for both.
I have asked my Intel contact for the reason behind this, and I will either update things in this comments thread, or have a separate pipeline piece (depending on the depth of Intel's reply).
Does this NUC have the ability to up te TDP, like haswell iris NUCs could (going from 15 to 28 watt, allowing both higher boost clocks and longer periods of sustained clock speeds.)?
And has intel said anything about the skull canyon NUC, with the GT4e GPU?
As I mentioned in the Thermal Performance section, it looks like the cTDP is around 23W.. Under sustained loading, I found the instantaneous *package* power consumption between 17W and 23W. For a brief moment when the CPU and GPU were loaded simultaneously, the *package* power jumped to around 29W for a few seconds before coming down to 23W. (that is the reason for the at-wall power consumption graph briefly going to 48W before settling down to 38W in the middle of the loading period)
As for Skull Canyon NUC, yes, it will use a Skylake-H processor with 45W TDP, completely different chassis design, have Alpine Ridge integrated for Thunderbolt 3 / USB 3.1 Gen 2 support. Will release sometime within the next 6 months. (All this info was given to the press at CES 2016)
1. For the lack of HDMI 2.0, couldn't you use a DisplayPort 1.2 -> HDMI 2.0 adapter to get around that issue?
2. Not quite sure what you meant by this on the first page "Skylake-U also obviously supports DDR4 (as the NUC6i5SYK only supports that), but that is not mentioned in the slide below." The i3 version supports DDR4 as well or did you mean something else? wasn't quite sure.
I grabbed the I3 version for my HTPC (mostly for plex) and it has been great so far. I was using an NVidia shield but wanted something that had better support for the HD Audio Formats.
(1) No HDCP 2.2 with that adapter (to the best of my knowledge). Obviously, one can talk about HDCP 2.2 not being relevant in the *PC* space right now since Netflix 4K isn't available on PCs yet and there are no Ultra HD Blu-ray players in the PC, but I am hoping to present HDCP 2.2 availability as a way to future-proof one's investment.
(2) The slide we presented is from a 2014 briefing - so the memory interfaces mentioned in the *slide* for Skylake-U are only DDR3(L) and LPDDR3. Since then, Intel put in DDR4 support also in *Skylake-U* - not the NUC6i5SYK specifically.
It does claim "Repeater for HDCP 1.3 and HDCP 2.2" in the product sheet for the club 3D adapter. I haven't seen anyone verify the claim in the real world yet.
That is what I am saying - My understanding is that Intel's DisplayPort output is NOT HDCP 2.2 capable (but, I am open to correction, if someone can provide a credible source to back it up).
NUCs have become excellent options for just about everything except (serious) gaming. If Intel released a gaming-class NUC that was capable of taking a full-size/double-slot GPU, that would be amazing.
I'm very interested in seeing a review on skull canyon with an external graphics card, might be the perfect little gaming machine. Once it's available, I hope to see a review Ganesh!
It's true that games can run ok, but still. This cpu would likely be a big bottleneck in loading, and processing all the elements of a big game that has hundreds or thousands of moving things. VR will want more cpu. But sure, if you just wanna run CS, you can use any cpu.
The AW13 cn oush games like shadow of mordor with an external dock. Slower, yes, but it can still hit 50fps+.
Of course, nobody who wants maximum settings would buy the NUC, but more midrange gamers would be served well. And since the skull canyon will most likely be a quad core part, CPU performance will be a moot argument,
Thank you for the article. I am a little disappointed with vendors that fanless NUCs are still unavailable except as specialty parts with low-volumeish markups like Logic Supply (which makes great stuff, but not cheap). HTPC Credentials typo: "Refresh Rate Accura[n]cy"
The configuration posted (256GB NVMe drive + Corsair 2400 MHz SODIMMs) doesn't include WIn 10 cost. However, I see now that 2133 MHz SODIMMs are available for a much lower price and, even the NVMe drive can be replaced by a much cheaper AHCI drive (IIRC, Mushkin's 256GB M.2 AHCI drive is only $85 or so - less than half the price of the NVMe Samsung drive).
So, yes, it is possible to build the whole configuration along with Windows 10 for $675 (even lower is possible).
In our cost comparison tables as well as spec tables, we have never considered OS cost. So, the number quoted is consistent with our previous reviews.
If you go with 2x4GB DDR4, i3, and 256GB 850 EVO m.2 SSD, it's $400 (and, for the moment, there's Prime shipping on all that from Amazon). You can also opt for the taller one with the 2.5" drive slot to do the small SSD+big HDD thing. All to say, there are lots of compromises for cost short of, like, going to an older gen, a much larger box, or Atom.
Coincidentally, I just got one of this model set up yesterday.
In line with what the review says, it subjectively feels about as fast as the Broadwell i7 I use for work. I expected more difference just eyeballing the specs (though the i5's turbo clock is still 2.8GHz).
It's fun that you can now get a pretty decent computer, with perks like a PCIe SSD or lots of RAM, in a case no larger than some sandwiches I've eaten.
Setup wasn't fun. I had to use legacy boot to start Ubuntu off a Samsung NVMe drive, which was odd because BIOS could browse the EFI partition, Secure Boot was off, it could UEFI-boot off the SD card, etc. Lots of annoying trial and error to find the right config to get it booting, too.
In Ubuntu, I needed to use Intel's Linux graphics stack installer from 01.org to fix jerky video. Other than that hardware has worked out of the box.
I still don't get why would anyone wanted to get NUC over laptop with screen,keyboard and OS already there.
I can understand a few nerds who have time and knowledge to make the best of it but what about the average customers. Do NUCs actually sell well at all?
"It all started with the first Intel NUC (Next Unit of Computing) based on a Sandy Bridge processor."
Actually, the first NUCs were DC3217IYE (Ice Canyon) and DC3217BY (Box Canyon) and they both had an Ivy Bridge i3. The first (an only) NUC with a Sandy Bridge CPU was the DCCP847DYE (Deep Canyon) that came a few months later.
I bought and configured one of these just a few weeks ago, and absolutely love it. I bought the NUCi5SYK, the same 16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4-2400 kit as reviewed here, and a 512GB Samsung 950 Pro. It is amazing - I have had no glitches, freezes, or any issues so far. Of course, my unit started with the 33 BIOS as well. I built one of these for my office at work, and have two curved Samsung 23" 1080p monitors hooked up to it (one through the HDMI, one through a mDP-to-HDMI adapter). I would highly recommend it :)
Any idea why the wifi 'card' seems to be wired the wrong way? Surely the black cable should line up with the black cable and the grey cable with the grey triangle? Sorry if this has already been mentioned.
You can buy from our large and diverse collection of salwar kameez, party wear suits, bollywood collection, cotton kurtis, Anarrkali suits,Bollywood saree and many other products..... We Have Some For You In Your Budget For more… Plz visit <a href="http://stylizone.com/">Designer Lehenga</a>
You can buy from our large and diverse collection of salwar kameez, party wear suits, bollywood collection, cotton kurtis, Anarrkali suits,Bollywood saree and many other products..... We Have Some For You In Your Budget For more… Plz visit <a href="http://stylizone.com/">Designer Lehenga</a>
You can buy from our large and diverse collection of salwar kameez, party wear suits, bollywood collection, cotton kurtis, Anarrkali suits,Bollywood saree and many other products..... We Have Some For You In Your Budget For more… Plz visit <a href="http://stylizone.com/">Designer Lehenga</a>
We’ve updated our terms. By continuing to use the site and/or by logging into your account, you agree to the Site’s updated Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
95 Comments
Back to Article
Glock24 - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
Performance is decent, but the risk of bricking it is too high when updating the BIOS. Maybe the updated competing products will do better.yuhong - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
The problems occur only with SK Hynix DDR4 chips using an older BIOS. Avoid these sticks and you should be fine.Zingam - Sunday, March 13, 2016 - link
Why is there a risk of bricking the NUC when attempting such trivial operation?yuhong - Sunday, March 13, 2016 - link
Because the processor was hanging while doing the BIOS flash operation due to a DRAM timing issue.CajunArson - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
You say "Iris Graphics" and then you say that these parts have eDRAM but that's not always true.Intel has numerous models that have "Iris Graphics" with the largest (GT3) IGP configuration but do not include the eDRAM. Instead, Iris *Pro* Graphics has been used to designate the use of eDRAM. Do you have confirmation from Intel that this has changed or does the article need correction?
CajunArson - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
As a followup:Here's the ARK page for that i5 chip: http://ark.intel.com/products/91160/Intel-Core-i5-...
Note "Iris Graphics 540"
Now here's the page for the i7-5775C, which we know actually has the eDRAM in it: http://ark.intel.com/products/88040/Intel-Core-i7-...
Note it lists "Iris Pro Graphics 6200"
Ian Cutress - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
Intel graphics comes as HD, Iris and Iris Pro.For Skylake, both Iris and Iris Pro use eDRAM:
HD covers all 2+2 and 4+2 configurations (GT1 and GT2),
Iris is 2+3e (GT3e) with 64MB of eDRAM and
Iris Pro is 4+4e (GT4e) with 128MB of eDRAM.
From our Skylake microarchitecture piece:
http://images.anandtech.com/doci/9582/9%20-%20Scal...
Obligatory Wiki link, where AnandTech is the source using Intel slides:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_HD_and_Iris_Gr...
I'm more than happy to be proved wrong, if there's a GT3 without eDRAM.
CajunArson - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
OK, it looks like Intel has changed its naming conventions for Skylake.For example, both of those Broadwell NUCs have "Iris" 6100 GPUs, but they lack the eDRAM.
It looks like Intel is pushing eDRAM into more models now, which is a good thing.
firewall597 - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
"My bad" are the words you are looking for.dsumanik - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
lol @ nerd fights, i vote you both loseSpunjji - Saturday, March 12, 2016 - link
I vote you leave the conversationdsumanik - Saturday, March 12, 2016 - link
vote denied.patrickjp93 - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
Nope, with Skylake Iris = 64MB of eDRAM. Iris Pro = 128MB of eDRAM. You're thinking of Broadwell.damianrobertjones - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
I have the NUC615SYH model in front of me now with the following:-HyperX Impact 16 GB 2400 MHz
-Samsung 250GB 850 EVO M.2
-Samsung 850 500GB evo 2.5"
All okay, updated to the latest firmward, installed Win10 fine BUT, as is often the case, the auto-driver facility from Intel fails to install a few drivers. You have to manually download and install.
Issues? Yes... The ethernet connection states that there's no internet connection despite being able to get onto the net. No other driver to try at this point in time so I'm using a USB nic.
All in all not bad.
blahsaysblah - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
NUC5i7RYH- G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 16GB (2 x 8G) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900)
- Micron M510 M.2 128GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
- Intel X25M G2 80GB :)
Except for updating BIOS, do NOT install any drivers from Intel. You will get random crashes and issues. Only use what Windows Update gives. Has been rock solid once i did a clean install. Intel's Update tool was broken several months back too. Very surprising that it could not install drivers on a NUC.
From reading the benchmarks, the new 6i5 is a just because release. Unless you really want card reader, but you need a HUB to attack K,M, printer,.. anyway...
I wish they'd gone another direction.
It would be nicer if there was a plain office/developer and non HTPC version. Strip out all the radios, SDXC, HDMI,...
Just
- TPM,
- Lan(dual for VMs would be great),
- DP(1.3 chaining is fine, soon enough real 39"-44" 4k monitors will allow one monitor setups),
- USB (2 USB 2.0: KB,M; 4 USB 3.0: Webcam, printer, UPS, spare; 2 USB 3.0 front: spare, dedicated cellphone charger)
- combined headphone/mic
- 2x M.2 slots. Boot and data. Able to do backups internally. Also for VMs. Running Hyper-V VMs on mine is super smooth.
- the 2.5" drive option is really out of place/ancient. Without it, the bottom plate could be vented instead of sides.
- The removal of radios would allow the cooling solution to be almost doubled in size. I personally have the plastic top removed to allow better cooling.
A non HTPC, office/developer oriented NUC.
TheinsanegamerN - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
2.5" isnt out of place until M.2 can actually catch up. M.2 is still limited to 512GB drives, and a 512GB m.2 cost more than a 1TB 2.5" SSD. And M.2 runs much hotter than 2.5"blahsaysblah - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
Having the 5i7 in hand and using it for about 4 months now, the 2.5" is out of place in it. It interferes with cooling of everything on underside. It adds almost 3/4" height to the NUC where it was only 4.53" x 4.37" x 1.26" to begin with.Besides a vented bottom plate allowing the RAM, M.2(air flow is all they need) and other chips much better cooling its really the size issue.
I am running VMs on it with no issue. Taking a tiny NUC with you is much better than a laptop. For all the non-email jobs that require larger display and real keyboard. Again, saying a second non-HTPC line, the HTPC version can be used by folks just doing email.
The 5i7 was only offered in the larger format. I would not have gotten it given a choice. Hibernate, put in pocket. That 3/4" makes huge difference in usability.
Just a different point of view. For developers, engineers you need two internal drives and two M.2 drives are just fine.
kmmatney - Sunday, March 13, 2016 - link
As someone who uses a lot of VMs, I don't see how this is better than a laptop. Needing power, keyboard, mouse, and a monitor any time you need to use it doesn't sound convenient. I'm the opposite extreme, using a 17" laptop and 1.2TB of SSD space - but it's great for running software development VMs anywhere I need it, and I dock it to a 24" monitor in the office.bsly1314 - Monday, March 14, 2016 - link
+1. Furthermore, there seems no enough space to include power-loss protection in M.2 SSD. PLP is important for NUC which, unlike laptops, has no battery to act as backup. I live in third world where the electricity fails about once in a month...watzupken - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
The real star of the Skylake is the GPU. CPU wise, its not much faster than Broadwell. And quite disappointed in areas where performance actually regress.CajunArson - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
Keep in mind that the older i7 NUC is a 28 watt TDP part with a 3.1GHz *base* clock (turbo to 3.4GHz) while this is a 15 watt part with only a 2.9GHz *turbo* maximum clock. It seems to beat the older i5 Broadwell at CPU benchmarks too.MattMe - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
I've been buying NUCs for desktop replacements at work now for the last year. We have around 40 Broadwell units and so far around 20 Skylake units.I've never experienced any of the issues mentioned in this article, so it's a shame to have what I see as excellent SFF PCs receive a poor review based on that. Understandable, of course.
The only issues we have experienced is the power supplies which are universal, interchangeable plug units. We have had 5 or 6 that have started buzzing and crackling due to arcing on the contact points. A little persuasion with a screwdriver fixes it, but they really let the whole thing down in my opinion.
Otherwise the performance, price, low power and near-silent operation make them perfect office PCs for all except power users and devs. Mounted on the supplied VESA bracket behind the monitor saves a lot of space too. You can set the BIOS to allow power on USB so the users simply press a keyboard key or move the mouse to switch it on in the morning. Perfect.
Zingam - Sunday, March 13, 2016 - link
What type of work is your business? Text editing?TheinsanegamerN - Monday, March 14, 2016 - link
Text editors, powerpoints, excel spreadsheets, web apps, all sorts of stuff business does runs wonderfully on NUCs.We've started using them to drive our POS systems, and our AV systems that broadcast to TVs in our buildings. They work quite well.
8steve8 - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
No idea why they keep pushing NUCs with 15W cpus, excessively low power for a non-mobile system.the 45W CPU skull canyon is exciting, when should we expect this to launch?
damianrobertjones - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
...because people buy them? People want them?(I'm sitting in front of one now)
Valantar - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
If what you want is the tiny NUC form factor, then 15W seems to be spot on. Anything higer would require a very noticeable size increase to help with cooling - unless you're willing to increase noise dramatically, which ... no.Is >30W in a NUC-ish form factor doable, and with low enough noise? Absolutely. Skull Canyon will be intriguing. But it will also undoubtedly be quite a bit larger than the standard NUCs.
8steve8 - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
yes it would have to be noticeably larger, but still tiny. 45W is a better sweetspot IMO for this kind of SFF PC... and please for skull canyon... please use a regular CPU cooler, and not a noisy blower like gigabyte tried with their brixxx.TheinsanegamerN - Monday, March 14, 2016 - link
It will most likely still be a blower, since the case will most likely be too small for a typical cooler, which needs more space and a different design than what the NUCs use.That being said, intel does a much better job with their blower coolers then gigabyte does.
8steve8 - Monday, March 14, 2016 - link
the intel retail HSF that comes with 65W CPUs is pretty small, yes taller than the NUC blowers, but only by like an inch... no bigger in other dims.Intel may do better than gigabyte with blowers, but gigabyte tried to cool a 65W cpu with a blower, intel is only trying on 5,15 or 28w CPUs... it's easy to be quiet when you are dealing with 15W vs 65W
gigahertz20 - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
I've owned the i7 nuc for a few months now, perfect little computer. I've had a few glitches here and there like the display/graphic drivers not working properly but normally uninstalling them and reinstalling the latest version from the intel website fixes it. If you're not a gamer or power user they are perfect computers, no reason to buy a full sized desktop computer for just basic computer use.Valantar - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
Given that this is the first reasonably priced NUC with Iris graphics, I for one would like to see you run some of your laptop gaming benchmarks on this. Otherwise, great review!Sypsy - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
http://nucblog.net/2016/01/skylake-i5-nuc-review-n...Teknobug - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
This is the one I'm most interested in, the 2.5" drive version one at least.Noxxle - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
If you are interested in NUCs, check out Shuttle's DH170 slim PC. It's about the same size and you can install your own CPU. It is compatible with regular 65W skylakes. Cooling isn't the greatest. I've found turning off turbo helps keep temps under 80C during load.TheinsanegamerN - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
Interesting, but with no AMD APU or intel iris option available, GPU performance would be wuite limited.Teknobug - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
lol $1600 CAD for that.Noxxle - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
huh? The DH170 is around $240.Essence_of_War - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
Are there any plans for a dual-NIC variant?woggs - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
I know this is nit picking but "till" means to turn soil for planting. "to date" or "until now" or even "'til now""The full-sized HDMI port addresses one of the major complaints we have had about the NUCs till date."
ganeshts - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
Hmm.. I haven't seen anyone use 'til now'.But, 'till date' is definitely common where I grew up / learned English: http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/146767/... ; It might not be the best thing to use in other parts of the world, but it is not wrong.
kmo12345 - Saturday, March 12, 2016 - link
I noticed this as well.I also disagree with your statement that it is not wrong. I don't doubt that it has entered common usage in Indian English but I have never heard or seen this phrase in the UK, North America, or even Latin America. So while it may be correct in Indian English it is incorrect in any other forms of English.
nivedita - Sunday, March 13, 2016 - link
The dictionary disagrees with you.http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/en...
gietrzy - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
Can you please point me to Intel white papers pdf where they say m.2 in Skylake can do more than 1600 MB/s?Tia.
ganeshts - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
Sunrise Point-LP has PCIe 3.0 lanes, and the M.2 slot uses four of them. All I can say is that, with the appropriate M.2 SSD, you can utilize four PCIe 3.0 lanes' bandwidth.jdogi74 - Saturday, March 12, 2016 - link
Sorry, but you sound like a politician. Isn't there some contact at Intel that can provide some reasoning and confirmation for this limit or has Anandtech lost all of it's industry clout?jdogi74 - Saturday, March 12, 2016 - link
I completely agree. It's a shame that this review did not address this issue. Really, it's the only thing I came to this review hoping to learn. I have seen reports from users indicating that the M.2 on these is, for some reason, capped at 1600MB/s.This review states... "full support for PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 SSDs"... yet there's obviously some other factor that prevents these units from getting the most out of it. Given that, I would expect a review on this site to cover it and at least investigate and explain this limitation so that the readers get a better understanding of when PCIe 3.0 x4 really is PCIe 3.0 x4 and when it's not.
Can anyone explain why this alleged PCIe 3.0 x4 essentially perfoms as if it were PCIE 2.0 x4 or PCIe 3.0 x2.
Really.
jdogi74 - Saturday, March 12, 2016 - link
Sorry, I should also mention that Intel's own specs on these also confirm this 1600MB/s limit. So we know it's there. I just want to understand how it's PCIe 3.0 x4 but then it isn't.ganeshts - Sunday, March 13, 2016 - link
I benchmarked both the SM951 and 950 PRO NVMe SSDs, and the best-case bandwidth (large sequential reads) is around 1710 MBps for both.I have asked my Intel contact for the reason behind this, and I will either update things in this comments thread, or have a separate pipeline piece (depending on the depth of Intel's reply).
TheinsanegamerN - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
Does this NUC have the ability to up te TDP, like haswell iris NUCs could (going from 15 to 28 watt, allowing both higher boost clocks and longer periods of sustained clock speeds.)?And has intel said anything about the skull canyon NUC, with the GT4e GPU?
ganeshts - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
As I mentioned in the Thermal Performance section, it looks like the cTDP is around 23W.. Under sustained loading, I found the instantaneous *package* power consumption between 17W and 23W. For a brief moment when the CPU and GPU were loaded simultaneously, the *package* power jumped to around 29W for a few seconds before coming down to 23W. (that is the reason for the at-wall power consumption graph briefly going to 48W before settling down to 38W in the middle of the loading period)ganeshts - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
As for Skull Canyon NUC, yes, it will use a Skylake-H processor with 45W TDP, completely different chassis design, have Alpine Ridge integrated for Thunderbolt 3 / USB 3.1 Gen 2 support. Will release sometime within the next 6 months. (All this info was given to the press at CES 2016)Drazick - Monday, March 14, 2016 - link
Why can we get 90 Watt CPU with GT3e?Or even better a 6820K with GT3e and 90 Watt?
TheinsanegamerN - Wednesday, March 16, 2016 - link
When you share some of that magic fairy dust. A 125 watt HDET CPU with a GT3E GPU? That wont be under 90 watt for quite some time.And nobody would buy it. Those that need the gpu and those that need the cpu are two different markets,
Blindsay - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
A couple of quick things,1. For the lack of HDMI 2.0, couldn't you use a DisplayPort 1.2 -> HDMI 2.0 adapter to get around that issue?
2. Not quite sure what you meant by this on the first page "Skylake-U also obviously supports DDR4 (as the NUC6i5SYK only supports that), but that is not mentioned in the slide below." The i3 version supports DDR4 as well or did you mean something else? wasn't quite sure.
I grabbed the I3 version for my HTPC (mostly for plex) and it has been great so far. I was using an NVidia shield but wanted something that had better support for the HD Audio Formats.
ganeshts - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
(1) No HDCP 2.2 with that adapter (to the best of my knowledge). Obviously, one can talk about HDCP 2.2 not being relevant in the *PC* space right now since Netflix 4K isn't available on PCs yet and there are no Ultra HD Blu-ray players in the PC, but I am hoping to present HDCP 2.2 availability as a way to future-proof one's investment.(2) The slide we presented is from a 2014 briefing - so the memory interfaces mentioned in the *slide* for Skylake-U are only DDR3(L) and LPDDR3. Since then, Intel put in DDR4 support also in *Skylake-U* - not the NUC6i5SYK specifically.
DigitalFreak - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
http://www.club-3d.com/index.php/products/reader.e...Blindsay - Saturday, March 12, 2016 - link
Thanks DigitalFreak, that was the adapter I was thinking of.Ganesh - that adapter should work in this case correct?
Thanks for clearing that up about the slides, I have the i3 version and I was like "hmm I am pretty sure there is ddr4 in there"
ganeshts - Saturday, March 12, 2016 - link
I believe that adapter will still not provide you HDCP 2.2 support.jdogi74 - Saturday, March 12, 2016 - link
It does claim "Repeater for HDCP 1.3 and HDCP 2.2" in the product sheet for the club 3D adapter. I haven't seen anyone verify the claim in the real world yet.ganeshts - Saturday, March 12, 2016 - link
That is what I am saying - My understanding is that Intel's DisplayPort output is NOT HDCP 2.2 capable (but, I am open to correction, if someone can provide a credible source to back it up).whitehat2k9 - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
NUCs have become excellent options for just about everything except (serious) gaming. If Intel released a gaming-class NUC that was capable of taking a full-size/double-slot GPU, that would be amazing.ganeshts - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
Skull Canyon with external Thunderbolt 3 like the AMD XConnect is coming soon, just for consumers like you :)gigahertz20 - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
I'm very interested in seeing a review on skull canyon with an external graphics card, might be the perfect little gaming machine. Once it's available, I hope to see a review Ganesh!zodiacfml - Saturday, March 12, 2016 - link
The last sentence in the article screams this feature. :)zodiacfml - Saturday, March 12, 2016 - link
I meant, the Thunderbolt 3 part.Teknobug - Sunday, March 13, 2016 - link
External GPU would ge a fantastic option.fallaha56 - Saturday, March 12, 2016 - link
obvious mistake: no thunderbolt 3 port for external graphicsBlindsay - Saturday, March 12, 2016 - link
The Skull Canyon version should have it, not sure its really relevant on the i3 or i5 versionsAnnonymousCoward - Saturday, March 12, 2016 - link
What do you need TB3 for?Teknobug - Sunday, March 13, 2016 - link
"for external graphics"^ did you miss that?
AnnonymousCoward - Monday, March 14, 2016 - link
I read "external graphics" as a monitor. Now I guess he meant a GPU. So who exactly would want to match a 15W CPU with a discrete GPU?TheinsanegamerN - Monday, March 14, 2016 - link
Given the sales of the alienware 13, my guess would be more then you think. Most games dont need a quad core i7 to run properly.AnnonymousCoward - Monday, March 14, 2016 - link
It's true that games can run ok, but still. This cpu would likely be a big bottleneck in loading, and processing all the elements of a big game that has hundreds or thousands of moving things. VR will want more cpu. But sure, if you just wanna run CS, you can use any cpu.TheinsanegamerN - Wednesday, March 16, 2016 - link
The AW13 cn oush games like shadow of mordor with an external dock. Slower, yes, but it can still hit 50fps+.Of course, nobody who wants maximum settings would buy the NUC, but more midrange gamers would be served well. And since the skull canyon will most likely be a quad core part, CPU performance will be a moot argument,
zodiacfml - Saturday, March 12, 2016 - link
The CPU power limits are quite impressive compared to my i5-5200u. this makes its performance not far from the ECS LIVA One.Sivar - Saturday, March 12, 2016 - link
Thank you for the article.I am a little disappointed with vendors that fanless NUCs are still unavailable except as specialty parts with low-volumeish markups like Logic Supply (which makes great stuff, but not cheap).
HTPC Credentials typo: "Refresh Rate Accura[n]cy"
Zingam - Sunday, March 13, 2016 - link
$675 - and this includes the price of Win10 too?ganeshts - Sunday, March 13, 2016 - link
The configuration posted (256GB NVMe drive + Corsair 2400 MHz SODIMMs) doesn't include WIn 10 cost. However, I see now that 2133 MHz SODIMMs are available for a much lower price and, even the NVMe drive can be replaced by a much cheaper AHCI drive (IIRC, Mushkin's 256GB M.2 AHCI drive is only $85 or so - less than half the price of the NVMe Samsung drive).So, yes, it is possible to build the whole configuration along with Windows 10 for $675 (even lower is possible).
In our cost comparison tables as well as spec tables, we have never considered OS cost. So, the number quoted is consistent with our previous reviews.
twotwotwo - Monday, March 14, 2016 - link
If you go with 2x4GB DDR4, i3, and 256GB 850 EVO m.2 SSD, it's $400 (and, for the moment, there's Prime shipping on all that from Amazon). You can also opt for the taller one with the 2.5" drive slot to do the small SSD+big HDD thing. All to say, there are lots of compromises for cost short of, like, going to an older gen, a much larger box, or Atom.twotwotwo - Sunday, March 13, 2016 - link
Coincidentally, I just got one of this model set up yesterday.In line with what the review says, it subjectively feels about as fast as the Broadwell i7 I use for work. I expected more difference just eyeballing the specs (though the i5's turbo clock is still 2.8GHz).
It's fun that you can now get a pretty decent computer, with perks like a PCIe SSD or lots of RAM, in a case no larger than some sandwiches I've eaten.
Setup wasn't fun. I had to use legacy boot to start Ubuntu off a Samsung NVMe drive, which was odd because BIOS could browse the EFI partition, Secure Boot was off, it could UEFI-boot off the SD card, etc. Lots of annoying trial and error to find the right config to get it booting, too.
In Ubuntu, I needed to use Intel's Linux graphics stack installer from 01.org to fix jerky video. Other than that hardware has worked out of the box.
soryuuha - Monday, March 14, 2016 - link
How does this box handle* H264 Hi10p
* HEVC
* HEVC Main 10
milkod2001 - Monday, March 14, 2016 - link
I still don't get why would anyone wanted to get NUC over laptop with screen,keyboard and OS already there.I can understand a few nerds who have time and knowledge to make the best of it but what about the average customers. Do NUCs actually sell well at all?
damianrobertjones - Monday, March 14, 2016 - link
Yes. They also look quite nice next to a large television in a front room.Also, for a company like the one here, buying Nucs seems like a reasonable choice.
Drazick - Monday, March 14, 2016 - link
Ganesh,Does Intel have any plans giving us GT3e in higher TDP configurations?
When I say higher I mean 90 Watt.
Even better to see it in the Extreme Edition (6829K + GT3e).
Shadowmaster625 - Tuesday, March 15, 2016 - link
$700 and it bricks when you update the BIOS? Where do I sign up?Brian_R170 - Tuesday, March 15, 2016 - link
"It all started with the first Intel NUC (Next Unit of Computing) based on a Sandy Bridge processor."Actually, the first NUCs were DC3217IYE (Ice Canyon) and DC3217BY (Box Canyon) and they both had an Ivy Bridge i3. The first (an only) NUC with a Sandy Bridge CPU was the DCCP847DYE (Deep Canyon) that came a few months later.
NextGen_Gamer - Tuesday, March 15, 2016 - link
I bought and configured one of these just a few weeks ago, and absolutely love it. I bought the NUCi5SYK, the same 16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4-2400 kit as reviewed here, and a 512GB Samsung 950 Pro. It is amazing - I have had no glitches, freezes, or any issues so far. Of course, my unit started with the 33 BIOS as well. I built one of these for my office at work, and have two curved Samsung 23" 1080p monitors hooked up to it (one through the HDMI, one through a mDP-to-HDMI adapter). I would highly recommend it :)bogda - Wednesday, March 16, 2016 - link
NUC is not really intended for gaming or 3D rendering but if we test the GPU why do we get 3D Mark results instead of real game benchmarks?jacksonjacksona - Thursday, March 17, 2016 - link
( www).(ajkobeshoes).(com )christian louboutin
jordan shoes $60-
handbag
AF tank woman
puma slipper woman
=====
( www).(ajkobeshoes).(com )
ShowsOn - Friday, March 18, 2016 - link
Any idea why the wifi 'card' seems to be wired the wrong way? Surely the black cable should line up with the black cable and the grey cable with the grey triangle? Sorry if this has already been mentioned.Hixbot - Monday, March 21, 2016 - link
I like the idea of these NUCs but lack of HDMI 2.0 is a deal breaker.stylizone - Sunday, July 2, 2017 - link
You can buy from our large and diverse collection of salwar kameez, party wear suits, bollywood collection, cotton kurtis, Anarrkali suits,Bollywood saree and many other products.....We Have Some For You In Your Budget For more…
Plz visit <a href="http://stylizone.com/">Designer Lehenga</a>
stylizone - Sunday, July 2, 2017 - link
You can buy from our large and diverse collection of salwar kameez, party wear suits, bollywood collection, cotton kurtis, Anarrkali suits,Bollywood saree and many other products.....We Have Some For You In Your Budget For more…
Plz visit <a href="http://stylizone.com/">Designer Lehenga</a>
stylizone - Sunday, July 2, 2017 - link
You can buy from our large and diverse collection of salwar kameez, party wear suits, bollywood collection, cotton kurtis, Anarrkali suits,Bollywood saree and many other products.....We Have Some For You In Your Budget For more…
Plz visit <a href="http://stylizone.com/">Designer Lehenga</a>