Damn, this is a sad day for the homelab.
The article says Intel is working with partners to “continue NUC innovation and growth”, so we will see what that manifests as.
Damn, this is a sad day for the homelab.
The article says Intel is working with partners to “continue NUC innovation and growth”, so we will see what that manifests as.
What do you recommend for desktops that aren’t the big ass tower?
Really depends on what you are using it for
I love my big ass full sized tower. But the vast majority of computer users would be fine with a laptop and a dock/hub.
Well I’d like better cooling than a laptop, which should make it last longer. But a full size tower just doesn’t seem necessary anymore.
Again, it really depends on what you are using it for.
“Gaming laptops” are often fairly horrible for temperature control. But otherwise? Most modern laptops have performance comparable to the average desktop that has poorly applied thermal paste and was never maintenanced in its existence.
Say for modest/patient gaming.
Then yeah. Steam Deck. GDP Win whatever the hell, Aya Neo, or (if you don’t expect to ever need any customer support) the asus one.
Bang for your buck? Those rival (arguably beat if you aren’t a youtuber with a warehouse full of free parts) desktop builds, tend to have okay-ish thermals, and don’t have many battery issues when docked. And most of them double as mediocre “normal” computing experiences on top.
Well personally for me not a handheld because I still want a computer for office and things like that (and not cheap one because the more RAM the better). I’ve seen people fiddle with their steam deck but I don’t want to bother with that.
So mini itx then?
You really don’t have to fiddle with the deck to anywhere near the degree people think you do. The vast majority of games either “just work” or involve switching your proton version (one menu). Beyond that, it is just adjusting game settings until it runs well… which is needed for “modest/patient gaming” anyway. And the windows based devices (including a steam deck running windows?) get rid of the proton aspect.
But yeah. It very much sounds like you want a “real” computer. So either save your fingers and sanity and go for a mid tower or have fun cable managing an htpc/mini-itx build until you have some semblance of airflow.
I meant fiddle to get it to work as a desktop.
I think user asked for a small factor PC, just like intel nuc. IMO intel nuc is a perfect PC for a work desktop. They can even mount on the back of the monitor - excellent feature. Not sure if any other brand has such feature.
People ask for a lot of things. But it boils down to what they are actually trying to do.
The nuc was… a bad product. Power wise, the moment you do anything you start running into thermal issues. Getting a used one cheap is great for home automation and lightweight server work (hell, my router/firewall is more nuc than not). But in terms of actual user computing? A laptop is better in almost every possible way. If only because you aren’t mounting it to the back of a monitor: it IS the monitor. Similar (often much better) performance, similar thermal savings in a crowded office, and you can take your laptop into meetings or even home because 9 to 5 is just a suggestion when you are salaried.
In a lot of ways, nucs felt like a pretty big misstep even at the time. We already had thin(nish) clients in the form of the Solaris Sun ray and the like. Which, to a corporate environment, provides pretty much all the benefits AND a much more centralized security model (we see a shift back to that with the push for VDI solutions).
And from the conversation with that user: They want a computer for gaming. A nuc was never going to be that. A low-ish tier gaming laptop (I have a Razer Blade Stealth that I love) might do that. But they have their heart set on a “real computer”. MAYBE a nuc-like with a good APU could do that but… thermals. Which means, a desktop of some form. Whether it is an HTPC or a tower or whatever.
I get your point and I agree with you, but let me clarify what I was talking about.
The idea is a very small office where people don’t focus on working with computer, but rather use computer to help certain tasks, process payments, save something to MS Excel and so on. Those people don’t really need laptops, so stationary devices are perfect.
Just focus on what I wrote. I am the “admin” of such “small office”.
Intel nuc is perfect solution for me, the performance is more than enough and small size factor really takes the cake. I am really sad that NUC goes away and hope that soon there would be alternative. ✌️
And in that case, a thin client is probably what you want. And in a lot of ways, NUCs set that back pretty far.
Look at minisforum and beelink.
I can second Beelink here. I bought a Beelink SER5 for US$380 as a gaming computer for my kids. It’s an AMD Ryzen 7 5800H with a Vega GPU, 16G RAM and a 500GB SSD. It probably won’t work well with the latest graphics-intensive games, but it’s been great so far with a bunch of games my kids like.
That one worked so well that when I needed a new desktop computer for their schoolwork and similar, I got another Beelink, this time a Mini S12 for US$200. It’s an Intel N95 with 8G RAM and a 256G SSD. Works absolutely fantastically for its purpose.
Both are tiny and silent.