Support NeoGAF

mavericktopgun · May 25, 2016

And what can I say...

It's AWESOME!

Specs:

Core i5 (5th gen)
8 GB RAM
256 GB SSD
Windows 10
512 GB Extern Samsung SSD (bought it extra)

It's this size for people that haven't heard about NUC before.

I installed Windows 10 for that DX12 Goodness.

It has a 4K Hardware Decoder on board.

Some impressions (have it since today):

-Boot time is so quick. Takes just a few secs
-all seems so fast and smooth
-the little pc is just ~10x10 cm 'big' and is very well built
-silent

Some other impressions...

I installed Dolphin Emu and what can I say.. with the DX12 GPU backend and some tweaks it runs sooo good!!! (2x res)

-Mario Kart Double Dash 60fps even in 4 player Split Screen Mode
-F-Zero GX 60fps
-Smash Bros Brawl 60fps
-Wii Sports 60fps
-Twilight Princess and Wind Waker fullspeed (30fps)
-Mario Galaxy 60fps
-New Super Mario Bros 60fps

I ran the games for 5 hours straight and it didn't even throttle (or the games didn't care) and all stayed smooth.

I'm so happy that I bought that little piece.
Bought it for ~420 bucks.

LilJoka · May 25, 2016

Excellent boxes from Intel.

The Abominable Snowman · May 25, 2016

I really want one (The upgradable one recently benchmarked) but only when they add full TB3.0 suitable for eGPU.

mavericktopgun · May 25, 2016

LilJoka said:
Excellent boxes from Intel.

Awesome boxes indeed.

Anony · May 25, 2016

this is integrated graphics?

JamesAR15 · May 25, 2016

They are definitely impressive little devices. I wouldn't mind having one.

mavericktopgun · May 25, 2016

Anony said:
this is integrated graphics?

The only downside BUT if you don't care about 720 and 1080p on lighter games and or older games it doesn't matter. I use it just for Emulation and Media.

NormalFish · May 25, 2016

Wonder about using one of these for livestreaming (outputting video to the box and streaming from there to lessen the load on my gaming rig). Might be a bit overcomplex for my set up, though.

sixteen-bit · May 25, 2016

I'm impressed by that Dolphin performance

mavericktopgun · May 25, 2016

NormalFish said:
Wonder about using one of these for livestreaming (outputting video to the box and streaming from there to lessen the load on my gaming rig). Might be a bit overcomplex for my set up, though.

Could work. They are really good.

Ogawa-san · May 25, 2016

I'm not sure if those NUCs have HDMI-CEC, but I highly recommend something like flirc to go with it so you can control it with your TV remote. It's so handy.

Beer Monkey · May 25, 2016

What's the closest thing to this that can take a video card. Not a current gaming card, I'm talking like a four year old AMD (I need native analog VGA out for feeding CRTs low-latency emulators via CRT Emudriver).

mavericktopgun · May 25, 2016

sixteen-bit said:
I'm impressed by that Dolphin performance

Me too.
All games I tried ran fullspeed and 2 time the original resolution.

Anony · May 25, 2016

mavericktopgun said:
The only downside BUT if you don't care about 720 and 1080p on lighter games and or older games it doesn't matter. I use it just for Emulation and Media.

considering that you're running full speed on those games (even if it's on 720p) is pretty amazing for integrated

mavericktopgun · May 25, 2016

Anony said:
considering that you're running full speed on those games (even if it's on 720p) is pretty amazing for integrated

The resolution is even higher (12xx x 10xx).

I'm impressed. Really really impressed.
And F-Zero GX with 60fps on such a tiny device is mindblowing.

ShiftaDeband · May 25, 2016

NormalFish said:
Wonder about using one of these for livestreaming (outputting video to the box and streaming from there to lessen the load on my gaming rig). Might be a bit overcomplex for my set up, though.

Agreed, it could work as long as you get one with a decent processor. Otherwise you'll likely have performance issues.

Krejlooc · May 25, 2016

I don't have an NUC Mini PC, but I have a gigabyte brix pro which is their primary competition, and yeah, these small form PCs are great. Iris Pro really makes a big difference, it's not like integrated graphics of 10 years ago. They seem to pack these machines with great processors, mine has an i7 4770r inside.

mavericktopgun · May 25, 2016

I'll try PCSX2 tomorrow.
Some Kingdom Hearts 2 in 1080P will be good..

mavericktopgun · May 25, 2016

Krejlooc said:
I don't have an NUC Mini PC, but I have a gigabyte brix pro which is their primary competition, and yeah, these small form PCs are great. Iris Pro really makes a big difference, it's not like integrated graphics of 10 years ago. They seem to pack these machines with great processors, mine has an i7 4770r inside.

Which games are running on this machine? Newer ones too?

Krejlooc · May 25, 2016

mavericktopgun said:
Which games are running on this machine? Newer ones too?

Ha, I actually do have a friend who does all his gaming primarily on his Brix Pro. Plays modern games on it but usually at low or occasionally medium settings at 720p.

Pooya · May 25, 2016

You could buy Alienware Alpha for that much and get a decent GPU too.

Is the CPU ULV?

mavericktopgun · May 25, 2016

Krejlooc said:
Ha, I actually do have a friend who does all his gaming primarily on his Brix Pro. Plays modern games on it but usually at low or occasionally medium settings at 720p.

Really? That's impressive. For such small devices. I don't want a big rig in my living room.

riflen · May 25, 2016

I have a couple of Broadwell i5 NUCs as HTPCs and they're excellent. Install Steam, get a Steam Controller and use them as In-Home Streaming clients.

Nothing really beats a full PC as a streaming video box either. Fast and silent. No need for to wait for apps to appear for your platform of choice. Install some kind of remote control software (I use Unified Remote) and use your web browser of choice. Kodi for you local media.

Krejlooc · May 25, 2016

miladesn said:
You could buy Alienware Alpha for that much and get a decent GPU too

You can't buy an Alienware Alpha with a good CPU for about $420. This is deliberately trading a GPU for a strong CPU.

mavericktopgun · May 25, 2016

miladesn said:
You could buy Alienware Alpha for that much and get a decent GPU too.

Is the CPU ULV?

The core i7 alienware alpha is 1000+ bucks and has no SSD...

ULV? Ultra low voltage? I guess since it's a NUC.

Codiox · May 25, 2016

Dude, please tell me more about the dolphin performance. This sounds like a dream. I'm looking really long for a silent, low power consumption emulation box that is capable of dolphin and dreamcast! How get I a 1TB drive in it?

Krejlooc · May 25, 2016

Codiox said:
Dude, please tell me more about the dolphin performance. This sounds like a dream. I'm looking really long for a silent, low power consumption emulation box that is capable of dolphin and dreamcast! How get I a 1TB drive in it?

My gigabyte Brix Pro has a 1tb hybrid drive inside.

I used to play F-Zero GX in VR on my Brix Pro with my DK1.

mavericktopgun · May 25, 2016

Codiox said:
Dude, please tell me more about the dolphin performance. This sounds like a dream. I'm looking really long for a silent, low power consumption emulation box that is capable of dolphin and dreamcast! How get I a 1TB drive in it?

What do you want to know?

Mine has a 256 GB SSD in it and a 512 GB extern SSD. I don't know if there's a 1 TB SSD..

Codiox · May 25, 2016

mavericktopgun said:
What do you want to know?

Mine has a 256 GB SSD in it and a 512 GB extern SSD. I don't know if there's a 1 TB SSD..

did you tried some Dreamcast emulation? at what resolution are you running dolphin? does the Wii games running smooth aswell?

mavericktopgun · May 25, 2016

Krejlooc said:
My gigabyte Brix Pro has a 1tb hybrid drive inside.

I used to play F-Zero GX in VR on my Brix Pro with my DK1.

In VR??? F-Zero GX is a demanding game. Such a performance on this device is really out of this world. Should've taken a Brix one

Pancakes R Us · May 25, 2016

That's great news on the Dolphin performance. I considered one of these a while back.

Anyone in the UK have one of these? If so, where did you buy it from?

mavericktopgun · May 25, 2016

Codiox said:
did you tried some Dreamcast emulation? at what resolution are you running dolphin? does the Wii games running smooth aswell?

I haven't tried DC games on it but Dreamcast is even fullspeed on my 10 year old Quad Core 6600 PC

So

Tried following Wii Games:

-New Super Mario Bros
-Smash Bros Brawl
-Mario Galaxy
-Wii Sports

All 60fps fullspeed.

Pooya · May 25, 2016

Krejlooc said:
You can't buy an Alienware Alpha with a good CPU for about $420. This is deliberately trading a GPU for a strong CPU.

The CPU is not strong... the ULV i5s are similar to i3s in performance, they are dual core with HT. Actually the T CPU won't have throttling issues unlike a ULV. Intel branding is deliberately confusing on their laptop parts, nothing new here...

mavericktopgun said:
The core i7 alienware alpha is 1000+ bucks and has no SSD...

ULV? Ultra low voltage? I guess since it's a NUC.

The i3 one is $400, performs as good/better than a ULV CPU and you can upgrade the CPU anytime. Included SSD is ok but you bought one anyways. I'm just saying you're paying Intel tax here and not getting best performance you could get.

mavericktopgun · May 25, 2016

Pancakes R Us said:
That's great news on the Dolphin performance. I considered one of these a while back.

Anyone in the UK have one of these? If so, where did you buy it from?

I think the DX12 plugin really makes the performance that good.
I try some 1080p tomorrow.

Bought it on Amazon.

Codiox · May 25, 2016

miladesn said:
The CPU is not strong... the ULV i5s are similar to i3s in performance, they are dual core with HT. Actually the T CPU won't have throttling issues unlike a ULV.

The i3 one is $400, performs as good/better than a ULV CPU and you can upgrade the CPU anytime. Included SSD is ok but you bought one anyways. I'm just saying you're paying Intel tax here and not getting best performance you could get.

what can one get if i want similar performance/power consumption/form factor?

mavericktopgun · May 25, 2016

miladesn said:
The CPU is not strong... the ULV i5s are similar to i3s in performance, they are dual core with HT. Actually the T CPU won't have throttling issues unlike a ULV.

The i3 one is $400, performs as good/better than a ULV CPU and you can upgrade the CPU anytime. Included SSD is ok but you bought one anyways. I'm just saying you're paying Intel tax here and not getting best performance you could get.

So do you think I can replace the core i5 cpu with a i7?? That's be great.

Codiox · May 25, 2016

mavericktopgun said:
I think the DX12 plugin really makes the performance that good.
I try some 1080p tomorrow.

Bought it on Amazon.

can you tell me the name of the nuc?

Krejlooc · May 25, 2016

miladesn said:
The CPU is not strong... the ULV i5s are similar to i3s in performance, they are dual core with HT. Actually the T CPU won't have throttling issues unlike a ULV. Intel branding is deliberately confusing on their laptop parts, nothing new here...

The i7 4770r in the brix pro smokes the i3 in the alienware alpha pro, and no it's not a dual core hyperthreaded CPU, it's a quad core hyper threaded CPU.

Meccs · May 25, 2016

How do you play Wii Sports though?

mavericktopgun · May 25, 2016

Krejlooc said:
The i7 4770r in the brix pro smokes the i3 in the alienware alpha pro, and no it's not a dual core hyperthreaded CPU, it's a quad core hyper threaded CPU.

How much did you pay for that? Looked on CPUbenchmark... holy cow it has almost 10.000 score. Mine has ~3300 lol.

Krejlooc · May 25, 2016

Meccs said:
How do you play Wii Sports though?

you can connect wiimotes to the PC using bluetooth

mavericktopgun said:
How much did you pay for that? Looked on CPUbenchmark... holy cow it has almost 10.000 score. Mine has ~3300 lol.

they gave them away for free at Steam Dev Days

I've seen them at Fry's for $499 though without an HDD.

Pooya · May 25, 2016

Codiox said:
what can one get if i want similar performance/power consumption/form factor?

Alpha is bigger than this but it's not exactly big, it's about size of a Wii, I think that's small enough. It's < 100watt at peak, 20watt idle. Performance is similar on CPU side with a possible upgrade path if you want in future and a very decent GPU that is performing on par with PS4 in real world tests for a lot of games. It's old now but it's still the best you can get in this size, newer models could come with Pascal I guess.

mavericktopgun said:
So do you think I can replace the core i5 cpu with a i7?? That's be great.

I'm not sure what you're saying, no you can't upgrade your NUC. ULV CPUs are soldered to the board, CPU in Alpha isn't. Your i5 ULV is similar to desktop i3. It's not even close to desktop i5, it has 2 physical cores just like i3. You could put a real quad core in Alpha.

mavericktopgun · May 25, 2016

Meccs said:
How do you play Wii Sports though?

With a real Wiimote.

mavericktopgun · May 25, 2016

Krejlooc said:
you can connect wiimotes to the PC using bluetooth

they gave them away for free at Steam Dev Days

I've seen them at Fry's for $499 though without an HDD.

That's awesome...
Hm.. I guess a buy a second mini PC lol.

thehillissilent · May 25, 2016

I think the new Intel NUC "Skull Canyon"shown at CES support Thunderbolt 3, which will in turn support external GPU docks.

Damaniel · May 25, 2016

mavericktopgun said:
I'll try PCSX2 tomorrow.
Some Kingdom Hearts 2 in 1080P will be good..

I picked up a Gigabyte Brix last week to serve as the foundation of a Hyperspin-based emulation box, and for a 15W Core i5 CPU, I'm pleased with the performance. PCSX2 is the only emulator that really taxes the box - FFX runs at greater than full speed with 2x native rendering, but FFXII requires 1x native to run at full speed 100% of the time. I could have gone with a higher end box, but I was concerned about thermal throttling hurting performance, plus the price was right ($280, plus another $100 for RAM and a small m.2 SSD).

LilJoka · May 25, 2016

mavericktopgun said:
The core i7 alienware alpha is 1000+ bucks and has no SSD...

ULV? Ultra low voltage? I guess since it's a NUC.

It is ULV.

Akronis · May 25, 2016

miladesn said:
Alpha is bigger than this but it's not exactly big, it's about size of a Wii, I think that's small enough. It's < 80 TDP. Performance is similar on CPU side with a possible upgrade path if you want in future and and very decent GPU that has performing on par with PS4 in real world tests for a lot of games. It's old now but it's still the best you can get in this size, newer models could come with Pascal I guess.

I'm not sure what you're saying, no you can't upgrade your NUC. ULV CPUs are soldered to the board, CPU in Alpha isn't. Your i5 ULV is similar to desktop i3. It's not even close to desktop i5, it has 2 physical cores just like i3. You could put a real quad core in Alpha.

Just to clarify, it's not just because it's ULV. The socket type is BGA which indicates that is it soldered onto the motherboard.

Why would you do that? · May 25, 2016

I have a 4th gen i5 NUC, and I can attest to the Dolphin performance. Intel are truly processor wizards. It easily beats my desktop AMD processor from 2008.

Intel's ULV processors are amazing. I was absolutely dumbfounded when my ULV gen 3 i5 (i5-3337U) could run Dolphin and BSNES full speed while my desktop couldn't...

Codiox · May 25, 2016

Damaniel said:
I picked up a Gigabyte Brix last week to serve as the foundation of a Hyperspin-based emulation box, and for a 15W Core i5 CPU, I'm pleased with the performance. PCSX2 is the only emulator that really taxes the box - FFX runs at greater than full speed with 2x native rendering, but FFXII requires 1x native to run at full speed 100% of the time. I could have gone with a higher end box, but I was concerned about thermal throttling hurting performance, plus the price was right ($280, plus another $100 for RAM and a small m.2 SSD).

what gigabyte brix is the one you own?

Support NeoGAF

So I bought a NUC Mini PC for my living room

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Banned

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Banned

Member

Member

Banned

Member

Member

Member

Banned

Member

Member

Banned

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Banned

Member

Member

Banned

Member

Member

Member

Member

Banned

Member

Member

Member

Member

Similar threads