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this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2023
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I think there's a niche for a computer slightly more powerful than a raspberry pi, with no need for active cooling, capable of running as a basic always-on server.
The Intel NUCs were always a bit too expensive for that, and the Raspberry Pis are slightly underpowered (plus the SD-card as the primary storage is limiting). But, there are increasingly ways that people who aren't massive computer geeks would want an always-on computer. Things like a home security system, a media downloader, a home automation machine, etc. The power consumption, noise and size of a desktop computer is just overkill for that. A Raspberry Pi could be, but the default versions are not designed as servers. They're more robotics sandboxes.
Each generation brought incremental improvements and I feel like they were just starting to hit their stride and get somewhere, but your comment does allude to the issues NUCs have in their current state.
For me it's not a comparison with a Raspberry pi, NUC is far too expensive for that. It's that I'm paying top dollar for a less capable system than I can build in a small form factor from standard parts.
They made some decent leaps forward in recent years, but they've been passed as if they were standing still by the likes of the Beelink GTR6. Better price, better thermals, better for gaming, better by every metric you could throw at it.
Again I think it would be a real shame for intel to give up right now because it seems as if the gap between a low-spec traditional gaming PC and what can be achieved in one of these little boxes is all but closed with AMD hardware, and the NUC wasn't really that far off either: they just needed another couple of little boosts and a reality check on their pricing.
The GTR6 sells for $619USD and will play games at 1080p or 2560x1080 with performance far better than anything I can build myself for anywhere close to that price. In traditional computing workloads, it's even better! It will handily beat my Jan 2021 balls-to the wall $6000 PC in most CPU tasks.
Say for example I was looking to build a PC for my dad to game on at the above resolutions. By the time I've bought a decently rated PSU, Motherboard and a modest CPU: the GTR6 has already beaten me. My build can't go any further because I can't beat it without spending dumb money.
I'm not personally in the market for one of these things, but the moment they provide an easy means to mate a high-spec GPU to the crazy hardware already inside a NUC or GTR6 style box for a competitive price...it's going to be a pretty difficult decision to justify another monster desktop PC build.
The stupid thing is, Intel were already so close to being there! The NUC 11 Extreme Kit was exactly this, it was just priced in the most noncompetitive manner and for that stupid money, it only came barebones - still requiring you to buy further components as well as add a GPU. https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/intel-nuc-11-extreme-kit-beast-canyon
I've rambled enough. I really wish intel hadn't given up on this space, but I have a bit of faith that smaller operators are going to continue to leverage the power of AMD's mobile offerings and fairly soon, land on a formula that near enough eliminates the appeal of my beloved custom PC.
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I agree, and as ARM becomes more standardized (less janky), it will be a great platform for deploying these things. I just got a few rockchip 3588 sbcs and in spite of the minimal support for them, they are very impressive. Building out a proper xarm standard will be huge for lower power devices that can take a lot of need away from local big power sinks.
The future is still bright even with NUC going away.
Thanks for the info. I haven't paid much attention to the NUCs lately, because the Raspberry Pis, despite their limitations, were closer to the specs I needed, and you can't beat their price to performance ratio.
I didn't realize quite how good the NUCs and the NUC-likes had become. Way overkill for what I wanted though.
There's a few boards that bridge the gap between pi and a pc for media servers and small NAS uses. Look at Asus Tinker board, Odroid, Udoo Bolt, Orange Pi, Rockpro64, BeagleBone
I've only recently been thinking of setting up a media server or NAS. Currently have a RaspberryPi running a 3D print server, but like you say RaspberryPi's are a bit weak hardware wise and limited by the SD card. But I never wanted to spend the money on a NUC. I'll have to check out these other options you mentioned, thanks for listing them.
I just bought a used Lenovo ThinkCentre M710Q Mini Tiny Desktop PC Computer i5 6400T 1TB SSD Win 10 Pro from Ebay for $289 AUD and plugged in some oldish external SSDs and HDDs and now have 10TB of storage. I'm really pleased with it, it took about half an hour to install Proxmox and I've now got 5 VMs up and running.
OrangePi has been my go-to since these got expensive. More features, including a 8gb emmc module built in, and just as cheap.
I'll have to look into that, it may be more what I need.
They are out there but not in large quantities.
i.e. my new home server runs on an odroid H3
There's a niche type of CPU cooler you can get that uses just thermal mass, e.g. thermal pipes from your CPU spreader to finned metal on your case or directly into your case. They can't provide as much cooling as liquid but it has zero moving parts.
I tried to get one of these cases/coolers for my home server and just could NOT find reasonably priced options or much availability. It's kind of absurd, there should be a larger market for them.
I didn't want to have to worry about dust build up and fans dying myself.