Are Older NUCs Still Good Years Later? - Intel NUC 7 Review | StefanTests

[@marais75012]

I bought the i5 version of this series 7 NUC when they came out. I would like to add three bits of information: - the blue LED ring you mention at the end of your video is actually programmable, it can have any color you want. But I will agree that blue looks best. - the power supply for this thing is very small - which is good. Intel increased the TDP in later versions, with power bricks almost as large or even larger than the actual NUC. I like the 15W TDP of the series 7 NUC. - a buyer should be aware of the fact that Microsoft does not support the gen 7 processors on these machines. Buying a series 8 NUC would be a better choice in that respect (although you lose the LED ring and the low TDP)

[@renownedisland1]

Thanks man this helped me decide on what to get for a media center

[@BenchyTests]

That's awesome!

[@russellWilliams-w1j]

got a bare bones one with an i5 for 5$ US

[@shadowinthevoid]

I like these small PCs for things like servers where the low power draw is a plus. You can just add USB3 Hard drives for any big storage and make do with the built in for the basic OS. This one does look generally great though, especially with the M2 and DIMM slot it would make top notch server.

[@BenchyTests]

Yeah, this would be a great little home server. Level1Techs have done a few videos on mini PCs as servers.

[@cmdr_stretchedguy]

The NUC6-8 have a serious problem with overheating causing CPU throttling and shutting down. I replaced the fan and thermal paste on a NUC7, it runs but typically sits in the 80-90C CPU temps, not good long term.

[@adityairawan1843]

I found a store selling this NUC Kit at IDR2.500.000,00 (around 150 bucks) complete with 8GB of RAM, 1TB HDD, and 16GB Intel Optane. I'm still not sure about buying this kit, although it looks tempting. I'd like to use this NUC kit to play old games like rFactor and GTR2, old games which my old laptop (powered by Intel i3-4005U + Intel HD Graphics 4400) could run with relative ease. Do you think I should get this cheap kit if all I need from the kit is enough power to play those old games?

[@BenchyTests]

There are other minis that might be better value but if it's all that's available then I don't see why not.

[@adityairawan1843]

@@BenchyTests Sadly, that NUC 7 is the only one available in nearby town(s). Granted, I can buy other Mini PC online, but I want to make sure I can claim warranty with ease when I need it, so I resort to offline store whenever possible.

[@adityairawan1843]

​@@BenchyTests So, last Sunday I decided to burn my money for this cheerful mini PC and it did not disappoint. Rather, I'm quite surprised this kit holds quite some punch. It could run Automobilista with ease at medium-high graphic setting and 1080p resolution. With 20 cars race using Brazilian Stock Car 2017 season this kit hits 40FPS at the start of the race and gradually increases as the race goes by, able to hit 60FPS flat. Considering Automobilista is a much, much newer game than rFactor and GTR2, I'd say this kit holds quite some punch for the money I paid for. I'm planning to get much stronger mini PC in the future (well, thank you my small room), but for the time being this kit serves me well.

[@ewenchan1239]

Depending on what you are planning to do with them -- you can have mixed results. For example, I have an 8th gen NUC and I cannot create a VM, inside of Proxmox that is running inside an Oracle VirtualBox virtual machine. For some reason, it won't allow me to create a VM that enables or allows nested virtualisation. However, if I install Proxmox by itself, it has no problems doing that. Conversely, my new(er) Beelink GTR5 5900HX mini PC -- that is able to handle the whole nested virtualisation thing under VirtualBox just fine. So long as people are aware that what they might try to do -- might not work -- then it's fine.