Intel Nuc i5 vs custom SFF build

[Attic]

Options i'm currently weighing,

Intel NUC D54250WYK (i5-4250U):
250GB Samsung Evo 840 mSATA
2x4GB DDR3
Intel 7260 AC Wifi
~$600 Total


vs


Custom SFF:
Corsair 250D
Seasonic Gold 360W PSU
H97 Mini-itx
Intel Pentium G3258
Crucial MX100 256 SSD
2x4GB DDR3
AC Wifi
~$500 Total


I like the NUC because of it's small foot print and ease of build and it's efficiency. I'm concerned about lack of upgrade options for CPU down the road. I also am concerned about things longetivity, i'd like to get 5-7 years out of either machine. With the Custom build I know i'm getting the best components where it counts (Mainboard, PSU). The NUC i'm tied into the i5-4250 for it's life. The usage is going to be for general office stuff, nothing demanding, but it has to be very responsive (SSD takes care of this mostly).


Any ideas here for what looks best to you or other alternatives? If the NUC was $200 less i'd be all over it. i3 version perhaps.

 

[vailr]

Gigabyte makes similar "Brix" SFF units. I'd recommend simply getting the best CPU at the outset, and forget about upgrading at some later date. With the all-in-one units, you can get the ultra-low voltage CPU's, but those CPU's aren't generally available for purchase for building your own SFF machine.
I would also recommend: only consider going with Intel HD5000 GPU or better.
Edit: Apple's latest $499 MacMini (or a used 2013 edition) would also be a decent alternative, and should easily be able to run Windows 7, 8 or 10, if preferred over Mac OSX.

 

[Termie]

The two builds you've proposed are really quite different. The Corsair case you've listed is huge for an ITX case.

Something closer to the NUC is an ITX build using one of Antec's ISK cases. You get something twice as fast as the NUC (using the G3258) for about $200 less. Unless you absolutely need the palm-sized footprint of the NUC, a build like this is a much better value and offers far more potential.

 

[Attic]

The antec isk is nice. Concerned about PSU replacement if the need ever arises.

3rd Option:

Antec ISK 310-150 (Built in 150w PSU)
Z97 Mini ITX with wifi AC (ASRock z97e-itx)
CPU: G3258
Ram: 8GB
SSD: 256GB m.2 42mm length

Comes in around $450-500. (included tax/shipping for all builds listed)

I like this build quite a bit, I can upgrade to broadwell if desired and also SATA Express. But i'd feel more comfortable if there were a series of power supplies I could use in case the existing one goes out. I don't see any replacement power supplies in the form factor the ISK series uses.

 

[mfenn]

The antec isk is nice. Concerned about PSU replacement if the need ever arises.

3rd Option:

Antec ISK 310-150 (Built in 150w PSU)
Z97 Mini ITX with wifi AC (ASRock z97e-itx)
CPU: G3258
Ram: 8GB
SSD: 256GB m.2 42mm length

Comes in around $450-500. (included tax/shipping for all builds listed)

I like this build quite a bit, I can upgrade to broadwell if desired and also SATA Express. But i'd feel more comfortable if there were a series of power supplies I could use in case the existing one goes out. I don't see any replacement power supplies in the form factor the ISK series uses.

You can always replace it with a PicoPSU if you need to (or just buy another ISK and swap the guts).

 

[Attic]

Oh yea, could just replace the case since it's so cheap. Those PicoPSU's, Wow, tempted to start with one. One less fan and those look great to alleviate cramped mini itx case space. Looks little bit of modding needed to back of the isk case to accommodate external power brick, or would that plug fit right in, hard to tell from pics of the ISK.


Looks pretty good for build#3, but i'd probably stick with a 2.5" SSD as opposed to M.2 due to some concern about boot issues with the newer tech and also the slot being 42mm in length on the ASRock board is a bit too limiting in performance.


Then to consider going to 4590s instead of g3258 to get serious oomph.

 

[biostud]

I'm actually wondering about this as well, but I was contemplating buying a cheap laptop and then install a SSD. It seems to be the cheapest way to get a HTPC.

 

[Attic]

A cheap laptop with an SSD would work and is an interesting solution. For HTPC I really like the i3 NUC with 4gb RAM and 128gb msata. For gaming i'd run Steam in home streaming to it and maybe even have it handle cable through an HD Homerun Prime (but might expand SSD size for recordings or go external).

The NUC can be mounted to back of TV with bracket or double sided 3M tape, or otherwise tucked away and use a PC remote app from iphone/android to control it.

Could get the i3/128gb/4gb done for around $350 if using transcend 128gb msata and either going used or cheap DDR3.

 

[Attic]

Update:

Purchased:
Case: Antec ISK 310-150
Mobo: Asus H97I-Plus Mini ITX Mobo
CPU: i5-4590s
SSD: Transcend 256GB M.2 MTS800
RAM: Using existing 8GB and 4GB stick of DDR3 1600 CAS11

Came in at $560 shipped and saving on the RAM let me go up to the 4590s which will be strong into a likely Win 10 upgrade down the road.

Added a Zalman CNPS7000V-AL CPU cooler since it's ultra quiet and the intel stock HSF can be annoying at load, and added an Arctic F8 PWM R.2 80mm fan to replace the stock Antec Tricool (Non PWM) in the ISK 310-150.

Should be much more powerful than what I originally planned for and it will still be a very small footprint and quiet.

 

[Nhirlathothep]

i ll chose nuc

if u dont need dedicated gpu, intel nuc it s the perfect pc.


edit:
Dimensions are the main thing for a light work machine like this

 

[mfenn]

Should be much more powerful than what I originally planned for and it will still be a very small footprint and quiet.

Let us know how you like it!

 

[Nhirlathothep]

Ah, u already got it

 

[Syzygies]

I went through a similar decision process. My needs are atypical: I use a Mac mini for general use, and I run various parallel math computations, coded in Haskell. I love building, and have various Mountain Mods cases around that would make good in-law apartments, now housing older overclocked setups.

I like a near-silent work environment, and a responsive primary computer. That rules out taking over all cores of the Mac mini, whose fan goes nuts when I run parallel jobs. The sensible play turns out to be using Linode.com multicore servers for computations, let someone else worry about the hardware. So building and tweaking is sport for me.

After aborting an i5 build in a Streacom F1C Evo (beautiful small case for this purpose, more cpu cooler clearance if one ditches the optical drive tray, 5mm standoffs can require modding cooler hardware) (ASUS ships a BIOS thawed out of a glacier, and having to buy an older CPU just to update it gave me time to think), I bought an Intel D54250WYK NUC, and transferred it into a Streacom NC2 fanless chassis. Trivial by usual build standards, with some mildly interesting crux moments: Pivot around the audio out to ease the motherboard out of Intel's case, and be very careful to preserve the chipset thermal pad (or have a 0.5mm replacement ready). And use your own thermal paste.

There are some issues one accepts as coming with the territory, building computers. Fiddling with foil IO shields. Trying not to damage processor socket pins. And that "you've got to be kidding!" moment the first time you see stock cooler push-pins for cooler attachment. Of course, we've all found ways to get past these issues, but these issues are gone, working in miniature with a NUC. The aftermarket cases come in custom variants for each IO layout, with no foil shield needed, for example.

For my purposes, the D54250WYK NUC benchmarks very similar to using two cores of my Mac mini, and is somewhat faster than two Linode.com cores. In this fanless enclosure, I saw peak core temps around 70 C. Not actually a problem, but something to play with: The faintest airflow drops this down to below 60 C. I achieve this for now by standing the Streacom NC2 on end behind the 120mm modded exhaust of my ThunderBay IV drive enclosure. However, it would be easy to achieve a standalone setup: Wire the mini PWM plug from the stock cooler onto an external PWM fan. Or run a 120mm 12V fan at 5V (such as Noctua) off USB or other 5V power. My 2.5" external enclosures from OWC come with USB-to-5V cables, and 5V power supplies with the same plug. USB cleaner, internal PWM more fun because of BIOS control.

I have a lot of experience both with fans, and with conventional reasoning on AnandTech forums. (That's why I was gone for so long.) The stock Intel enclosure is too noisy for me. Any fan inside a metal enclosure is a musical instrument. A physically isolated external fan, blowing on an object, is nearly silent. I am aware that the manufacturers of fanless cases do not imagine users adding external fans. Nevertheless, it is an effective strategy for balancing performance and noise. Overcome one's prejudices, and think "inside-out roll" from a sushi bar.

In any case, I came here to report on the latest BIOS 0033. Intel has hidden some crucial overclocking controls: burst and sustained watts, and current limit, are most easily found via search; clicking as advised by online sources no longer does anything. Once each control is found by search, add it to favorites by right-clicking.

To explain these controls, the BIOS limits power to the cpu, independent of thermal readings. If one has achieved excellent cooling, one can up the power. Online, this seems only necessary for video performance. However, I've been seeing very irregular timings for dual core parallel computations, which I can only explain as some sort of throttling. So I'm playing with these overclocking controls, to see if in my applications they affect cpu performance.

 

[sm625]

$500 is too much for even a very SFF G3258 system.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

$500 is too much for even a very SFF G3258 system.

Really? Because 8GB of RAM (~$70), a not-crappy SFF case (~$100), and a ~250GB SSD (~$100) are almost $300 by themselves. Add in secondary storage, motherboard, CPU, optical, power supply, aftermarket cooler, TV tuner, wifi card, Firefly sticker...

Just because you pick a low-end CPU doesn't mean the rest of the system should suck.

 

[jaydee]

Update:

Purchased:
Case: Antec ISK 310-150
Mobo: Asus H97I-Plus Mini ITX Mobo
CPU: i5-4590s
SSD: Transcend 256GB M.2 MTS800
RAM: Using existing 8GB and 4GB stick of DDR3 1600 CAS11

Came in at $560 shipped and saving on the RAM let me go up to the 4590s which will be strong into a likely Win 10 upgrade down the road.

Added a Zalman CNPS7000V-AL CPU cooler since it's ultra quiet and the intel stock HSF can be annoying at load, and added an Arctic F8 PWM R.2 80mm fan to replace the stock Antec Tricool (Non PWM) in the ISK 310-150.

Should be much more powerful than what I originally planned for and it will still be a very small footprint and quiet.

This is an excellent build, but I'm not sure if you're going to be able to upgrade to Broadwell, as that's is only suppose to be 'K' editions, which is likely 84+ W TDP. I don't know if you're PSU and/or case are going to like the power/heat that will produce at full load. And if you're not going full load, then you have no need to upgrade an i5-4690

Also, do you have access to the M.2 slot without un-mounting the motherboard from the chassis?