ASUS Will Take Over Intel's NUC Systems Line Moving Ahead

[RussianNeuroMancer]

Dear ASUS, just finally put a FREAKING 2nd network interface on them and you will sell MANY more than Intel ever did when they refused to make them useful for home servers.

Have you seen NanoPi series and NanoPC-T6 by FriendlyElec, or Orange Pi 5 Plus? You will get two 2.5Gbit interfaces and faster CPU for just ~100 USD.

[fitzie]

I really liked the skull NUCs and was planning on getting one for my next "pc", but i'm guessing my next pc will be mac mini these days. Only big issue with mac mini is the lack of replaceable storage (and of course the linux port being WIP).

Of course, if there was a zen5 apu nuc-like kit with whatever current gen RNDA and ECC DDR5 sodimm support and two pcie 5 nvme ports and a bunch of high speed usb, I would buy that immediately.

[pWe00Iri3e7Z9lHOX2Qx]

Dear ASUS, just finally put a FREAKING 2nd network interface on them and you will sell MANY more than Intel ever did when they refused to make them useful for home servers.

Um...there have been several NUC SKUs with dual Ethernet going back years at this point, so maybe that's not really what stopped you from buying them.

[coder]

Only big issue with mac mini is the lack of replaceable storage (and of course the linux port being WIP).

They also screw you over on RAM pricing.

Of course, if there was a zen5 apu nuc-like kit with whatever current gen RNDA and ECC DDR5 sodimm support and two pcie 5 nvme ports and a bunch of high speed usb, I would buy that immediately.

Does Mac Mini have ECC RAM? Just curious.

[JEBjames]

I have an older Intel Nuc with a Celeron J3455. Still works fine. Only problem was the Network card randomly disappears. Happens very rarely. Have to yank remove the power cable for it to reappear again. Otherwise great system.

But the Phoronix reviews...those Ryzen APU graphics are tempting.

[Shtirlic]

If someone needs good homelab server, consider Lenovo ThinkCentre Tiny boxes, lots of customization and features included and the price is a steal on eBay

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[direc85]

I only have experience of three NUCs (via acquaintances) something like 1-2 years ago, all of them had very frustrating issues. One of them randomly got stuck somewhere during Windows startup, another one got randomly stuck in POST (that was eventually fixed in some firmware update I heard) and the third one leaks memory in Windows like crazy, requiring a rebootat least once a day (scheduled once every 8 hours now). The latter also was really picky about noise in AC voltage, that may have been a bad power brick, but luckily there were sockets for all three different mains phase circuits in that room, plugging it to another one helped. They were all meant to be home servers, needless to say it none of them ever made it...

[fitzie]

They also screw you over on RAM pricing.


Does Mac Mini have ECC RAM? Just curious.

true on pricing, but yeah, but I forgive them because they put a 10gig ethernet port on the box.

no ECC AFAICT, only on the mac pros. I would probably stick to the low end, because, like you said, they rip you off, and these devices aren't serviceable. I rather replace the mac mini in two-three years, then pay twice as much for a fully specked out kit. Only pain is that the mini doesn't get rev'd each time they make a new chip. Seems like they use it to mop up any excess chip inventory before they schedule an uplift.

[NotMine999]

I agree with one of the posters: having 2 onboard Ethernet ports would be very useful. Having those Ethernet ports based on very reliable Intel chips would be even better. Sadly, this is ASUS that we are talking about so expect to dumped on by flaky Realtek Ethernet chips that 'crap out' under heavy loads. Honestly, I never met a Realtek Ethernet chip that I ever liked; they tend to employ the barest minimum of features and certainly lack for support in some widely used software that requires networking. You certainly do not want to run Linux on Realtek Ethernet chipsets without the added firmware drivers, Debian calls them the "firmware-Realtek" package.

Based upon what I have read about NUC user experiences, the NUC hardware and firmware designs need some serious review with an eye towards reliability and ease of use. I have never been a fan of Intel BIOS/firmware update routines; it always felt like playing Russian Roulette with a revolver that has half of the chambers loaded with live rounds. I have seen enough reports of flaky built-in network hardware to scare me away from NUC. I think reviewing and potentially redesigning parts of the NUC hardware and firmware is a "value add" that is right in ASUS' skillset. If my own experiences with ASUS motherboards is worth anything, those boards just keeping on working like an Energizer Bunny.

If the ASUS NUC BU really took a few minutes to brainstorm on possible business strategies they could see a number of marketing options to consider with the NUC format; the keys will be product differentiation and price justification. With ASUS' marketing leverage they could build a nice solid niche business with NUC.

[ElectricPrism]

If someone needs good homelab server, consider Lenovo ThinkCentre Tiny boxes, lots of customization and features included and the price is a steal on eBay

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trojan-horse.jpg

Ok Lenovo Beijing.

Chinese mini PCs are much, much more affordable and some even have exotic CPU options.

No loss at all.

Give me 100% open source RISC-V hardware with 0 blobs, that is my price.