Thread: NUC - Check This Out!!!

Looks pretty good actually, but maybe not quite there for the carPC crowd. For instance, I see no reference to a sound card, and certainly no input or output jacks. "Maybe" audio is available over HDMI, but you'd still need some way to break it out and get it to your audio amps and speakers. And with a single msata connection, you're looking at either spending a fair chuck of money for a large msata SSD, or going with USB (or Thunderbolt) attached storage. Probably a USB sound card as well. So while the performance and form factor is pretty much right on the money, you may wind up with a lot of peripherals hanging off the USB bus.

Also notice there doesn't appear to be an on/off switch, so it may be difficult to use it in an automotive environment. It draws 10wts at idle, so it WILL drain your battery if you wire it to be "On" all the time.

Jeez, I sound like a real Debbie Downer, don't I? I REALLY like this idea and size, and hope they go all in (as Anandtech) suggested and build out a complete ecosystem for these boxes. I may pick one up early next year just to see what it can do.

VegasGuy

What VegasGuy said * 1. Great find RAWPWR.

looks like a decent bit of kit. I've been using the aopen mini's for years and always been brilliant for limited spaces. This is a couple inches smaller all round.

aopen MP65-DU if the link works http://asia.aopen.com.tw/products_spec.aspx

Originally Posted by VegasGuy

Looks pretty good actually, but maybe not quite there for the carPC crowd. For instance, I see no reference to a sound card, and certainly no input or output jacks. "Maybe" audio is available over HDMI, but you'd still need some way to break it out and get it to your audio amps and speakers. And with a single msata connection, you're looking at either spending a fair chuck of money for a large msata SSD, or going with USB (or Thunderbolt) attached storage. Probably a USB sound card as well. So while the performance and form factor is pretty much right on the money, you may wind up with a lot of peripherals hanging off the USB bus.

Also notice there doesn't appear to be an on/off switch, so it may be difficult to use it in an automotive environment. It draws 10wts at idle, so it WILL drain your battery if you wire it to be "On" all the time.

Jeez, I sound like a real Debbie Downer, don't I? I REALLY like this idea and size, and hope they go all in (as Anandtech) suggested and build out a complete ecosystem for these boxes. I may pick one up early next year just to see what it can do.

VegasGuy

Audio over HDMI is the deal breaker to me. It seems like every intel attempt at his low profile PC game is missing some obvious crucial component. Bummer too because of the rest of the specs are promising for what we do.

Originally Posted by Sonicxtacy02

Audio over HDMI is the deal breaker to me. It seems like every intel attempt at his low profile PC game is missing some obvious crucial component. Bummer too because of the rest of the specs are promising for what we do.

I spent some time looking at this a little closer, and I'm not as pessimistic as I was. It does have an ordinary front panel connector, so you can control on/off from your PSU. It also features "instant on" which is a modified S3 sleep state which reduces the power draw (significantly < 5w) when in suspended state. But like Sonic, I think the audio situation is problematic. Audio is only available over the HDMI or Thunderbolt ports (if so equipped), and breakout boxes are VERY expensive. Also, it only supports audio over a single port at one time, so while you can run two HDMI monitors independently, the 7:1 sound will only be available for one source. With only 3 USB ports available, you would definitely need a USB hub of some kind and most likely a USB soundcard. Not terrible, but it does complicate the overall picture a bit.

Like I said, maybe a new toy after the new year.

VegasGuy

Originally Posted by VegasGuy

I spent some time looking at this a little closer, and I'm not as pessimistic as I was. It does have an ordinary front panel connector, so you can control on/off from your PSU. It also features "instant on" which is a modified S3 sleep state which reduces the power draw (significantly < 5w) when in suspended state. But like Sonic, I think the audio situation is problematic. Audio is only available over the HDMI or Thunderbolt ports (if so equipped), and breakout boxes are VERY expensive. Also, it only supports audio over a single port at one time, so while you can run two HDMI monitors independently, the 7:1 sound will only be available for one source. With only 3 USB ports available, you would definitely need a USB hub of some kind and most likely a USB soundcard. Not terrible, but it does complicate the overall picture a bit.

Like I said, maybe a new toy after the new year.

VegasGuy

Gonna bump this semi-dead thread to chime in. I'm currently building with a NUC in a MK4 VW Golf. I'm trying to fit my entire setup behind the DoubleDIN Bybyte frame. I'm seeing a lot of the same problems as mentioned above. I opted to use an Asus Xonar U3 for my sound card. I've got the Dual HDMI NUC (instead of the Thunderbolt one). The thing fits easily in my DDIN area, but the Lilliput cable is REALLY long, considering I only really need to run ~6 inches of cable. The fact that the USB for the touch screen is broken out is also a major issue for me. I may end up custom fabbing a cable, but I'm not very excited about finding the connectors and hand soldering 30pins. I'm capable of doing so, but I have a feeling it's going to cost me as much as a full replacement cable...

I'm running a Carnetix P1900, and I'm able to fit both behind the DDIN screen. I haven't experimented with the sleep, I'm planning to run WIN8 and hibernate the machine on power event. The SSD should be able to cache what I'm doing very quickly, and full shut down/startup seems adequately fast for a usable experience.

Anyone have any advice on replacing the HDMI cable? That's my major hangup at the moment.

I found a 12" HDMI cable on ebay for mine. The first cable I got was flat, which was too thick, so I got one with a thinner round cable.

I cut and soldered the USB cables down to size to reduce wires needed.

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Originally Posted by rray

I found a 12" HDMI cable on ebay for mine. The first cable I got was flat, which was too thick, so I got one with a thinner round cable.

I cut and soldered the USB cables down to size to reduce wires needed.

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So you just chopped down the existing USB cable and re-soldered the cable? I just bought a ton of adapters/short cables from my local cable shop and will be attempting to break open the connector so I can solder directly. I think I'm going to end up going full "custom" on this one. Haven't found a pinout yet for the USB data, but will run a simple DMM probe on the HDMI connector later this week, maybe tonight.

Yes, I cut all the USB cables I had inside, then took apart the octopus USB hub everyone has in their junk boxes, and soldered 4 cables to it, making a short 4 into 1 motherboard header connection.

You have 1 header on your board so you can do this too.

I have a worklog of what I did under "2012 Camaro in dash project" that you can see how I did it, but i'm on a cell phone so don't have the link handy.

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