Intel NUC 7 Mainstream Kit (NUC7i7BNHX1) - Core i7, 16GB Optane Memory, Add't Components Needed

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This is my 2nd NUC, the first one I bought over a year ago was the NUC5i7RYH and I set it up for my mother as her main computer and its still working great for her. She always shows it off to friends that come over, she cant believe how fast it is for the size. Your average budget desktop computer you buy at Costco/Walmart/Best Buy are loaded with crap and dont even have a SSD. If you buy a computer nowadays you need to have a SSD, everything is so much more responsive with one. Its a night and day difference compared to the old hard drives with platters and moving parts. The NUC5i7RYH works great but the fan can be annoying, it will just start blowing full blast out of nowhere and I hate fan noise. My mother doesnt seem to care at all but that was one downside to that model I didnt like. So moving on to this new model, I was going to buy the NUC7I7 model instead of the NUC7I5 but a review of the i7 model on nucblog.net mentioned the fan noise can get up there again so I decided to just go for the i5 model this time. This computer was for my brother, his computer is 9 years old and was on its last legs, he liked my mothers older NUC model a lot so that is why I got him this one. He is a college student and didnt want a laptop at all, he uses a 32" HP OMEN 2560 x 1440 HDMI monitor with this NUC and it works great. He doesnt game at all, just productivity software and internet browsing so this NUC works great for that. Hardware I bought with this NUC: -Samsung 960 EVO Series - 250GB PCIe NVMe - M.2 Internal SSD (MZ-V6E250BW) -Kingston Technology HyperX Impact 16GB RAM DDR4 2133 HX421S13IBK2/16 I loaded up this NUC with 16GB of memory and a 250GB Samsung 960 EVO SSD. Installation is always extremely easy, the user guide just has pictures with not a lot of detailed explanations so if you need a better guide, just search on YouTube for NUC install videos and you will find plenty. I’d follow these steps below to make sure you have the best experience with this computer. 1. Install SSD and memory into NUC. 2. Turn on the NUC and before you install any OS, update the BIOS to the latest version. Mine was one version behind so I went onto the Intel website and downloaded the latest BIOS file and flashed it. After you flash to the latest BIOS I’d go exploring in the BIOS settings to make sure it’s detecting your memory and SSD. 3. Once your BIOS is on the latest version then install the OS. I installed a copy of Windows 10 Pro 64 bit. I have an .iso image file of Windows 10 so I just used RUFUS (rufus.com) to copy it onto a USB 3.0 stick to make it bootable. 4. Insert your USB stick into a port on the NUC and turn on or restart the NUC. It should boot from it so you can install Windows 10. 5. After Windows 10 is installed, go to the Intel website for this NUC so you can download and install all the drivers for it. I usually start by installing the most important drivers first like chipset driver/video card driver/wireless card driver and so on. After you install a driver, I always restart the computer even if it doesn’t tell me to, better to be safe than sorry. 6. After all the drivers are installed, hit up Windows Update to see what it wants. Once Windows is fully updated and all the drivers are installed then I would start installing software like MS office and whatever else you need. 7. Once everything is configured and setup the exact way you want it, an extra step you might want to do is to create a system image of everything. Windows 10 has a built in tool that will let you do this but Id avoid it. If you perform a Google search for “Macrium Reflect” you’ll see a free version of the software on their website. This software will create a system image which is a copy of everything so if Windows 10 crashes or has some other strange unrecoverable issue you’ll at least be able to reflash the image and not have to worry about installing all the drivers and programs again. So far this computer has been what I expected from it, fast and pretty quiet. The fan inside this NUC doesn’t get loud at all, nowhere near as loud as the old NUC model I mentioned. As long as you follow most of the steps above that I mentioned, you should NOT run into many issues. My brother has only been using the computer for a few days now and so far so good! **Edit on April 6th 2018, this computer is still running smoothly. Not a single issue and its used every day. You cant beat a NUC for a general usage computer if you want a desktop computer and dont game.

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INTRO I reviewed the previousd 6i5syk unit, and now am giving a review for this model. This new unit I bought the microphone port was a little faulty. I returned it and got a refund from Intel. Bought another from Amazon. This unit works perfect. A lot of the review is explained in the video, so I will be brief in the comments here. Do not be scared of fan noise compared to the i7, I will explain it in detail here for anyone with reservations about it! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW THIS YEAR TO i5 MODEL (7i5bnk): -i5 7260U CPU. This is about 20% faster in general computing, but online web surfing I noticed the same speed as my 6700 chip on a tower! (6th Gen Bench: 4383) (7th Gen Bench, THIS MODEL: 5739) About 23.5% faster. -Iris 640 Chip: The Iris 640 to be honest isnt a huge bump from last generations Iris 540 Chip. I would say 5-10%. To its credit, I have the increased FPS on 1980x1020 compared to 1440p (just received a new 25.5 monitor) and the GPU has more screen and resolution to fill. To compare the graphics performance, I get the SAME FPS as I did with last years model (Iris 540) @1080p as I do with this years model (Iris 640) at 1440p. So to give intel the benefit of the doubt, id say the new chip is 10% faster. Not a huge improvement, but still good. -New Case. Much more "thermal" efficient. Dual vents for fans keep this thing a lot cooler. Love the new design and the mic jacks (explained in review). Looks much better too in the "matte" black I feel. LED ring is a nice addition. Can change this in BIOS. -Can be fanless. LOVE this. If the temp is 45C or below, you can set it in BIOS. The max temp to allow fanless is 45C -Micro SD slot. Not an issue for me, but only MicroSD allowance on the new unit. -4k@60HZ! This part is awesome. Plays perfectly on EDGE ONLY (as of now may change for chrome later). CPU usage at 20% -Addition of microphone jack (I explain this in the video). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4K PERFORMANCE Verified this on Youtube and Netflix to work. If I read so correctly, only Edge is "approved by Netflix, HBO, etc to play all 4k flawlessly.) Dang, its gorgeous. Simply amazing. Now I understand the craze with quality of 4k. Now I dont try to exaggerate reviews, I am pretty strict. But playing 1440p then 4k (3840p) I literally said "WOW" a few times viewing a youtube 4k video. I was speechless. Now I understand I only have a 1440p monitor, and playing 3840p is overkill, but I wanted to test it out and see the performance benchmarks. Simply amazing and again, CPU usage sat at ONLY 20% for all cores. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ GAMING BENCHMARKS TROPICO 4 Performance: @1920x1080p: High Settings (Not all settings maxed but close) 35 FPS. @2560x1440p: Medium High Settings 30FPS. CAESAR 4 Performance: @1920x1080p Maxed Settings @1080p, 30 FPS. @2560x1440 Medium Settings 35 FPS. Age of Empires 3. Maxed out everywhere @40FPS. Ironically, older games to not work as well as newer games. I assume because of Iris graphics modern chipset this is the case. e sits at 99%. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ FAN NOISE I also owned the Skull Canyon. I did return it for that reason along with the cheaper "clamps" to attach the unit. Mine broke. I liked the CPU but the fan was way too much. Especially in gaming. Honestly, I only noticed the Iris pro improving graphics 10-15%. I am completely satisfied with this guy compared to that. I use to tinker all the time with the fan noise on the 6i5bnk and skull canyon. Under "normal" usage with 15 tabs open and visual studio and iTunes, the fan stays at the 30% fan around 65C. I have it right next to me on my desk as you see in the picture. I actually got a different desk and no stand, and I can not hear it at all on the marble desk. With 90-100% load, it does get a little loud. But this is understandable, its just like a laptop fan. Additionally, it is almost hard to get this thing to get that high of CPU usage, it is very fast. How often will you be able to get the fan that high? Possibly when installing windows, drivers, and initial setup. As well as testing software like Prime, Benchmarks, etc. I personally had 25 tabs open, itunes, antivirus, and a youtube video all playing at once, and the CPU held around 60%. Thats the most intensive thing I am pretty sure I have done, and the fan did come on, but I had to turn off my not so loud music off to hear it at that time. If you put this unit in quiet mode in BIOS, AND put the minimum duty cycle for primary AND secondary sensors to 30% it is silent. I literally have had to put my ear ON THE UNIT to hear the fan which is amazing. The unit stays around 50C for id say light web browsing, keeping 1-2 windows open with maybe iTunes open also. it doesnt take too much for the temps to get past 50C, but again its whisper quiet. If everything is silent in your room, if you are 5 feet away you will NOT hear it. Heck, if you are right next to it, you still wouldnt hear it, or may hear a slight murmur every now and then. Would have to put your ear right near the unit to hear it. PLEASE NOTE: You MUST change the BIOS to Primary AND Secondary sensors to 25-30% (any lower than 25% may damage the unit, any higher than 30% you will constantly hear the fan). Keeping mine at 30% for both sensors keeps my NUC at idle around 45C (in which fanless mode then kicks in!). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ MY RIG AND INSTALLATION RAM: Kingston Technology HyperX Impact 16GB (2 x 8G) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3L 1600 MHz (PC3L 12800) SSD: Samsung 950 PRO Series - 256GB PCIe NVMe (Recommend Samsung 960 EVO 256GB now.) Windows 10 Home 64 bIT 1.) Simply get the Memory, M.2 SSD, and install the operating system. 2.) IMMEDIATELY UPDATE THE BIOS. This is found on Intels website. Simply google "NUC7i5bnk drivers". You-tube can show you how. 3.) Install the operating system by putting a USB (or external CD drive) and load the windows installation. If unsure, again look at YouTube 4.) Update the rest of the drivers. I recommend installing them on a USB on a laptop and installing them in the NUC. The NUC comes with only the Ethernet driver installed. You must install the rest. I never understood why Intel doesnt ship them with drivers, even with old ones. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Conclusion: I do not really see the need (or recommend) getting the i7 unit. Yes, about 12-15% increase in CPU usage. But the 7260u chip loads just as fast as my 6700 desktop chip did. Thats amazing. The i7 is always noisy and unnecessary in my opinion. Plus you cannot get it in the small form factor. However, if you do "heavier" gaming, the i7 or Skull Canyon may be worth it. But gaming benchmarks arent great on those either. I usually dont take so much time out for a product, but I am extremely picky and this is a lot of power in a small unit. More than enough for me. Im always open to questions or comments, feel free to ask.

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Im very impressed with this nifty little NUC. Just got it today along with 2x8GB of ram for testing. I got the short version that only has room for a NVMe card. Testing DragonFlyBSD on it and everything works, which means that it will also work well with Linux and FreeBSD (though I dont know about video accel in FreeBSD). And Windows too, obviously, but who cares about Windows :-). Heres the official CPU identification: CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-7260U CPU @ 2.20GHz (2208.06-MHz K8-class CPU) This cpu is a 2-core/4-thread Kabylake U mobile cpu. I verified that it Turbos to 3.4 GHz on both cores (all four threads), and will stay there when I load them all down. Performance is roughly equivalent to an older Haswell i3-4130 desktop system (which was a 2-core/4-thread @ 3.4 GHz), though of course with NVMe based storage the filesystem is a hundred times more responsive than a hard drive. I tested: network booting with PXE, usb booting (EFI), and NVMe booting (also EFI). The ethernet works (if_em or if_emx in BSD-land probes the Intel I219-V4). The Wifi works (if_iwm and iwm8265fw firmware). USB works. Sound works, X works fine on a 4K screen. I didnt have a usb-c cable to test a second screen (got one, see note at end). AHCI not tested but looks standard so would certainly work too. Primary screen is via HDMI. xrandr output: DP1 connected 3840x2160+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 610mm x 350mm 3840x2160 60.00*+ 30.00 25.00 24.00 29.97 23.98 I am very impressed with the performance. It has no trouble running X on a 4K display, no trouble running chrome, no trouble running YouTube full-screen on the 4K display. Very responsive to the UI. I couldnt test a 2160P stream due to network bandwidth limitations but 1440P on a 4K screen looks wonderful. Power consumption is equally impressive. Here are the numbers at the plug with a kill-o-watt, and keep in mind this is WITH a NVMe card plugged in and Wifi operational: 14W - BIOS 11W - During kernel boot 10.5W - Idle, VGA console (C1) 10.3W - idle, frequency management only (C1) 10.0W - idle, C-state management (C7) 12.0W - typical downloading over the ethernet 10.0W - chrome idle 20.0W - chrome loading YouTube page 10.0W - chrome idle w/YouTube page loaded 13.0W - Video playing, embedded (1/4 screen) 15-17W - Video playing, full screen (4K screen, 1080P stream) 11.3W - Video paused, full screen 13.5W - YouTube music (1/4 screen, very little video action), over Wifi 23.2W - YouTube music + 32-process 8KB block size random read test from NVMe storage. All cpus fully loaded. 1.4 GBytes/sec read rate. Temperature tests: 48-50C - Typical idle 54C - youTube music playing, low load 62-70C - fully loaded test (as described above) Note that both cores (all four threads) stay at 3.4 GHz turbo during the fully loaded test. Temperature increased rapidly to 62C, then fan came on (which I cant really hear), and temperature slowly increased after that to 70C and then stabilized there. Frequency remained fully Turbod. This fully loaded test is not using the FP unit heavily... its mostly integer, plus whatever chrome is using (probably mostly GPU video accel and not cpu FP). So its not the absolute maximum load I can put on the system, but its already well over what most people would run it at even doing lots of stuff. Unloading the cpu but leaving YouTube up playing music, temperature instantly dropped to 65C and then headed down to 56C from there. I have to say, I am very impressed with this little guy. Being able to get Haswell i3 desktop performance from a few years ago packed into such a small form factor is amazing. Ive tested many NUCs and BRIXs (as well as many other systems), and this is really the first NUC/BRIX form factor that I would be happy to use as a workstation. Mind you, I have servers to do major compile jobs on and such... Im talking mainly for X windows driving two 4K displays with lots of xterms and chrome windows up. Video, music, etc. Not heavy processing. Addendum: I got a USB-C to HDMI cable and after a bit of scraping I got it working. The second display ran at 4K@30hz so now I have a USB-C to DP1.2 cable ordered to see if I can get them both running at 60hz. Im still going to give the NUC 5 starts, but I will note that the NUCs USB-C port is deeper than spec, so the cable wouldnt plug in solidly or connect at first. After a bit of shaving of the cable housing I was able to push it in deep enough to connect. Insofar as I can tell, this is a problem with the NUC usb-c port being a bit too deep inside the case. I also noticed that the motherboard in the NUC wasnt properly seated, and corrected that, but the usb-c port issue looks unfixable (other than by shaving the housing of the cable I plugged into it). Addendum2: Sound output on the stereo plug has serious hum. Tried everything... grounded speakers, ungrounded speakers, even found a three prong power supply for the NUC. So I gave up on using the stereo output plug. The HDMI sound output works fine, no issues at all, so I used that. Not going to dock Intel a star for messing up the stereo output since an alternative is available. Addendum3: Still cant test with a DP1.2 cable (snafu trying to order it on Amazon, package was returned for reasons unknown), but I have two 4K monitors running at 30Hz no problem (which is fine for a workstation). Have been using this NUC as my X workstation for a while now and it works great. Ill note here that if you are having problems running 4K@60Hz, its probably that your cable isnt rated for it. In BSD/Linux you can just use xrandr to set the vertical refresh to 30hz to work with older cables. I would also like to note very specifically here that I am using a *real* NVMe SSD and not the Intel Optane junk. *NOBODY* should ever buy Intels Optane junk. Its a rip-off and it makes zero sense to waste the NVMe slot on it. Buy a real NVMe SSD card, like a Samsung 950/951/960 series NVMe card (e.g. like a 250GB+), and install the system directly onto it. Remember that this NUC is bare-bones. So you need to also purchase the ram (DDR4 laptop memory, I recommend 8GBx2) and the SSD (I recommend a Samsung NVMe SSD of some sort). If you need tons and tons of storage, get the taller version of the NUC and install a secondary SATA SSD or HDD drive in addition to the NVMe system drive. I would still recommend a SSD as the secondary SATA drive but with a little work you could probably fit one of those fat 4TB 2.5" Seagate HDDs in the tall NUC (I have the short NUC so I cant test whether a fat 2.5" Seagate would actually fit in the tall NUC form factor). As I said, I am still going to give the NUC 5 stars even with these deficiencies. Buyers are warned :-). Get a USB-C to DP1.2 (Club brand adapters are what Intel seems to recommend), have an xacto knife or box cutter handy just in case you have to shave the housing to get it to plug in solidly (remember, you can also shave the NUC case housing instead, if you dont want to shave the cable), and connect your audio through the HDMI port rather than the stereo plug. -Matt

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UPDATE #2 05/04/17: The issue was a bad Intel Graphics driver. for some reason, the driver that fixes this issue came out yesterday but is marked as "Previously Released" instead of "Latest" on their Intel Graphics Iris Plus 640 driver page. Download version 15.45.18.4664 to solve issue. UPDATE 05/04/17: Received replacement from Amazon, problem still persists. Currently taking part in discussion on Intels community forums and will update this review if any progress is made. ORIGINAL REVIEW 05/03/17: A small group of people, myself included, have experienced a bug when running at 4k@60hz either via USB-C or HDMI 2.0 where the video loses connection briefly and then returns (also cutting audio if being sent). Intel has assured us that the latest BIOS and HDMI Firmware do not have this problem and have been tested for consistency. I really hope this is just a lemon but it also raises quality control concerns if Im not the only one who has this problem. Regardless, I will replace said device and update this review once I test it out. Current Configuration: Windows 10 Pro Creators Update (ver 1703) BIOS: BNKBL357.86A.0045 HDMI 2.0 Firmware ver 1.66 Crucial 8GB (4GBx2) DDR4-2133 (CT2K4G4SFS8213) Samsung 250GB EVO 960 NVMe SSD (MZ-V6E250BW) Samsung 40-inch 4K TV (UN40KU6300) AmazonBasics HDMI 2.0 Cable 6ft (HL-007306) - Used two of these to see if problem persisted after changing cable

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This little piece of hardware is so well done that I am able to use it for heavy iterative scientific number crunching, multimedia and other high demand applications. It runs a little warmer than the 6th generation I5 models but the Power button and SSD/HDD activity light indicator are super cool. You can even configure the color and brightness of this light indicator, which is good because it can be distracting. I just took my Windows 10 SSD out of my 6th gen I5 NUC and popped it into this one, reactivated Windows10, updated all the drivers and I was off to the races. Just make sure you have an electronic Windows 10 license. Out of the box the fan noise was much more noticeable than the 6th gen I5 model. However; it was running at 4k RPM at no load so I just reduced a minimum duty cycle setting in the bios and now it runs at 2k RPM and is quiet when there is little or no load.

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"Intel BOXNUC7I3BNHX1 NUC Kit with 16GB Optane memory preinstalled" I purchased this NUC to replace an Intel Celeron-based NUC that recently went kaputz due to a motherboard issue (its totally dead/bricked). The little NUC is being used as a small Plex Media Server for use inside the home and the occasional internet stream. Added an 8GB RAM module (will add another 8 in the future) and the result is a stable little feller tat is able to "direct play" two streams inside the ome network and transcode / stream to one external viewer at the same time all while only using about 50% CPU. Not too bad. I went ahead and opted for the Intel Optane memory module but have never been able to get it to work. BIOS reports nothing is installed in the M.2 slot while the Windows 10 OS sees the module but states it is Disabled. Have gone through all the usual Intel-suggested / Intel-Requested troubleshooting but to no avail - their support stinks and is primarily just canned responses from an AI system or from persons in a far away call centre using copy/paste from their approved script ... totally 100% useless. At this point Ive given up on the Optane option - a few bucks down the drain but ... meh ... at least I have an awesome little NUC-based Plex server up and running once again. The package includes a VESA mount to attach the unit to the backside of the telly which saves space. It was easy to do - recommended. Several have mentioned the blue LED ring on the front is distracting. This can be controlled from within the BIOS settings along with the power button LED. They can be made to react to power state or even hard drive activity and can be dimmed quite low. Ive set mine to the lowest dim setting with the ring linked to hard drive activity and the power button LED linked to power state. With all room lights off it can not be seen. Although Im connected via ethernet the WiFi is quite strong and stable in my initial tests and the included IR remote receiver works perfectly when pairs with my Harmony remote control set-up. Bluetooth also has worked flawlessly when using bluetooth headphones to watch a movie. Audio output via HDMI seems to support up to 7.1 channels as reported by Plex and my receiver ... no issues. Overall: highly recommended. Skip on the Intel Optane option.

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Its tiny, its powerful and its all i need. I use this for my home / project pc and its been really good. Was able to add a 256 GB SSD and a 16GB ram and it was alive. Running Ubuntu 18.04 on it and it runs smooth. The only reason i gave 4 stars is because of the fan noise. Its not crazy loud, but definitely noticeable - feels like a white noise machine running. Ubuntu is light, but the fan still runs at around 4k rpm. Attached a video for the sound... I always use headphones when i work, so it does not annoy me. RAM: HyperX Kingston Technology Impact 16GB 2133MHz DDR4 CL13 260-Pin SODIMM Laptop Memory HX421S13IB/16 SSD: SAMSUNG 960 EVO M.2 250GB NVMe PCI-Express 3.0 x4 Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-V6E250BW

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Dont let the image fool you (2.2.17 at time of writing; image is an incorrect flat skull nuc). This is the 7th gen i3 NUC, half height model. Works amazing - VERY pleased with Intels decision in color - also the stereo microphone right on the front is a welcome addition!

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It is a great product. But buyers should be aware that by using the 16GB Optane memory, one loses that slot from being purposed for additional disk capacity

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Ive had several NUCs and been pretty happy with them .Theyre compact, powerful and decently reliable. This NUC works beautifully except when running 3D graphics code. Even rather low impact 3D games (Wizard101 is enough) the system silently reboots without warning. Im mostly using this for software development so this hasnt proven to be a major issue, but it is annoying. If I were making my buying decision again Id likely go with the core i5 version as my previous NUC machines were of that (slightly lower powered) version and have been reliable.

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