Intel BOXNUC6I5SYH BOXED NUC KIT NUC6I5SYH SINGLE

Instructions follow to complete your kit. You'll need to install your own memory and storage modules. Visit “Technical Product Specifications for Intel® NUC Products” at [...] for guidance on particular kit boards. Read “System Memory” and “Memory Configurations” sections to identify the recommended memory you need to get in duplicate. Two memory modules of the same size maximizes throughput, i.e. “Dual channel (Interleaved) mode.” Do not exceed the maximum memory capacity. For storage read “Add-in Card Connectors” section to identify maximum bandwidth of SATA drives and M.2 SSD PCIe drives. Here is the relevant info about boards for two kit types: Intel® NUC Board NUC6i5SYB and… NUC6i3SYB Technical Product Specification The board supports M.2 2242 and 2280 (key type M) modules. • Supports M.2 SSD SATA drives ― Maximum bandwidth is approximately 540 MB/s • Supports M.2 SSD PCIe drives (PCIe x1, x2, and x4) ― Using PCIe x4 M.2 SSD maximum bandwidth is approximately 1600 MB/s †NOTE: Stated elsewhere, “The board supports AHCI storage mode.” However, nowhere does it state that it supports NVMe mode. Many (admittedly old) troubleshooting threads online complain about trying to get NVMe modules to work with Intel NUC kits. For this kit AHCI is a safe bet and I got mine to work with considerable frustration, which you can avoid by disabling Legacy mode in BIOS (details below.) Intel® NUC Kit NUC6i7KYK Technical Product Specification The kit supports M.2 2242 and 2280 (key type M) modules. • Supports M.2 SSD SATA-III drives ― Maximum bandwidth is approximately 540 MB/s • Supports M.2 SSD Gen 3 PCIe AHCI, NVMe drives (PCIe x1, x2, and x4) ― Using PCIe x4 M.2 SSD maximum bandwidth is approximately 4000 MB/s ‡NOTE: The NUC6i7KYK spec specifically states that it supports NVMe drives. For my Intel NUC Kit NUC6i5SYH BOXNUC6I5SYH Silver/Black PCIe x4 M.2 SSD has about 3 times the bandwidth of M.2 SSD SATA drives, which squander valuable bandwidth, so I recommend PCIe modules. I installed Samsung SM951 512GB AHCI MZHPV512HDGL-00000 M.2 80mm PCIe 3.0 x4 SSD - OEM . (Benchmark screenshots below.) The Intel NUC Kit NUC6i7KYK Mini PC BOXNUC6I7KYK1 supports faster NVMe versions like Samsung 950 PRO Series - 512GB PCIe NVMe - M.2 Internal SSD (MZ-V5P512BW) , which you might consider. If you need a new monitor, then read “Mini DisplayPort” and “Multiple DisplayPort and HDMI Configurations” sections to identify the maximum resolution. I bought gofanco® Gold Plated 3 Feet Mini DisplayPort to DVI Adapter Cable - Black Thunderbolt Compatible MALE to MALE for Apple MacBook, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, Mac Mini, Microsoft Surface Pro / Pro 2 / Pro 3 & Surface 3, Google Chromebook Pixel, and Laptops with Mini DisplayPort Ports to Connect to DVI Displays to connect my old Gateway 1280x1024 anti-glare monitor. You could use a TV as a monitor with built in speakers via HDMI (which supports audio), but anti-glare TV screens are not common, so beware. I successfully connected an old set of desktop PC stereo speakers with a stereo audio jack into the Intel NUC combo jack. • Front Panel Audio Jack Support: ― Speakers only (Stereo) ― Headphones only (Stereo) ― Microphone only (mono) ― Combo Headphone (Stereo)/Microphone (mono) For keyboard & mouse I chose Logitech Wireless Keyboard K360 - Glossy Black & Logitech M570 Wireless Trackball , but each device came with its own Unifying Receiver. During initial setup I plugged both Unifying Receivers into separate USB ports. After setup, I installed the Solaar applet through the Software Manager to pair the two devices to a single Unifying Receiver and was able to remove one and store it inside the device battery compartment. Solaar is a panel applet that pairs Logitech devices and displays battery status and warnings in Notifications (screenshots below). I personally prefer trackballs to mice. I feel no need to mimic cursor movement with arm movement, or pick up a mouse and move it when it runs out of real estate on a desktop. Rolling the trackball with your thumb is all it takes and the device remains stationary on your desktop. A troubleshooting thread complained about Linux USB 3.0 port drivers dropping keyboard input, which I have not experienced. Intel NUC kits have internal headers for USB 2.0 ports. I bought 2 StarTech USB A to USB Motherboard 4-Pin Header F/F 2.0 Cable, 6" (USBMBADAPT) just in case, but never needed them. The final device you'll need (other than an Ethernet cable) is a USB flash drive with a capacity of at least 4GB. First, update Intel NUC BIOS to latest version. On another computer, download latest Intel NUC BIOS. Go to “Downloads for Intel® NUC Kits” at [...] and make three selections: NUC kit name, “BIOS”, and “OS Independent.” The latest BIOS download should appear at the top of the list. Download it and copy the BIOS update file to the USB flash drive. Follow “F7 BIOS Update Instructions for Intel® NUC” at [...]. In my case I updated from version 28 (shipped) to 42 (latest). Reboot. Turn off unit and remove USB flash drive. On another computer download the latest Linux Mint distribution (.iso file) and use it to make an EFI bootable USB drive. YouTube videos and blogs instruct how. Afterward, if you boot your Intel NUC directly from your USB drive with no changes and install Linux Mint then it will fail to boot from your PCIe SSD. Therefore, to avoid the frustration that many DIYers have experienced edit the Intel NUC BIOS before installing Linux Mint. To edit BIOS settings, press F2 on first startup and disable “Legacy” mode, enable “Boot USB Devices First”, “AHCI” should be selected not “RAID” (“NVMe” might be an option on NUC6i7KYK, I don't know) , and Intel recommends setting “Cooling” to “Cool” (screenshots below.) Press F10 to save and exit. You can now boot from the USB drive and double-click the “Install Linux Mint” icon on the desktop to run the installer (screenshots below.) As shown in the screen shot of the desktop there is no Internet connection. Therefore, connect your Ethernet cable between your Intel NUC and your Internet modem, and follow the installation instructions, including “Erase disk and install Linux Mint/Warning: This will delete any files on this disk.”, which sounds ominous. Remove the USB drive. Reboot. The version of Linux Mint that I installed (17.3) did not have the proper Intel wireless driver. If you experience this problem, keep the Ethernet cable attached. Go to “[SOLVED]17.2 Mint Mate does not recognize Intel AC-3165 WiFi” at [...] and then copy (Control-C) and paste (Shift-Control-V) the commands of the solution one line at a time into a Linux terminal application. Some lines may prompt you for your password, which will not echo or otherwise give any feedback as you enter it. Have faith and persevere. This series of commands will download and compile a large number of plug-and-play wifi drivers, which will take a long time, but your effort will be rewarded. In time new updates to Linux Mint will make this step obsolete, but for now be forewarned. On next reboot, I edited BIOS to disable “Boot USB Devices First” while knowing full well how to enable it at some future date, if needed. If you use Netflix, then you will need to use the Firefox browser to go directly to the Google Chrome website and download and install Google Chrome, which is the only Linux compatible browser that will stream Netflix videos. I connect my Intel NUC to a large panel TV via HDMI cable to stream Internet videos. An HDMI cable is another purchase you might consider, if you own a TV with an HDMI input port. Just to be safe, I installed the free version of Sophos Antivirus for Linux. During installation, watch for the question that distinguishes between free or paid support. Default is paid support. 10 big surprises in a small package: 1. The AC power adapter is about the size of a deck of playing cards, slightly thicker but smaller in the other two dimensions. I was expecting a laptop brick. 2. Intel NUC footprint is smaller than a CD case, the diameter of a CD is wider than either side of the rectangular footprint. Chip miniaturization has made it possible to downsize into this small package power, speed & capacity far exceeding that of yesteryear's room size mainframes. 3. I never hear any fan noise. According to the specs it has a fan. 4. Boot time is roughly 10 second for my Linux Mint Intel i5 NUC with Samsung SM951 AHCI SSD. Boot times for Windows laptops with HDD storage are mind numbingly slow. 5. HDD technology should become extinct soon, even though laptop manufacturers still market it. This DIY Intel NUC kit gives us freedom to avoid HDD technology. Just say no to HDD. 6. I use the pre-installed Banshee application to stream internet radio (Classical KUSC FM & KING FM.) Close makes Banshee disappear from the desktop, but it keeps playing with song & composer titles appearing in Notifications. Close just hides the GUI. Quit completely ends it. 7. The Cinnamon desktop has crashed twice so far, displaying the option to restart which it does upon request. However, I am exploring new applets and applications right now to find the optimum working environment that suits me. Some applications that I install do not work as advertised or at all, so I uninstall them. Sometimes this creates a ripple effect and applets stop working that previously worked. So I remove them from the panel and re-add them, which seems an effective remedy for now. 8. I am a long time Ubuntu Linux user. Ubuntu gave new life to my old laptop that was burdened and crippled by Windows updates and anti-virus scans. I also dual booted Ubuntu and Windows on my old Gateway desktop, from which I scavenged the monitor for this system. Linux Mint now has video and audio editing applications to free any foreseeable need for Windows. We no longer need to pay the Microsoft tax to run Linux on an awesome Mini PC like this Intel NUC. 9. According to Friedrich Nietzsche, “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” My experience troubleshooting the DIY nuances of Linux Mint & this Intel NUC kit have been frustrating at times but ultimately rewarding. I expect more great surprises from this small package. 10. I now have all the tools I need to produce Internet videos without having to pay a cent for the software. *** UPDATE *** Linux Mint 18 resolves missing wifi driver issue *** 9/22/2016 I made a bootable USB drive of the latest Linux Mint 18 Cinnamon Long Term Release. It boots and has wifi access without any trouble. I upgraded to Linux Mint 18 and am currently running kernal 4.4.0-38. The Unigine Heaven Benchmark 4.0, a video game simulation benchmark, now runs over 22% faster on the same hardware. In Frames Per Second (FPS) Linux Mint 17.3 rated 12.1 FPS, whereas Linux Mint 18 rates 14.8 FPS. I installed the Intel CPU driver noted in the comment and achieved 15.0 FPS (screenshots below.) I also updated my BIOS to the latest version 51 released 8/10/2016. For my purposes this is fine, but if you are looking for a gaming platform with a minimum of 30 fps, then look elsewhere. To follow the “verify your ISO” instructions on the Linux Mint downloads page you need to download the sha256sum.txt and sha256sum.txt.gpg files from a mirror site. The link to the .iso file is provided. Copy the mirror site link and paste it into your browser address bar, then delete the file name to open the directory where all the files are located. Save those two sha256sum files into the same directory as the .iso file on your computer (probably Downloads.) Then follow the directions. Be sure to look at the release notes, which contain a link to a tutorial that explains how to install a windows version of FireFox that you can use to view DRM enabled videos, like those located on nbcolympics.com. I am really impressed with this Intel NUC running Linux Mint. There is no fan noise, and I doubt the fan even runs it stays cool enough. I installed psensor from the Software Manager. The Psensor Temperature Monitor displays and graphs the temperature of the Intel CPU and Samsung SSD (screenshot below.) High temperatures were when it was updating to Linux Mint 18. Normal CPU temperature range is 85-95°F.

I bought this unit with a pair of 8GB Kingston hyper X DDR4 2133MHz memory sticks mainly as a htpc. Shipping is quick as promised. Things arrive well-packed. Thank you Amazon. The first two things I do when I receive this unit are an immediate upgrade of stock bios to the newest 044 and then clean install of 64bit windows 8 pro. Some thoughts as listed as follows after 36-hrs use. 1.Theoretically this nuc6i5syh is way better than my nuc5i5ryh in performance. But in fact, you won't notice the difference between them most of time in normal use. They both work great. 2.Fan noise is barely noticeable at default speed when working or idling unless you are running stress test on it. 3.Can play almost all media files including 2160p@30fps I throw at it with no hiccup. But don't expect too much more than that especially when dealing with 2160p @60p files encoded using HEVC L5.1 with MPC-HC player via HDMI, it stutters at first and eventually causes 100% CPU usage. 4.the main downside about this unit is, it has trouble reading my 128GB kingston SDXC card formatted in NTFS. Every time when popping in the card into the card slot, my x64 windows 8.1 pro starts freezing. The mouse becomes very sluggish or even unresponsive. At the same time, system has a ridiculously 60% cpu usage from 5% for no reason. and then resumes back to normal after 3-5 minutes but end up failing to access all the files on the sd card. I do a google search and find other guys have the same problem on either 64bit windows 7 or Ubuntu. I haven't tried windows 10 yet. No ideas why. But I highly doubt the issue is OS independent and is just related to the drivers or hardware. 5.Thanks for intel continuous efforts, I haven't yet encountered WHEA error so far, looks like the newest bios has fixed the flaw which used to bother a lot of ppl in the past few months. But still need more time to prove its stability and durability. Overall, I'm quite happy with this purchase. The little device does a great job and meets all my expectations. I think that it should have deserved 5 stars if the card reader works properly. Hopefully Intel rolls out new driver or firmware to fix this problem ASAP.

Folks- Blogging the ordering and install process to help others: I ordered this on a Saturday am, and it arrived with the Kingston HyperMax memory DDR4-2133 by Sunday night - so far so good. Samsung Evo 850 256G M.2 SSD ordered at the same time arrived Monday. Amazon was the seller for all 3 components. Set Up Notes: System build date on the bottom of the box was 5/5/2016 - came with BiOS Version 42 Kit comes with a separate mounting plate for the back of TVs - I dont expect to use it so I set it aside. To open it up to insert RAM and SSD, I unscrewed screws at the bottom of NUC - they dont actually come out - they loosen the case so you can flip it over, and then lift out the top cover which has the top and 4 sides attached. Carefully lifting off the cover, there is a cable connecting the tray where the 2.5 SATA Drive sits if you use it. Kingston RAM goes in pretty easily - "Kingston" label faces up- put in the bottom stick first into the slot at a slight angle, then push in and down gently until the locking tabs on the side click. Repeat with top RAM stick. Samsung EVO M.2 SSD was a little harder: "Samsung" sticker actually goes face down. The good news is that the screw you need to secure the M.2 SSD is already on the motherboard (so no worries about the rants on the Samsung M.2 evo reviews on that account.) With the RAM closest to you, the slot to connect the M.2 SSD is on the right, and the screw is on the left, screwed into a short post. I used my smallest phillips screwdriver to remove the M.2 screw - which is very small. After some trial and error, I figures out how to insert the Samsung M.2 SSD into the M.2 slot. Without the screw, it stick up at about a 15 degree angle from the motherboard. Screwing in the M.2 attaching screw took several attempts - it kept falling off my smallest phillips screw driver - used tweezers a couple of times to retrieve it, and twice had to flip over the box gently to get it out of the motherboard. Wearning my glasses, and using my fingernail to hold the screw onto the head of the screwdriver, I finally was able to simultaneously depress the SSD to horizontal and to get the screw into the mounting pole and screw it down - gently of course. Whew! You have to pick the power plug for your region, and then slide out a strip on the side of the wall wart, then slide in your power plug attachment. Cleverly done, but I would have prefered a plug separated by a wire from the AC/DC adapter brick - wall warts often take up 2 plug sports. Plugged in the power cable into my power strip and the back of the NUC, plugged in HDMI cable from the monitor, and a USB mouse and keyboard into the the back of the NUC, then turned it on to see the BiOS Screen on the monitor. Yeah- ITS ALIVE! Next: Update BiOS and Windows installation. I booted into BiOS and check the version - this box came with V42. I'd read some war stories in the reviews, so I decided to update the BiOS bevore installing Windows. Using a clean USB flash drive, I downloaded the V45 BiOS:: [...] (or go to the Intel downloads site, and hunt for NUC BiOS files to get to the same place if this link doesnt work for you.) From the intel site: "Recovery BIOS Update [SY0045.BIO]—A .BIO file to be used for F7 BIOS Update method or a BIOS recovery process. In the unlikely event that a BIOS update is interrupted, it's possible the BIOS may be left in an unusable state. Use the recovery BIOS update to recover from this condition. It requires a USB flash device or CD." Turned off the NUC, plugged in the USB flash drive with the V45 BiOS, turned on the NUC, and hit "F7" at the right moment during boot to launch the bios update utility. Pretty easy to follow the onscreen directions to pick the USB flash drive and the bios file (in the UBS root directory). BiOS update takes maybe 7 minutes, but there are good progress onscreen announcements to keep you feeling comfortable that things are going ok. BiOS update competed successfully with BiOs version "SYSKLi35.86A.0045.2016.0527.1055" Success! Exited the BiOS utility and turned off the NUC. Next- Install Windows 10 via USB ISO:: I downloaded the Window Media Creation tool from the MS site: [...] and put it onto a clean USB flash drive. I removed the BiOS flash drive, and put in the Windows 10 ISO USB Flash drive. Turned the NUC back on, and the windows 10 installation program started right up, asked for language, and then asked for my windows activation key. Looking good so far: I'll come back I'll pick this blog up after I buy my copy of windows 10 pro and have a working activation key. Success - Windows 10 installed successfully from the USB drive - Just follow the on screen instructions and select the new install option. To start, I chose to skip installing the password - I will come back to that later. NUUC reboots a couple of times, and then launches Windows 10. Cool. But Wait - No Network connection. Apparently the windows 10 ISO USB I am using doesn't have any of the Intel NUC Nwk Drivers - what's up with that MS and Intel? So back to my legacy machine and my USB flash drive - I create a NUC drivers folder and download the Win 10 driver installation utilities from the Intel website, being careful to choose the correct Gen 6i5 NUC products: 1- Wired Ethernet: Intel® Gigabit Network Connection Driver for Intel® NUC Kits NUC6i[x]SY and NUC6i7KYK (stardate 4/29/2016) and 2- Wifi: Intel® Gigabit Network Connection Driver for Intel® NUC Kits NUC6i[x]SY and NUC6i7KYK (date 6/30/2016) These are self installing utilities - so I just drag them from the download folder into the NUC Drivers Folder in the USB drive. Pull the USB drive from the legacy machine, plug it into the NUC USB port, open windows explorer and run the utilities. I select the default options, and when I get the caution msg that windows 10 does support a certain intel nwkg protocol, I choose the proceed anyway option. Success again - I can now connect to the Internet! Now to the Intel site, this time from the NUC, and get the Intel NUC driver Update utility: 8/5/16 All good so far - one last issue to track down is that I cant seem to wake the NUC from sleep mode using the USB mouse or keyboard. 9/15/16 - Bypassed the sleep/wake issue by connecting the NUC to a monitor using an Amazon basics mini-DVI to VGA adaptor- NUC now wakes up from sleep normally. Never solved the HDMI sleep/wake issue- probable some kind of CEC issue- hopefully some driver update will fix it someday for other folks. I'm at 100% loving it- building it was fun, it's small, quiet, and cool- I'm not a video gamer, but for everything else it's great!

Very nice machine. I loaded it up with memory and SSD. Installed Linux Mint 17.3. After a little tweaking it now boots in about 25 seconds. Installation was easy. The RAM and SSD just clip in. I used the included VESA plate to mount the unit to the back of a monitor. Very little fan noise. As far as speed is concerned the unit is fast. Mostly due to the SSD. After 12 days. This unit is really fast. I love the speed and snappy feel of the user interface. Alas, on day 10 the unit quit booting. I can run the bios, but the OS either won't load or loads and hangs. I've tried different memory and different hard drives, but no joy. I'm going to send the unit back for replacement. After one month. I've replaced the NUC NUC6i6SYH with a new unit. I popped the SSD drive and memory into the new box and Linux booted right up from the previous installation. Speed is great, User Interface is snappy. The Nuc is being used for Software Defined Radio so is doing a lot of intense math calculations. Even running all that plus browsing and Utube video I've never seen the CPU utilization go over 45%. This unit is very fast, quiet, and runs cool. Still only four stars due to the lemon I got to start.

I've used this unit to build a Mackintosh. It is generally very good. All I had to do was add RAM and the SSD 'micro' drive. I've also installed a 2.5in SATA drive. The RAM was easy to install, but the SSD was a bit fiddly. The screw to hold it in place was hard to line up and hold in place. The SATA is simple, just slots in. So, not being a techie, the hardware set up was a piece of cake. I had a heck of a time getting the OS set up! At one point I decided to try windows. This required creating an install USB stick. I tried a Windows 7 DVD, but the installer doesn't recognise USB3 ports! I created the install disk using 8.1 from the Microsoft site, which took around an hour to download and create, but this seemed to work OK. I didn't actually get to install Windows as my product key was out of date- long story. I also had prepared a post-install disk of Windows drivers which you can find through the Intel NUC site. This has things like the ethernet and wireless drivers to get you onto the internet. I managed to install Mac OS in the end. I followed the instructions on [...]. I'm not techie but confident with Mac and found my way through these instructions successfully. My first go at installing failed because my copy of Mac OS installer was corrupted somehow. I thought the error was to do with an HDMI driver problem noted on the Tonymacx site, but I gave it a go with a fresh download and it worked fine. The Hackintosh is great for my needs but there are some limitations that may affect some users. The good stuff is - cheaper than a comparable Mac (about 50%) and customisable. I don't think there are any Macs now you can have 2 internal drives. You can add as much RAM as you like when you like (most new Macs you can't do this). It is FAST! Starts up and ready to do stuff in 50 seconds. Apps are very responsive. SSD to SATA is very fast. The downsides; Wireless doesn't work yet - I use on ethernet connection anyway so not a problem. But, no airdrop for example. Bluetooth doesn't work - so, I can't use my Mac bluetooth keyboard and trackpad. I was used to using swipe actions on the trackpad No CD/DVD- but this is common on new Macs too, and I bought a cheap old external for $30 Installation of Hackintosh takes some courage! So far I can't get Photoshop to work - keeps crashing UPDATE 2018: I gave up on the Hackintosh - was just too flaky. I've installed Windows 10 and it works very well. My only gripe is I can't get my wireless mouse and keyboard to connect and I have to use a wireless dongle to use them. This means I have to give up a USB port to the dongle. Otherwise this continues to be a great PC, fast enough for general home use.

It works without any hardware problems kinda. Make sure to check the bios and install the latest. My 10 year old XPpro AMD computer walks all over it. It's so sad... I would say it's as fast as my old Asus Atom computer with XP from 5 years ago at launching apps, transferring files and discovering hardware. Atom computers are not fast. Firefox opens quick, videos play okay and it starts fast. So what !! Maybe that's the measure of a fast computer these days, but productivity.... ha... XP pro and a fast old computer there's no comparison. That is pretty sad. Windows 10 is such a huge step back for Microsoft. It's like there starting over again at windows 3.1 I can't wait to try other OS's because win10 is soooo slow and soooo buggy and every thing we came to love about windows is gone. The nuc 6i5 is really quiet. I work in a silent room and can't really hear it unless win10 is messing up stuck with one of it's bugs. e.g. looking for files or looking for hardware or a simple application is crashing. 3.0 USB to a 3.0 ext.Hard drive painfully slow. Searching storage, snails pace. With out exaggerating i am surprised when a operation or application actually works okay. In my opinion if you have a old computer that you use for work, keep it. The faster launching of bloated browsers and smoother video is very much not worth the cost. Thank you Intel for your hard work on remedying the hardware issues with the nuc, it's been long enough now the I'm not very worried about hardware failures anymore. If XP worked on this computer it would be worth twice the price.

The unit was great for a very brief time (couple of weeks) and then the video would no longer display. Unit turns on but no video is present. Would recommend staying away from this until they get this hardware video issue resolved. Update to original review. This is the 4th NUC I have received and ALL of them gone bad but the last one I bought in October 2016. Buyer beware, the replacement products that Intel shipped me were also defective and had manufacture dates back from April of 2016. The Intel forums have many negative issues on this product. The last replacement NUC that Intel sent me would continually blue screen in Windows 10. If I take the SSD and RAM out of the bad NUC and replace it into my other good NUC (identical hardware), the system boots fine. So there is clearly hardware differences here.

UPDATE: I just dropped my rating 3 stars for these two reasons: 1) the NUC failed after less than a week; and 2) the vendor (MITXPC) made me pay for return shipping (I felt that return shipping should have been covered by MITXPC since the device was defective). Turns out the m.2 SSD controller no longer can see the SSD (gives a "No Boot Device" error). I was able to borrow another m.2 SSD for troubleshooting, and the NUC could not see that either. I also tried a 2.5" SATA iii SSD, and the NUC could see that - so it is just the m.2 drive interface that has failed. I have applied for a refund (a replacement was not offered), and plan to buy another one of these NUCs because I love the form factor and think it is worth another try. The bad part of this failure is the loss of time to troubleshooting, reinstalling Windows 10, getting a replacement, etc. -- but such is life. ORIGINAL REVIEW: So far I'm very impressed with this tiny "desktop" bare-bones PC, which I've had about a week now. I loaded it with 16gb of ddr4 Crucial memory (2 x 8gb SODIMM sticks), and a 500gb Samsung m.2 SSD. It amazes me that there is still room in it to install an additional SSD (2.5" SATA III form-factor). I did struggle with installing the operating system. My plan was to install Win 7 Pro, and then do the free Microsoft upgrade to Win 10. The problem is that this NUC PC only has USB 3.0 ports, while the Win 7 install program only supports USB 2.0. and older. I thought "not-to-worry" because Intel has a free tool called "Windows 7* USB 3.0 Creator Utility" that injects USB 3 drivers to the Win 7 install media. So I created a bootable USB flash-drive install media from my Win 7 .ISO file using Microsoft's "Windows USB/DVD Download Tool" (that worked fine), and then attempted to use Intel's "Windows 7* USB 3.0 Creator Utility" to add USB 3 support to the flash drive. Nope, it turns out that the Intel utility would always hang about half way thru the process. I then tried to manually inject the USB 3 drivers into the Win 7 install flash drive using various processes I found online. While the processes appeared to complete without problems, they were not successful in making the Win 7 USB install drive usable. I wasted nearly a day trying without success on this process. I finally gave up and bought a down-loadable .ISO copy of Win 10 64-bit Home. It was still necessary to create a bootable USB drive using the MS USB/DVD Download Tool, but that went fine and the install was uneventful. After the install I grabbed the Intel chipset and other drivers from the Intel site using another PC, and installed them manually to the NUC (Intel also has a tool that is supposed to automatically update all your drivers, but that failed too). I also updated the BIOS from v28 to v33 using Intel's Windows executable .exe BIOS update program - that worked fine. In summary: To save a lot of aggravation and wasted time, I recommend you skip tying to install Win 7, and either install Win 8.1 (and do the free upgrade to Win 10), or just install Win 10 directly. Aside from the challenges of getting the operating system and drivers installed, I love this little PC. It runs very cool (barely warm) and quiet (it has a fan inside but you can't really hear it). I'm using this NUC as a HTPC, and am really enjoying browsing the web on a 55" monitor. For streaming content I'm using Kodi, Netflix, Amazon Prime, and a few other apps. I also have a couple of TB's of media files on my home network that I access thru Kodi. By the way, I am driving my TV from the Display Port on the NUC (I bought a cable that adapts DP to HDMI, and that works great). That way I still have the NUC's HDMI out port available for a 2nd monitor. This PC is really overkill for a HTPC (my previous $100 Android TV box worked fine), but I recently got rid of my older full tower gaming machine, and wanted a fairly powerful but small Windows PC to replace it. This thing fits in the palm of my hand, and whenever I want I can just move it into my office and connect it to my monitor, and I'm good to go in less than a minute (I'll be doing that soon to do my taxes with TurboTax). When using this unit as a HTPC, I found it's best to not allow the NUC to go to sleep or hibernate when I'm done using it for the day - it seemed to confuse my TV. It typically took cold rebooting the NUC using the power button to get things going again. After changing the power settings so the NUC is on all the time, things are working a lot smoother. I also downloaded an updated copy of the old Windows Starfield screensaver (always my favorite). Now when I power up my home theater system, I'm flying through space on my 55" TV. A touch on the keyboard and I'm back in business. About my keyboard: It is a Logitech K400 Plus wireless keyboard with integrated touchpad. This keyboard is awesome, and available for around 25 bucks here on Amazon. The two AA batteries last over a year. It controls the NUC perfectly from across the room. If you need a great wireless keyboard, you can't go wrong with this one. Perfect for controlling Kodi, doing searches, etc. Love it. I debated waiting for the Intel 6th gen i7 Quad Core NUC (which should be available by mid 2016), but decided not to wait. The i5 Dual Core in my NUC only uses 15 watts of power, whereas the i7 Quad Core will use about 45 watts. That would create quite a bit of extra heat, which I didn't want in a HTPC. In summary, I'm super pleased with this little PC. It is amazing how much Intel crammed into such a small enclosure, and the thing is more powerful and faster and quieter than most of the tower machines of a few years ago. Some of the other reviews rated this NUC down due to problems, but so-far-so-good with me (I'll add an update later if I encounter problems or failures). The photo below shows the NUC (lower right) set up as a HTPC.

HINWEIS: Man braucht für die Installation noch einen zweiten Rechner mit Internetzugang und einen USB-Stick um Treiber herunterzuladen! Mehr dazu unten.... Nachdem ich im Büro schon meherere Intel NUCs aus vorherigen Generationen habe, kam als Ersatz für einen alten PC nur wieder ein NUC in Frage. Klein, leise, schnell und stromsparend. Wird bei uns für CAD mit 4k-Monitor+Full-HD-Monitor eingesetzt und ist dafür völlig ausreichend. Ich habe einen 32GB-Kit von Crucial als Arbeitsspeicher mitbestellt und eine Transcend MTS400 M.2 SSd mit 256GB. Als OS habe ich bei Amazon Windows 10 Pro auf USB bestellt. Installationsablauf: - Rechner zusammengebaut - Monitor Full-HD über HDMI angeschlossen - alte USB-Tastatur und USB-Maus angeschlossen - USB-Stick mit Windows 10-Setup eingesteckt - Eingeschaltet und mit F2 erstmal ins Bios Ich war schon erstaunt dass ich überhaupt ins Bios kam, hatte aufgrund einiger Rezensionen von Anfang 2016 gelesen dass viele USB2-Geräte während des Bootens an den USB3-Ports nicht gehen und mich hier schon mental auf Schwierigkeiten eingestellt aber vermutlich ist das BIOS inzwischen dahingehend aktualisiert worden. Es lief also, im Boot-Manager "Boot USB first" angeklickt und wieder neu gestartet. Das Windows 10 Setup läuft durch und man hat den normalen Desktop. HIER KOMMT DER ZWEITE RECHNER INS SPIEL: Es erscheinen einige Hinweise zu fehlenden Treibern und dass Windows diese herunterlädt. Geht aber nicht, da für den Netzwerkadapter des NUC standardmäßig kein Treiber bei Windows 10 dabei ist! Also im Internet auf einem anderen Rechner Treiber für NUC6i5 gesucht und per USB-Stick auf den NUC gebracht. Nach der Installation geht das Netzwerk und Windows zieht sich die restlichen Treiber über die Update-Funktion selbst. Bis auf diesen kleinen Wermutstropfen lief es aber recht flott (rund 2 h mit Hardware zusammenbauen) und ich bin zufrieden!

Une telle puissance dans une toute petite boite qui ne fait pas de bruit et qui sait se faire oublier. Extrêmement bien pensé. J'ai ajouté le max de mémoire, avec in gros SSD M2 et un gros SSD Sata. Ça va aussi vite que mon serveur, vraiment surprenant.

Como homelab es perfecto. Pequeño, silencioso, bajo consumo y tremendamente potente. Pensando ya en adquirir un segundo para montar un cluster.

I have been self-building PC's for years and this, my latest, replaced an old AMD Phenom II x4 desktop (is it really six years?) - so it's just a little more-advanced. ;-) It is VERY easy to configure & put together; install memory, install M2 and/or hard drive then plug everything in. Put your OS memory stick in a port, press power on & set bios and you're off. Updated drivers are on the Intel website; I strongly suggest updating the BIOS to the latest version immediately after installing your OS if not before. Now that I have had a few days with it up & running, I have to say I am impressed. This now has Windows 10 installed and fully updated, & running with absolutely zero problems. Boot times are fast, just sub-30 seconds from "cold" power-up (despite the OS, Avast & a few other "bits" slowing things down) and it seems to be a nicely-built bit of kit - apart (perhaps) from the "dust-magnet" glossy black lid. It has all the ports I need and connects to both my monitor AND my TV/home cinema without a glitch. One note: get a DECENT DisplayPort cable if you intend using that - the "cheapie" I bought (not here) was no good; I suggest you read up first. (There is only one miniDP to DP cable which is recommended according to Displayport.) To sum up: I now have a modern computer which is tiny - easily small-enough to take with me (if I want to) and yet is plenty powerful-enough for everyday tasks. It uses MUCH less power than my old one (bonus) and yet it is noticeably both speedier and more-responsive in use. In my humble opinion, it is worth every penny.

Yo lo he montado con un SSD M.2 de 256 GB (un Transcend TS256GMTS800 por menos de 100 euros) y una sola SIMM de 16GB (Crucial CT16G4SFD8213 por 65 Euros). En total (contando los 429 euros del NUC) por menos de 600 euros sale un ordenador muy potente y ligero, con la posibilidad de añadirle otra SIMM de 16GB y un SSD en un futuro. Si tienes un pendrive instalador de Windows 10 y todos los drivers bajados de Intel, se monta en menos de media hora. Se abre el NUC, se montan la memoria y el disco (realmente sencillo), se cierra el NUC, se conecta al monitor, el teclado y el ratón, se conecta la alimentación, se arranca desde el pendrive (me ha encantado la UEFI de Intel) y se instala del tirón. Muy pequeño (pero que muy pequeño). Completamente silencioso. Potente. Se puede utilizar como HTPC (conectado a la televisión para ocio y cine en casa), pero para mí es una barbaridad montar un i5 para eso (para ese fin me decantaría por un i3 o incluso por un Celeron o un Pentium N3700). Para mi este es un ordenador de sobremesa para ofimática y ocio (excepto para juegos que requieran mucha potencia en la tarjeta gráfica), que te debe durar muchísimos años.