Intel NUC - upgrade options

xrapidx

xrapidx

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Need a bit of help - bought one of these as a temporary machine for minor dev in VS.Code - before decommissioning it as a Plex Server - but - it actually perforrms a little better than my older gen i5 laptop, so thinking of keeping it as a little dev machine.

I need the machine to perform in a decent manner while running various services at times (like MSSQL) - so want to up the ram, and do something about the disk space.

Was thinking of 16Gb - two 8Gb - would these be correct? Will 16Gb be sufficient, so far the 8Gb is performing fine with VSCode/Chrome on windows 10 - a bit surprised.

Then harrdrive, a bigger SSD - can anyone tell me what the correct spec is to fit the machine?
www.intel.com

Intel® Core™ Processors, FPGAs, GPUs, Networking, Software

Browse Intel product information for Intel® Core™ processors, Intel® Xeon® processors, Intel® Arc™ graphics and more.
www.intel.com www.intel.com

Is it just a M2 SSD, e.g. https://www.wootware.co.za/computer-hardware/hard-drives-ssds/solid-state-disks/shopby/m_2

Can't remember the last time I built a PC.
 
xrapidx said:
Need a bit of help - bought one of these as a temporary machine for minor dev in VS.Code - before decommissioning it as a Plex Server - but - it actually perforrms a little better than my older gen i5 laptop, so thinking of keeping it as a little dev machine.

I need the machine to perform in a decent manner while running various services at times (like MSSQL) - so want to up the ram, and do something about the disk space.

Was thinking of 16Gb - two 8Gb - would these be correct? Will 16Gb be sufficient, so far the 8Gb is performing fine with VSCode/Chrome on windows 10 - a bit surprised.

Then harrdrive, a bigger SSD - can anyone tell me what the correct spec is to fit the machine?
www.intel.com

Intel® Core™ Processors, FPGAs, GPUs, Networking, Software

Browse Intel product information for Intel® Core™ processors, Intel® Xeon® processors, Intel® Arc™ graphics and more.
www.intel.com www.intel.com

Is it just a M2 SSD, e.g. https://www.wootware.co.za/computer-hardware/hard-drives-ssds/solid-state-disks/shopby/m_2

Can't remember the last time I built a PC.
Click to expand...
Do you know which exact model NUC it is..?
 
WAslayer said:
Do you know which exact model NUC it is..?
Click to expand...
I believe it's the link near the end of my post. There's a bit of confusion, as it wasn't the one advertised (no DisplayPort)

I know it's a 11gen i5.
 
xrapidx said:
I believe it's the link near the end of my post. There's a bit of confusion, as it wasn't the one advertised (no DisplayPort)

I know it's a 11gen i5.
Click to expand...
Based on the data sheet the ram and ssd you linked will work
 
xrapidx said:
I believe it's the link near the end of my post. There's a bit of confusion, as it wasn't the one advertised (no DisplayPort)

I know it's a 11gen i5.
Click to expand...
If that's the right link it has M.2 and 2.5" drive slots
 
Last edited:
Speedster said:
Is there the right link it has M.2 and 2.5" drive slots
Click to expand...
Yeh, I'm actually at two minds, keep the 128gb m2 and get a cheap 2.5" for general storage.

Or.. get a 256gb m2 that I know will handle all my apps. (I have a 32tb raid6 nas for data/docs I'm not using).

Unrelated, funny story.

My work laptop died last month. I was rather frantic as it had two weeks of uncommitted in-progress work (two days before leave) -and various documents, etc I'd been lazy about backing up for about three-four months. (When my work laptop was Ubuntu I'd automated the backups)

I opened the laptop, removed the 2.5" drive, and tried various external bays, and then my server to try and get to the data. Eventually I noticed the SATA connectors in the 'drive' were just plastic, with no contacts - a dummy drive.

My first experience with m2 drives - and hardware looking a bit different from when last I built a PC.
 
xrapidx said:
I believe it's the link near the end of my post. There's a bit of confusion, as it wasn't the one advertised (no DisplayPort)

I know it's a 11gen i5.
Click to expand...
Install the Intel Driver and Support Assistant. It'll give you the model and series number. Useful anyway to keep the machine's drivers current.
 
Arthur said:
Install the Intel Driver and Support Assistant. It'll give you the model and series number. Useful anyway to keep the machine's drivers current.
Click to expand...

That was useful, thanks:
BIOS
Version
0070

Date
10/28/2022
MOTHERBOARD
Manufacturer
Intel Corporation
Model
NUC11TNBi5
Version
M61235-402
OPERATING SYSTEM
Edition
Microsoft Windows 10 Pro (64-bit)
Version (Build)
21H2 (10.0.19044)

Although - the unit doesn't have displayport as per the model above.
 
xrapidx said:
That was useful, thanks:
BIOS
Version
0070

Date
10/28/2022
MOTHERBOARD
Manufacturer
Intel Corporation
Model
NUC11TNBi5
Version
M61235-402
OPERATING SYSTEM
Edition
Microsoft Windows 10 Pro (64-bit)
Version (Build)
21H2 (10.0.19044)

Although - the unit doesn't have displayport as per the model above.
Click to expand...
That's a solid little machine. I'm running an older generation Celeron edition for my home server. Super low power draw (about 6W), quiet and it just works.
 
Got the 12th gen i5 NUC Pro, the one immediately after yours. Fitted 32GB of this RAM https://www.wootware.co.za/g-skill-...00mhz-cl22-1-20v-so-dimm-notebook-memory.html which looks very similar to what you are considering. The drive was this one: https://www.wootware.co.za/mushkin-...e-4-0-x4-nvme-m-2-2280-solid-state-drive.html, which was about all that was available in PCIe 4 in that capacity at the time.

Tried it under Clear Linux, which is Intel's own distro and optimized for this type of hardware. It really flew under this OS and Phoronix found it to be the fastest OS of those they tested in general. It is orientated to dev and AI work, and probably not as suited to general desktop use as something like Ubuntu.
 
garyc said:
Got the 12th gen i5 NUC Pro, the one immediately after yours. Fitted 32GB of this RAM https://www.wootware.co.za/g-skill-...00mhz-cl22-1-20v-so-dimm-notebook-memory.html which looks very similar to what you are considering. The drive was this one: https://www.wootware.co.za/mushkin-...e-4-0-x4-nvme-m-2-2280-solid-state-drive.html, which was about all that was available in PCIe 4 in that capacity at the time.

Tried it under Clear Linux, which is Intel's own distro and optimized for this type of hardware. It really flew under this OS and Phoronix found it to be the fastest OS of those they tested in general. It is orientated to dev and AI work, and probably not as suited to general desktop use as something like Ubuntu.
Click to expand...

I'm stuck between going for 16gb or 32gb total... R600 vs R1538.
 
Speedster said:
What are you planning to use it for?
Click to expand...

Development mostly, local instance of SQL Server (offline when not in use) - the occasional use of local VMs. The VMs are my main concern.

Against my better judgement, I'll probably stay on Windows as the host OS.
 
I installed War Thunder yesterday - it actually works, although - on low res at 1080p
 
We use them as decoders, very few failures and we had to decommision one recently that had been running continously since 2017. It was such a old model that it still used 2.5" disks.

Modern ones are proper little beasts
 
I'm actually tempted to decommission my HP Gen8 Microserver (hell of a stable, stays up for months without issue - it was last rebooted 16 November) - its served me well - but uses quite a bit more power.
 
About to order the upgrades, how do I get windows up and running on the new harddrive? (i.e. serial number, etc) - I think the last version of Windows I installed myself was XP :D (sort of goes with the last time I built a PC)
 
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