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Intel Graphics Stats Upgrades Hardware

Intel NUC5i7RYH Broadwell Mini PC With Iris Pro Graphics Tested 80

Posted by timothy from the why-pay-for-big-any-more? dept.
MojoKid writes: In addition to ushering in a wave of new notebooks and mobile devices, Intel's Broadwell microarchitecture has also found its way into a plethora of recently introduced small form factor systems like the company's NUC platform. The new NUC5i7RYH is a mini-PC packing a Core i7-5557U Broadwell processor with Iris Pro graphics, which makes it the most powerful NUC released to date. There's a 5th-gen Core i7 CPU inside (dual-core, quad-thread) that can turbo up to 3.4GHz, an Iris Pro 6100 series integrated graphics engine, support for dual-channel memory, M.2 and 2.5" SSDs, 802.1ac and USB 3.0. NUCs are generally barebones systems, so you have to build them up with a drive and memory before they can be used. The NUC5i7RYH is one of the slightly taller NUC systems that can accommodate both M.2 and 9.5mm 2.5 drives and all NUCs come with a power brick and VESA mount. With a low-power dual-core processor and on-die Iris Pro 6100-series graphics engine, the NUC5i7RYH won't offer the same kind of performance as systems equipped with higher-powered processors or discrete graphics cards, but for everyday computing tasks and casual gaming, it should fit the bill for users that want a low profile, out-of-the-way tiny PC.
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Intel NUC5i7RYH Broadwell Mini PC With Iris Pro Graphics Tested More

Intel NUC5i7RYH Broadwell Mini PC With Iris Pro Graphics Tested

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  • For the price I could get a Mini-ITX form factor machine that isn't that much bigger, with better performance, and more features. If you need something small like that you maybe looking at an ARM based SBC.
    • Competitive offerings are also considerably less than this NUC. $900 with some assembly required.
      • Intel is lucky that Apple appears to have a barely concealed desire to kill the mac mini, and bootcamp. Otherwise it'd be tricky to imagine many NUCs moving at all.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by slaker ( 53818 )

          You can get an entry-level Mac Mini, sure. It'll be physically larger and it'll be slower. You can also get slower Broadwell NUCs if you're actually price-sensitive enough to make that comparison. Figure that you'll pay $100 for 16GB RAM and $120 for an m.2 SSD + $25 for an Intel or Broadcom wireless card if you think you need one + whatever the barebones box costs ($300 for the Broadwell i3 up to $535 for the Broadwell i7). Apple's pricing on the Haswell Mac Minis is $500, $700, $1000 for an at-best 2.8GHz

          • That's what I meant about 'barely concealed desire to kill the mac mini'. Time was when Apple considered the mini to be a strategically valuable product, both for replacing the emac as a school computer lab staple and for converting former PC user households. Not coincidentally, that's the time when they were actually pretty aggressively priced, unless you counted best-buy shelf crap that managed to be massively larger and still noisier.

            Now, they'd really prefer that schools sling ipads and households ei

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by slaker ( 53818 )

              I don't really understand why Apple wants to sell iMacs. They're a huge PITA to service, cost a fortune to ship and aren't particularly more capable than Mac Minis.If there were an Apple product line with a definite justification to end, it would be that one.

              • My impression is that Apple's industrial design people believe cables, physical buttons, and anything that requires a hole in the shell of the product to be intrinsically filthy and sinful.

                The mac mini, which has among the fewest integrated peripherals of any current Apple product, wantonly incites users to plug their filthy cables into the various ports cut into the perfection of the aluminium body. The iMac, by contrast, can be used in relative purity(with bluetooth peripherals) marred only by a power

        • Intel is lucky that Apple appears to have a barely concealed desire to kill the mac mini,

          You could just as easily say "Gigabyte is lucky that Intel appears to have a barely concealed desire to kill the NUC."

          I guess this is progress. People used to argue about which vendors offer the best values, but now they argue about which vendors hate themselves and their users to the least suicidal degree. Instead of "Apple sucks," it's now "Apple hates itself, second only to how much they hate you, the customer."

        • Intel is lucky that Apple appears to have a barely concealed desire to kill the mac mini, and bootcamp.

          Many Intel NUCs also require hacks to install on them anything non-Windows (for example Linux).

          My point being: Intel NUCs are also not very friendly to the alternative OSs.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by x0ra ( 1249540 )
        Such as ? I checked last month in the perspective of updating my environment, and the competition isn't very broad for my requirements. Everything is centered to being able to drive a 4k@60Hz monitor (requiring DP1.2). Non-x86_64 is pretty much non-existant, and not supported by most proprietary software vendors. AMD offering is non-existant. Even Intel mini-itx ends up all cost included around the $750 of the NUC board ($500 for the board + cpu + psu + case, $100 SSD, $150 memory).

        The other options I hav

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by fnj ( 64210 )

        It's not as high as that. Here [amazon.com] is one with all the pieces (including 16GB and M.2 SSD) all assembled and tested for $755. Same thing with the 5i5 is $630; 5i3 is even cheaper.

        A Mac Mini with an i7, 16 GB and the cheapest available SSD is $1400. I just went to the Apple store to check. And the Mac Mini is 19.7x19.7 cm. The NUC is 11.5x11.1 cm. A whole different class. Even the original Mac Mini before it got pointlessly squashed down vertically and bloated horizontally was 15x15 - 17x17 cm. If I could find

        • Depends, what are you using the NUC for?

          Games? For 200 bucks you can buy a PS3 that plays mostly the same games, has a BluRay player and plays digital media. For 400 bucks you can get a PS4 which has a better GPU.

          For anything else, depending on how much horsepower you need. If you're rendering video or editing RAW photos or audio, sure, it's probably unbeatable for size/power consumption.

          Anything else though, we're at a stage where things are pretty much Good Enough.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Agripa ( 139780 )

          The present Mac Mini doesn't even use an external power brick you can toss on the floor under the desk. The main case is bloated to hold the whole power supply.

          While I prefer integrated power supplies they are invariably the limiting factor as far as reliability and what wears out first. If the power supply is an internal ATX format or an external power brick that allows the possibility of replacing it inexpensively; anything else is a waste of money.

    • This thing has way more power and way better connectivity than an ARM SBC. Try finding an ARM SBC with USB 3, DisplayPort, Gigabit Ethernet, and M.2 SSD support. This thing is small enough that you could substitute it for a laptop if you just wanted a machine to bring between work and home. I know a lot of people who have work laptops who never use them except at a fixed desk anyway. Just plug in the peripherals at home or work. Not than I'm a big fan of working from home, but for some people this migh

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by x0ra ( 1249540 )
      Non x86 is pretty much out of the question for any decent desktop.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by fnj ( 64210 )

      Mini-ITX is absolutely colossal compared to the NUC. Even the Mac Mini is gigantic in comparison. On the other end, ARM is not even in the ballpark in performance. ARM definitely has its place, but it is not in the same class as the NUC.

      By the time you buy your mini-ITX motherboard, case, and power supply you are paying more than an equivalent NUC. The 3i7 is cheap. And, unlike mini-ITX jammed-together nightmares, the NUCs are beautifully engineered systems that go together neatly.

      I have never seen a mini-I

      • I have never seen a mini-ITX that had anything close to an acceptable cooling system. They were noisy and/or inadequate. I went through a phase where I built a number of mini-ITX systems, and none of them were ever anywhere near satisfactory.

        I've assembled low-power, often fanless systems since early 2004. Some of these are considerably larger form factors than Mini-ITX. The point is that low power combined with relatively large casings enables better and quieter cooling. The trend of ever-smaller systems for stationary use is dumb if you need tiny, whiney fans to sustain it. "Laptop" components are great for their lower power consumption (often meaning higher efficiency), but I can still choose something better than laptop coolers.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by fnj ( 64210 )

          I don't disagree in the main, except that the NUC cooling system is not "whiney".

          • 'Whiney' or not, it's enough to be an annoyance. From the article:

            While power consumption is relatively low versus a desktop system, it is high enough to require some decent cooling. When under load, the fan in the NUC5i7RYH can get quite loud. When idling or just doing basic tasks, the system is very quiet. But under load, it is clearly audible and is noisy enough to disrupt a home theater environment, etc.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by fnj ( 64210 )

              Without a dBa @ distance measurement, with comparisons to other equipment using the same measuring equipment, "quite loud" is not really a useful characterization. Even then the dBa level alone doesn't tell you all you need to know about the acousic objectionability factor. My good old AOpen MP945 with GMA950 graphics (exactly the same size as the good, original Mac Mini) idles and even does useful light work in silence in a quiet residential room with nobody else in the house to make any noise, and without

              • Anecdotal, but here's my experience. I had a 5i5 for about a month (then returned it in anticipation of the 5i7, which I got two weeks ago). The 5i5 didn't really get loud, even under heavy load, which was very nice. The 5i7 will wind up and whine whenever Plex has a new video to transcode, which it seems to decide to do at random times (read: when trying to get to sleep). In the same room this will become an issue, but it is fine in the next room over. However, I don't know that I would really recommend th

          • the NUC cooling system is not "whiney".

            I believe you, considering for example that laptop coolers are surprisingly nice these days. However, I think of it as a matter of principle, and a question of long-term reliability. A tiny package is generally designed to run hotter, it's not just about the CPU, but also poor air circulation among other components, which contributes to long-term heat damage. The reliability of the fan itself is another long-term issue; it's probably going to get more whiney over time. Such a tight packaging can be a good c

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by fnj ( 64210 )

              I share those kind of concerns in general. The AOpen MP945 was an example of using an excellently engineered cooling system. There basically was nothing else in the box besides the CPU that made any appreciable heat. Mine was very quiet and never degraded. The NUC from what I've heard has similarly great thermal engineering. But when the cooling system on anything like this degrades or fails, you're going to have to try to find and pay for the expensive custom part. You can't just slap a new commodity fan i

        • I bought the fanless Atom-based NUC because it was silent and cheap ($100AU for the DE3815TYKHE kit on sale).

          It's glacially slow by comparison to this model but then I didn't outlay $US500 and as you and the article state the i7 model requires a fan.

          I'm expecting/hoping for model refreshes in the fanless NUC category based around Atom X5 (Cherry Trail) and Core M.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by fnj ( 64210 )

            The i3, i5, and i7 all require fans. Anything that size that takes more than a watt or two requires a fan.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by fnj ( 64210 )

            The DE3815TYKHE is also substantially bigger than the NUC. Roughly twice the size. Increased size confers better passive cooling.

        • Logic Supply ML100G-30. Pricier, but silent [arstechnica.com].

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by slaker ( 53818 )

        Any mITX rig with stock Intel cooling, a PicoPSU and an mSATA/m.2 SSD actually has plenty of room for airflow since the bulky metal boxes of hard disk and power supply are out of the way. I also find the Antec NSK150, which has a front-mounted PSU, to work well enough for mainstream desktops.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        Mini-ITX is absolutely colossal compared to the NUC. Even the Mac Mini is gigantic in comparison

        Not so much once you consider the Mac Mini has the power supply built in, versus the power brick that comes with the NUC. The NUC is physically smaller, (though taller) but coupled with the power supply the size almost the same.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by x0ra ( 1249540 )
          The external PSU is actually good, because it is easy to replace if it dies, as it is generally the weak link in electronics. Just buy a new one with the same output and roughly the same power, and you can continue to enjoy your device.

  • 6100 is Iris Graphics NOT Iris Pro (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Very important difference. Mistake made all though the article and in summary.

  • The selling point of the Iris Pro is that it should be able to play AAA games at medium presets, but it's crippled by the low TDP and other iGPUs thrash it in benchmarks.
    But then you would expect it to be virtually silent, because of the low TDP, but it's actually quite noisy.
    Then, there's the price. Iris Pro has always come with a high price, because eDRAM is expensive to manufacture. That's one of the reasons why the previous generation Iris Pro had so few design wins.

  • Would be a nice low cost machine to develop for the Mac or iOS.

    Can it run Mac OS?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by x0ra ( 1249540 )
      Hackintosh are notoriously hard to install Intel HD graphics, and Yosemite killed support for third-party SSD (at least, the usage of TRIM), but with enough patience, that should be workable. Honestly, that's something I'd try should I get one of these NUC.

  • Well, Intel has really and truly done it, they've made their processor naming scheme completely inscrutable. I cannot tell at all which processors are faster than which other processors without becoming an expert on benchmark scores.

    Also, five hundred bucks for that? It's just not worth it to make it quite that small. I just built an Athlon 64 X2 4000+ for less than $100 and it's less than twice the size and has only one fan. I'm sure that i7 is considerably more powerful, but not $435 more powerful.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by x0ra ( 1249540 )
      You are comparing a 2015 system with a 2005 one... I doubt your system can drive 4k@60Hz, USB3 connectivity or even SATA M2.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by drinkypoo ( 153816 )

        You are comparing a 2015 system with a 2005 one...

        Correct. You won't want to use either one for gaming, so it's an apt comparison.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by x0ra ( 1249540 )
          I wouldn't use this NUC for gaming. I'd use it to drive my main working environment, that is a main 28" 4k display (running at 60Hz) and a side 23" 1080p display. The only app running on this machine would be Chrome, and terminals connecting to my current machines, where the bulk of my actual work would happen. Then I could move the full-ATX tower away from me.
        • The machine from 2005 isn't even enough for web browsing, though.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by fnj ( 64210 )

      And a million times the power drain and heat.

    • i7-5557U

      i7 = i7 class
      5xxx = 5th generation
      557 = the higher the number the faster/better feature set
      U = the market segment feature set

      I guess AMD folks find it difficult to understand, hence that is why they buy AMD.

      • 5xxx = 5th generation

        Except for those 4th generation six-core chips that also get a 5xxx number, because if you have enough cores you get bumped up a generation or something.

        557 = the higher the number the faster/better feature set

        Something like that. There's some similar 6xx chips. They are slower and have a lower end GPU, but include Intel vPro, Intel TXT, and Intel TSX-NI. So uhhh.... I guess those features mean a higher model number despite the slower speed. Well, except the 58xx and 59xx chips don'

  • Not Iris Pro (Score:4, Informative)

    by Narishma ( 822073 ) on Thursday May 14, 2015 @09:00AM (#49688899)

    The Core i7 5557U has an Iris 6100 GPU without the eDRAM L4 cache, unlike Iris Pro.

  • Gee, that's 36.7% slower than a mobile i7 CPU that came out 2 years ago! Good job, Intel. Keep direct-soldering underclocked garbage onto flimsy computers that nobody wants or needs for any use ever. Maybe it's because they're calling it an i7 even though it's a dual core and isn't an i7. It even has "support for dual-channel memory." What a leap in computing technology! If I wanted a small form factor PC, I'd get a slim micro-ATX case and put a board with a Pentium haswell CPU in it for a lot less mo

  • It would be kind of interesting to build a VMware cluster out of these.

  • Great for a Plex back-end (Score:3)

    by Red Herring ( 47817 ) on Thursday May 14, 2015 @01:18PM (#49691527)

    I have one of these that I use as my media server... headless Plex back end, general home storage and home automation web server, etc. Runs CentOS 6 beautifully (Gigabit wired connection, so don't care about lack of wireless drivers). Using a 256GB M.2 SSD as the local storage, with a few multi-TB USB3 drives for the media storage.

    The nice things is that the CPU is that it's beefy enough to do transcode of several shows at the same time as my wife, myself, and kids all watch different shows on Rokus, iPads, and other computers via Plex. At the same time it can pull OTA recorded shows from my Tablo, do a transcode, put them in the media storage, and serve them back out without a hiccup. Try that with an Atom or an ARM.

  • Iris Pro (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    All documentation I've found show that this isn't Iris Pro, rather it's a Intel Iris Graphics 6100.

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