Intel Soon Shipping Fanless "Bay Trail" NUC Mini PC
Intel's mini PC will start shipping towards the end of the month.
Intel revealed on Monday that its fanless NUC kit will begin shipping on April 28. The company calls it a "pint-sized powerhouse," packing a single-core Atom E3815 processor clocked at 1.46 GHz. The device targets value-conscious businesses and organizations.
"With its vertical industrial design and support for Linux and Windows Embedded operating systems, this Intel NUC was designed as the essential building block to power the thin-client market," reads the company's announcement. "A fanless kit with flash storage built in, and USB3 and audio headset support, this Intel NUC fits right at home in schools, call centers, and other locations with a large installed base of VGA monitors."
According to the specs, the NUC kit includes a DDR3L SO-DIMM single-channel slot for up to 8 GB of memory, 4 GB of internal storage, and support for a 2.5-inch HDD or SSD up to 9.5 mm thickness. There's also Intel HD Graphics, an embedded DisplayPort (1.3), one VGA port, and an HDMI 1.4a port. For networking, there's an Ethernet port, and a half-length PCIe mini-card slot and wireless antennas pre-installed.
But that's not all. This kit also provides three internal USB 2.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports on the back and one USB 3.0 port on the front. Other features include a fanless design, Discrete Trusted Module (TPM 1.2), two serial port headers, a vertical stand, a VESA mount bracket and support for a Kensington lock. The enclosure features a metallic grey plastic ring with black sides, and the overall dimensions are 190 x 116 x 40 mm.
"The Intel NUC Kit DE3815TYKHE also provides an ideal combination of power consumption, performance, affordability, and software compatibility to drive light digital signage, point-of-sale, and kiosk solutions, amongst other usages," states the announcement.
That all said, the only hardware customers have to add to this kit is the RAM and a possible hard drive or SSD. To see the full layout, check out the screenshot below.


p.s. cannot believe that I cannot delete my own comments, anyway...
What does the average non-gamer, non-professional would use anything remotely close to a workstation/server-class PC for? For about 80% of the people I know, the NUC would be perfectly suitable as a PC replacement as-is.
What does the average non-gamer, non-professional would use anything remotely close to a workstation/server-class PC for? For about 80% of the people I know, the NUC would be perfectly suitable as a PC replacement as-is.
as long as they don't watch youtube in fullscreen. i'm all for adequate, non-overpowered systems, but a single-core atom leaves a bit to be desired.
most call centers i know of run 2-4 23" screens that are barely powered by 5 year old mobile laptops...this thing would only power 2 19" screens sluggishly at best i know an ODB that would instantly have this thing max core before full installation let alone integration... i don't see how it's going manage all of this while running a vpn as a thin client unit and do so adequately.
this would be a better product marketed towards home users for basic computing or 2nd/3rd world countries
Since all of Intel's other CPUs support 8GB DIMMs and only the two lowest-end Atom 38xx models have this odd 4GB limit, my guess it is an ARK database typo... but I cannot confirm with the datasheets since they appear to be missing from the Atom datasheet download page
Edit: found the datasheet located in the developers' resources instead of the Atom Family datasheet page...
http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/intelligent-systems/bay-trail/atom-e3800-family-datasheet.html
P.268: 4GB max per rank so with a dual-rank (double-sided) module, you can get 8GB per channel.
Since all of Intel's other CPUs support 8GB DIMMs and only the two lowest-end Atom 38xx models have this odd 4GB limit, my guess it is an ARK database typo... but I cannot confirm with the datasheets since they appear to be missing from the Atom datasheet download page
Edit: found the datasheet located in the developers' resources instead of the Atom Family datasheet page...
http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/intelligent-systems/bay-trail/atom-e3800-family-datasheet.html
P.268: 4GB max per rank so with a dual-rank (double-sided) module, you can get 8GB per channel.
Nice research job!
This, apparently, is the next iteration of a updated "Minnowboard" - Bay Trail (Fail) version for Debian 'Nix and Android (think Raspberry Pi in a fancy package).
The original Minnowboard was $200 and the new version -a decent upgrade over the original- will (reportedly) be $100 - each without the fancy cabinet.
It's hard to see any competition from the Minnows for goodies like the ZBox Nanos -- especially the Kabini/Temash versions.
Yes, but that system will use around 1/2 to 1/5 the power. If you are in a situation where you need large availability, but not all clients will likely be used at once (like say a school for example, when the classes are full, the library is empty, and not all classes are actually using their computers all the time) then the thinner and more power efficient the client the more money that can be spent on a fat host.