The Intel NUC, or Next Unit of Computing, is the smallest computer we have ever seen. It's a remarkable 117x112x35mm. It also comes supplied with a VESA mount, so you can screw it to the back of your TV.
These dimensions make it far smaller than even a Mini-ITX system, but everything about the NUC is custom. You can't easily buy a NUC motherboard and a case and put the two together, as with a normal PC. Rather, the NUC is sold as a barebones kit with a Core i3-4010U or Core i5-4250U processor soldered in, and you have to add your own storage, wireless card and RAM.
Inside the NUC, easily-accessible slots for two sticks of DDR3 laptop memory, a half-height Mini PCI Express slot and a slot for an mSATA SSD for storage. It's an HDMI 1.4 port, so will support 4K resolutions. We had no problems connecting to a 3,840x2,160-pixel screen over both HDMI and DisplayPort, but found Windows was limited to a 30Hz refresh rate. On top of this, the Start screen animations were very slow. It looks like integrated graphics, even the up-to-the-minute Intel HD graphics 5000 in the NUC's i5-4250U processor, can’t handle 4K resolutions on the desktop. Things were fine at 1,920x1,080, however, and the HD Graphics 5000 were surprisingly effective in games.
| Intel NUC D54250WYK (Haswell) | |
|---|---|
| Chipset | Intel QS77 Express |
| CPU | Intel Core i5-4250U, Dual-Core, Hyper-Threaded, 1.3 GHz (2.6 GHz Peak Turbo Boost), 3 MB L3 Cache |
| Graphics | Intel HD Graphics 5000, 200 MHz - 1 GHz |
| Graphics Memory | Shared with system memory |
| System Memory | Not Included |
| Hard Drive | Not Included |
| Optical Drive | N/A |
| Operating System | Not Included |
| Included Peripherals | Not Included |
| Internal Interfaces | |
| Memory Support | Dual-Channel, 2 x DDR3L SO-DIMM slots, 1.35 V, 1333/1600 MT/s, 16 GB Max |
| Mini-PCIe | One slot |
| mSATA | One slot |
| Mass Storage Controllers | |
| Chipset SATA | 1 x SATA 3Gb/s (no space for 2.5" hard drive) 1 x mSATA 6Gb/s |
| I/O Panel Connectors | |
| DVI | Not Included |
| VGA | Not Included |
| HDMI | 1 (mini-HDMI) |
| DisplayPort | 1 (mini-DP) |
| Thunderbolt | Not Included |
| MHSL Input | Not Included |
| USB (2.0, 3.0, 2.0/eSATA combo) | 4 x USB 3.0 |
| Memory Card Reader | Not Included |
| Network | 1 |
| eSATA | Not Included |
| Digital Audio out | HDMI |
| Analog Audio | One front |
| IR Sensor | Yes |
| Ethernet & Wireless | |
| LAN | Integrated Gigabit |
| Wi-Fi | Not Included |
| Bluetooth | Not Included |
| Audio | |
| HD Audio Codec | Analog: Realtek ALC283 HDMI: Intel Display Audio |
| Audio Channels | unavailable |
| Physical Specifications | |
| Size | 116.6 x 112 x 34.5 mm (4.59" x 4.41" x 1.36") |
| Weight | 478 g (1.05 lbs) |
