Intel NUC6CAYH
Replacing Iris

The Iris role is a home theater PC, currently mostly used to perform streaming audio. Jacinth is the master site and router. On 2018-01-10 I ordered a NUC6CAYH to replace the old Iris, which was failing. But less than a month later Jacinth began showing alarming signs of instability, and I transferred the NUC6CAYH to take over the Jacinth role. It has been performing excellently.

To replace Iris I put in a Raspberry Pi 3B, and I got another one, trying it out as my desktop and development machine, hoping to get the Raspberry Pi working in various low power roles. This project fell through (details here), and I ended up firing the Raspberry Pi's. To replace Iris I reverted to the original plan: another NUC6CAYH.

Currently Diamond is a NUC7i5BNH.

Selection

What are the recent NUC offerings? Looking at Intel's family product page for the NUC; looking at the "kits" which need memory, disc, OS.

NUCs have these variants in major product features:

• The first digit of the model number is the generation. Intel currently directly sells 5 through 8. I should get generation 7 or 8.
• The second field designates the processor: Core i3-5-7, Celeron, or Pentium.
• The third field (normally 2 letters) designates the chipset or other board variant.
• Case styles ending in H have a 2.5in drive bay for a rotating disc or SSD, plus a slot for a M.2 SSD. The K case accomodates only the M.2 SSD; the case has the same floor area but is not as high. The HNK case has a kewl illuminated picture of a skull on it; it is about 1.5x as wide as the K case (no drive bay), and has multiple graphics ports: 2x mini-DP-1.2, 2x Thunderbolt-3, front and rear HDMI-2.0a; I'm not sure how many can be used at once.
• RAM capacity limits are 8Gb, 16Gb, or 32Gb. RAM speed varies.
• Graphics output variants appear to be:
  • HDMI-2.0a and/or USB-C (DP-1.2) (gen 7 and 8)
  • 2x HDMI-2.0a (gen 8)
  • 2x HDMI-2.0a plus 4-lane eDP-1.4 (gen 7)
  • VGA and HDMI-2.0 (gen 6)
  • VGA and HDMI-1.4 (gen 5)
  • Mini-HDMI-1.4a and/or Mini-DP-1.2 (gen 5)
• The Optane feature apparently is a 16Gb disc cache. I have no interest in this.
• Virtualization capability varies with the generation. Directed I/O is available in later generations.

Looking on Amazon for Intel NUC i5, SBSF Amazon, 3 hits:

• 7i5BNK (picture is of a BNH which is also available on this page), $351. Also on this page: 7i5BNH with Optane, 7i7BNH ($448), same with Optane.
• 7i5BNHXF with Optane (rejected)
• Complete system with i5 (rejected)

The current Amazon's Choice is the 6CAYH. The 8i7HNK complete systems are ridiculously common and with extreme prices. Few 8th gen machines are on Amazon except for that one. the 7i5BNH and variants are the only ones actually sold by Amazon.

Amazon has a complete system (BOXNUC8i3CYSN1 i.e. 8i3CYSN1). Includes:

• $429.88 SBSF Amazon
• Core i3-8121U processor
• Radeon 540 discrete GPU with 2Gb video RAM
• Comes with 4Gb LPDDR4 memory
• Comes with 1Tb rotating disc
• Empty M.2 x 80mm slot for SSD
• Windows 10 Home
• Ports and goodies: 2x HDMI-2.0b (full size), USB-3.1 (2 rear 2 front of which 1 is for charging), Intel 802.11ac Wi-Fi + Bluetooth v5, RJ45 (gigabit), SD card slot (looks like full size), 3.5mm phone/mic jack, Kensington lock slot.
• First on Amazon: 2018-08-01.
• Zero reviews yet.

I need to decide, do I get the 8th gen machine (at $430), or a 6CAYH identical to Jacinth (currently at $128 and Amazon's Choice)? Pros and cons:

• The 8i3CYSN1 is an unknown quantity,
• The 6CAYH processor and chipset is 2.5 years old: not ancient but still it's two generatons back version.
• The 8i3CYSN1 as offered by Amazon includes a lot of stuff that I don't need, like a Windows license.
• The 6CAYH has an advantage of known relatively low power consumption.
• The 6CAYH is an exact duplicate of the existing Jacinth. A hot spare for that machine is important.
• The 6CAYH has serious problems with sound: the onboard PCM sends 60Hz hum when not playing music, and audio over HDMI does not work at all without a firmware patch whose installer only runs on Windows with a HDMI-2.0 device connected, which we don't have.
• Conclusion: I'm going to get the 6CAYH and a USB sound module. For the home theater role I'll play sound through that.

Which disc will I use? I have a never used 1Tb drive by Western Digital that came with my laptop (new in 2016). I'm going to use that.

Amazon order:

• NUC6CAYH, $128, SBSF Amazon.
• Memory (1 or 2 1.35V DDR3L, 1.6 or 1.866GHz, max total 8Gb): Crucial 8GB KiT (4GBx2) DDR3/DDR3L 1866 MT/s (PC3-14900) Unbuffered SODIMM 204-Pin Memory - CT2K51264BF186DJ , $51.99 SBSF Amazon.
• SoundBlaster Play!3 External USB Sound Adaper, $19.99, SB Creative Labs FBA. Amazon's Choice.
• Item total: $199.98
• Estimated tax: $19
• Shipping: Free
• Estimated total: $219