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Intel’s new mini PCs

Id say a switch to AMD wouldn't be a good one... It took them this long to become competitive again, how long until they fall back behind? Not saying that it will happen but I think Apple should wait before a switch of CPUs.

I am eyeing up those NUCs though...
 
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I find the new i7 NUC with it's full range of standard ports and full speed Thunderbolt 3 port interesting. I understand TB3 supports external display adapters like the this Akitio egfx box.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/10828/akitio-introduces-node-thunderbolt-3-egfx-box-for-299?

If Apple releases a new Mini in 2017 with TB3, they will be reduced bandwidth - because that's how Apple swings.

For many years OS X has been my OS, but in December I updated my game PC with an SSD, GTX 1060, and really started using Windows 10. I have been migrating my applications and data, and overall it's a switch I could make without too much regret. My mini has 14 months of Applecare left, and with no new Apple desktops it's the perfect time to sell.
 
mauka said:
I find the new i7 NUC with it's full range of standard ports and full speed Thunderbolt 3 port interesting. I understand TB3 supports external display adapters like the this Akitio egfx box.
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Man, I've gotta say, if you really do want a high-end graphics card, why would you want a SFF PC? Better to just go with a standard desktop tower machine; the parts are less expensive, the hardware is higher quality, there won't be cooling issues to deal with, and you can fit everything cleanly into a single container.

The NUC is the perfect solution for situations where all the computing power you need already fits inside the SFF box. For a more powerful, more flexible desktop solution, I think a tower is still the best solution.
 
Orizence said:
Id say a switch to AMD wouldn't be a good one... It took them this long to become competitive again, how long until they fall back behind? Not saying that it will happen but I think Apple should wait before a switch of CPUs.

I am eyeing up those NUCs though...
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Judging by the rate Apple updates the Mini and the components they use I don't think it would matter too much.

On a serious note I find it an unlikely switch due to Intels proprietary tech namely Thunderbolt which has become synonymous with Apple computers. Without doing any research there is a lot of other tech that comes in Intel CPU's that I'm unsure if AMD will offer like HEVC stuff now which will be very important in future proofing a computer.
 
treekram said:
Well ...

As mentioned but not made explicit, there is no Kaby Lake Skull Canyon which those of us with a 2012 quad-core are interested in. The introduction of the new NUC's was prompted by the official launching of new Kaby Lake processors. Also, while Intel launched "HQ" processors (mobile quad-core), there were no Iris Pro processors included. So maybe a new Skull Canyon will appear when such a processor is launched?

As for me, I'd rather wait until Intel addresses the shortcoming mentioned regarding much of the IO (except memory and video) going through a PCH controller vs. directly through the CPU as mentioned in:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/10343/the-intel-skull-canyon-nuc6i7kyk-minipc-review

Unlike Apple, I'm have a reasonable level of confidence that Intel will introduce a new Skull Canyon this year.
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Interesting notes from Anandtech there, and probably explains the reason why Apple go for the CPUs with higher number of PCIe lanes off the CPU on higher end machines like the Mac Pro. The lower end laptops must have the USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 connectors hanging off the CPU-based lanes because the U series CPUs have just 12, explaining why the 13" Macbook Pros have the 2 right hand ones sharing bandwidth of one Alpine Ridge controller with the HQ series carrying 16 lanes and the full 4 ports.
 
Meister said:
I haven't had that experience myself but if it works for you ...
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I've been amazed at how many commercial applications are now available on Linux. (More than half of my Steam library now runs on my Linux box...)

And, while I don't have a Windows box right now, I do know that they've completely reversed course from the train wreck that was the Windows 8 UI, and gone back to a desktop-friendly GUI. Moreover, they've managed to keep it from getting bloated; Windows 10 can run just fine on some remarkably low-end hardware.

So yeah, things are steadily moving forward on both those two fronts.
 
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phrehdd said:
A few years back, there was a company that sold these USB thumbdrive "dongles" that made it easy to install OSX on PC's. I sure wish they were around now as these NUCs seem to be a sweet spot for some of us who are either ex Mac Mini fans or simply wanted a headless "Mac" that didn't ring of Apple's deafness known as "THIN-itus."
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Those EFI-X dongles were a complete rip-off and contained nothing but the freely available Chameleon bootloader beloved of the hackintosh communties (now superseded by the more capable Clover bootloader). All the sellers did was to encase what was little more than a cheap usb flashdrive in a sizeable amount of epoxy and periodically update the Chameleon release via "firmware updates" to match those of the current release all the while charging a pretty penny for the privilege.

The wheels came off this junket when their ruse was uncovered and updates stopped but not before the gullible were fleeced despite repeated warnings from the developers in the hackintosh community that they chose to ignore.
 
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