Yet MORE Intel NUC Models on the way for your Nanolab!

For those of you who are regular followers of my blog, you will know I am a great proponent of the Intel NUC range for their low noise, low power, low(ish) cost, high performance and most importantly high WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor) features!

Unbelievably having only just announced their second generation triumvirate of models just 2 months ago (and due out in a couple of weeks), they’re at it again, announcing a third generation already! The new models include a pair of Haswell-based “Wilson Canyon” Core i3 / Core i5 processor options, featuring up to 4 USB 3.0 ports and a full size SATA connector and are expected to land some time around Q3 this year.

I have updated the CPU table with the currently available info on the new models, and will add CPU benchmarks once available on www.cpubenchmark.net (for consistency). This also includes the recently leaked specs for the new Gen 8 HP Microservers based on Intel Pentium / Celeron processors.

Gen	Model	Cores / Threads / Logical CPUs	Clock Speed / Turbo (GHz)	Cache	Max TDP (Watts)	CPU Bench	Features
1	Intel Celeron 847	2/1/2	1.1 / None	2 MB	17	986	None
1	Intel Core i3-3217U	2 / 2 / 4	1.80 / None	3 MB	17	2272	None
2	Intel Core i5-3427U	2 / 2 / 4	1.80 / 2.80	3 MB	17	3611	vPro & VT-d
2	Intel Core i7-3537U	2 / 2 / 4	2.00 / 3.10	4 MB	17	3766	VT-d
3	Intel Core i3-4010U	2 / 2 / 4	1.70 / None	3 MB	15	2253	VT-d
3	Intel Core i5-4250U	2 / 2 / 4	1.30 / 2.6	3 MB	15	3572	VT-d
1 (G7)	AMD Athlon II Neo N36L	2 / 1 / 2	1.30 / None	2 MB	12	751	None
2 (G7)	AMD Turion II Neo N40L	2 / 2 / 4	1.50 / None	2 MB	15	946	None
3 (G7)	AMD Turion II Neo N54L	2 / 2 / 4	2.20 / None	2 MB	25	1314	None
4 (G8)	Intel Celeron G530T	2 / 2 / 4	2.00 / None	2 MB	35	1604	iLO
4 (G8)	Intel Pentium G630T	2 / 1 / 2	2.30 / None	3 MB	35	2154	iLO

IMHO you cant beat the NUC for its price / performance / noise features mentioned above. In an ideal world I would be happy to give up 2-3cm of extra board size to get some extra RAM slots and a second gig port on the VMware HCL in there, but as a tidy home lab solution they’re hard to beat!

As regards this latest batch of models, I personally still think the sweet spot is with the Intel Core i5-3427U DC53427HYE 2nd Gen model, which includes vPro for remote access, and will turbo to a handsome 2.8GHz for as little as ~£235 when I last checked. More than enough for most home lab requirements!