Anyone used an Intel NUC 11?

KraniX · 1 Mar 2021 at 23:37

Hey folks, I've ordered a NUC11PAHi7 and was wondering if anyone here had had hands on with one and what your experience was like?

Keen to get rid of the massive i5 2500 desktop I have. Not had a sff pc for years, had a Shuttle back in the mid 00's (I think) which was fab.

I was waiting for an Asus PN50 for the last week but the delivery date got bumped due to stock or shipping issues. Seems the same everywhere.

Didn't think worth getting a NUC 10 and the price for the i7 11 seemed pretty reasonable especially since so few places have stock.

david25 · 7 Mar 2021 at 12:18

No, I've only found one professional review (posted on my NUC11 thread).

Please post your feedback, especially about fan noise. I don't know whether to order a standard unit now or wait for the fanless options that are meant to be coming. PCIe4 performance with the right drive is meant to be amazing,

KraniX · 7 Mar 2021 at 19:56

Assembled the Nuc this afternoon, took a couple of minutes to unscrew, drop in the M2 and the ram, screw up... So easy.

Had a nightmare getting Windows going, my existing desktop kept crashing while downloading the data via the media creation tool so used my Mac to get the iso but the install kept failing after getting the usb bootable due to some files not working correctly. Looks like there is a large file which is screwed by fat32.

Running the media creation tool again and doing it straight to usb so am hoping this time the bloody thing works.

KraniX · 7 Mar 2021 at 21:38

So turns out it was secure boot being enabled that was causing the issue, thought it was usb or hardware related, thanks to using Rufus to create the bootable USB from the iso I was able to finally get it going.

Lot noisier than I expected, but the bios was set to cool, I moved to balanced and we're talking PS4 jet engine at times.

I've been installing drivers etc. so has been ramping up and the CPU has been at 4 to 4.5 GHz most of the time.

I need to install the latest bios and then see as I'm sure I read there were issues with the bios presets.

david25 · 8 Mar 2021 at 09:53

Does the fan go on/off/on/off when idling in Windows?

Emlyn_Dewar · 8 Mar 2021 at 10:37

That is disappointing about the fan noise. Hopefully the bios update can quieten it down a bit.

Relentless81 · 8 Mar 2021 at 11:25

Sorry to jump in, I'm after something as small as one of these for playing RTS games in my Steam library at 1440P as well as other general windows stuff, are they up to the job or don't bother?

david25 · 8 Mar 2021 at 11:50

Relentless81 said:
Sorry to jump in, I'm after something as small as one of these for playing RTS games in my Steam library at 1440P as well as other general windows stuff, are they up to the job or don't bother?

Have a look here

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel...PC-Review-Tiger-Lake-Done-Right.517573.0.html

Relentless81 · 8 Mar 2021 at 12:18

david25 said:
Have a look here

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel...PC-Review-Tiger-Lake-Done-Right.517573.0.html

Thanks, interesting in the comments people commenting on the PN50 with 4800U being better

KraniX · 8 Mar 2021 at 14:57

Relentless81 said:
Thanks, interesting in the comments people commenting on the PN50 with 4800U being better

I wanted a PN50 but stock issues made it impossible to get one, at least for me, the past few stock dates came and then got pushed out further but I might have been unlucky.

KraniX · 8 Mar 2021 at 15:01

Emlyn_Dewar said:
That is disappointing about the fan noise. Hopefully the bios update can quieten it down a bit.

Not really helped so far, the different presets don't seem to make any difference. The fan ramped up significantly when installing stuff yesterday but I've just been using it for office work today so has just been pretty steady and the fan constant.

CPU running pretty cool at about 31, although the graphics chip is about 50. Only in Windows, no games but might be browser using hardware acceleration or something.

The other strange thing is my 3200 ram is only running at 2666, and there isn't any option I can see to change it.

Relentless81 · 8 Mar 2021 at 15:26

KraniX said:
I wanted a PN50 but stock issues made it impossible to get one, at least for me, the past few stock dates came and then got pushed out further but I might have been unlucky.

It seems anything from AMD is that way, I was considering the A300 with a 3200G but they are impossible to find too

KraniX · 8 Mar 2021 at 19:49

Found another issue, put the Nuc into sleep mode and the fans kept running as they had just immediately before and then crashed when trying to wake it up, happened a couple of times today.

Will do a bit of Googling and see if anyone else is having this issue. Bit surprised noise and power modes are an issue since the Nuc is basically a laptop with no screen and more space so shouldn't really be a difficult thing to manage.

david25 · 9 Mar 2021 at 08:32

KraniX said:
Not really helped so far, the different presets don't seem to make any difference. The fan ramped up significantly when installing stuff yesterday but I've just been using it for office work today so has just been pretty steady and the fan constant.

CPU running pretty cool at about 31, although the graphics chip is about 50. Only in Windows, no games but might be browser using hardware acceleration or something.

The other strange thing is my 3200 ram is only running at 2666, and there isn't any option I can see to change it.

Does this fan pulse or is it constant when using it for light work?

On the RAM, is your RAM from the Intel approved list?

KraniX · 9 Mar 2021 at 13:23

david25 said:
Does this fan pulse or is it constant when using it for light work?

On the RAM, is your RAM from the Intel approved list?

Constant, not loud but noticeable, there is a fanless option in the bios I'm going to try and see what it does to temps and performance.

No my ram isn't but going back a couple of weeks there was only two types listed which is a bit of a joke. I'm using Crucial Ballistix.

KraniX · 9 Mar 2021 at 13:24

On a separate note I knocked a glass of water over on my desk this morning so we'll see this afternoon how waterproof the Nuc is... I could have cried!

david25 · 9 Mar 2021 at 17:55

KraniX said:
Constant, not loud but noticeable, there is a fanless option in the bios I'm going to try and see what it does to temps and performance.

No my ram isn't but going back a couple of weeks there was only two types listed which is a bit of a joke. I'm using Crucial Ballistix.

Thanks, I would like to know what happens when you try the fanless option.

For the 10th Gen, Corsair Vengeance was a popular choice (and on the list)

KraniX · 9 Mar 2021 at 19:39

I found somewhere selling 2 x 8GB of Kingston HyperX 3200 which is on the supported list for £106 so have ordered that and will return the ram I have, fingers crossed this will run at full speed.

KraniX · 10 Mar 2021 at 15:40

david25 said:
Thanks, I would like to know what happens when you try the fanless option.

Tried it, shut down when attempting to boot into windows. Advised when rebooted that the system had shut down due to the temperature.

david25 · 11 Mar 2021 at 12:24

KraniX said:
Tried it, shut down when attempting to boot into windows. Advised when rebooted that the system had shut down due to the temperature.

Thanks, definitely need something like the Akasa Turing case before trying this option again