Question 1

What is the size? looks taller that first NUC units.

Accepted Answer

The Dimensions from Intel's website show: 116.6 x 112 x 51.5 mm
(4.59 x 4.41 x 1.95 inches).  It is a new size, slightly taller (by 17 mm, 0.59 inch) than most previous NUCs.

The extra height is needed to support installation of a 2.5" laptop drive (Maximum thickness 9.5mm), either a spinning disk or SSD.

Previous NUCs only had an mSATA mini-PCIE slot for OS/storage.

Mine has a 250GB mSATA SSD for the OS, and a 1TB Hard drive for storage.

Question 2

Where is the eSATA port on this unit? The specs claim there is 1 eSATA port and it is crucial that the unit has one for my use.

Accepted Answer

Looking at the Intel specs, I don't see an eSata port.  There is an internal sata 6.0GB port for the disk drive.  The Intel spec says there is a second sata port.  I'm guessing they're referring to the msata slot.  I don't remember seeing anything that looked like a sata header when I was putting mine together.

The newegg spec page does say there's an eSata port, but if you go to intel's web site and search for BOXD54250WYKH1 you'll find a spec that claims two sata ports and no esata.  Must be a typo on Newegg's part.

You might be able to use a USB 3 to sata adapter.  I see those offered, and they're pretty inexpensive, and there are plenty of USB 3.0 ports on the box, but I've never used a USB to sata adapter.

Question 3

What fans run in this? How quiet/noisy is it?

Accepted Answer

There is a fan; you can see the exhaust ports on the back side of the box.  The fan speed can be set in the BIOS.  By default the fan is about as loud as a quiet laptop hard drive.  I also installed a spinning hard drive.  You have to listen closely else the fans will not be noticed.

Question 4

Does this unit support mSata and a regular sata hard drive ????

Accepted Answer

Yes, this unit has room for an mSata ssd and it has an internal dock for a standard laptop sized hdd or ssd. I personally have a 256gb msata drive and a 1TB WD Red drive. There is also a small slot for a tiny pci express card that could be used for storage or a wifi/bluetooth card.

Question 5

Can you upgrade the CPU? is it a standard LGA 1150 processor?

Accepted Answer

The processor chips on the NUC boards are soldered down. No CPU upgrade is possible. I use mine as a living room PC and the family is well pleased with it. It would make a good workstation also. It runs Windows 8.1 smooth and fast. If you are a top end gamer look elsewhere; other than that that you could be well pleased with one of these.

Question 6

Can this support 2 monitors? One via HDMI and another via VGA?

Accepted Answer

It does support two monitors, but you would need a mini-display port to VGA cable to hook up a VGA monitor to it. The other video port on it is mini-hdmi. 
I currently have a bunch of these deployed running dual monitor with a mini-hdmi to hdmi cable and mini-display port to dvi cable. They really are quite awesome and the onboard graphics is quite capable.

Question 7

memory part numbers?

Accepted Answer

Per Intel:

ADATA*AXDS1600GC4G9-24 GB1600 MHz
Crucial*CT51264BF160BJ4 GB1600 MHz
CrucialCT102464BF160B.M16FED, CL118 GB1600 MHz
Crucial-Ballistix*BLS2K8G3N169ES4, CL98 GB x 21600 MHz
Kingston*KVR16LS11S6/22 GB1600 MHz
Micron*MT16KTF1G64HZ-1G6E18 GB1600 MHz
MicronMT8KTF51264HZ-1G6E14 GB1600 MHz
MicronMT8KTF25664HZ-1G4M1, CL92 GB1333 MHz
MicronMT4KTF25664HZ-1G6E12 GB1600 MHz
Mushkin9970374 GB1600 MHz
Patriot*PSD38G1600L2S8 GB1600 MHz
Samsung*M471B1G73BH0-YK08 GB1600 MHz
SamsungM471B5273DH0-YK04 GB1600 MHz
SamsungM471B5773DH0-YK02 GB1600 MHz
SamsungM473B5273DH0-YK0, CL118 GB x 21600 MHz
SK Hynix*HMT41GS6AFR8A-PB8 GB1600 MHz
SK HynixHMT451S6AFR8A-PB4 GB1600 MHz
SK HynixHMT425S6AFR6A-PB2 GB1600 MHz

Question 8

Does it include a Wifi/Bluetooth mini PCIe adapter?

Accepted Answer

It does not include a Wifi/Bluetooth mini PCIe adapter.  You will have to purchase one separately.

Question 9

Does it come with a compatible SATA power cable for the 2.5" drive?  It's not featured in the inventory or pictures, but Intel has apparently admitted that the placement of the SATA data and power headers are problematic and are supposed to be providing compatible cables on current models.

Accepted Answer

James,

This model has a SATA socket on a daughter board, not a SATA cable. You just slide the drive into the slot, and put a couple of screws in, and it's ready to go. This model is in the latest generation of NUCs, and it works very smoothly. They seemed to have ironed all the kinks before launching this model.

Question 10

What is the power output of the included brick? Looking to power this from a 12V DC source (13.8V DC actually) without having to use an inverter.

Accepted Answer

The label on the Power supply output indicates 19 volt DC output
The Intel box indicates 19 volt DC input for the computer

Questions & Answers