Archive:Intel NUC

From Official Kodi Wiki
Revision as of 12:03, 26 August 2013 by Kibje (talk | contribs) (→‎Celeron: At least make it legible)
Jump to navigation Jump to search
NUC.jpg
Home icon grey.png   ▶ Devices ▶ Intel NUC
Attention talk.png Read this page and still need help? Check out the NUC thread on the XBMC support forum.

The Intel NUC is a series of small, awesome, x86-based PCs that works fantastically as an HTPC. Can run a full desktop OS if desired. Reasonable starting price considering size and power. Uses Celeron to i5 CPUs. Can run fanless with a replacement heatsink case.

About the Intel NUC

There are currently three versions of NUC on sale now; Celeron, i3 & i5.

All are x86 64bit OS capable. You can install Windows 7, 8 or just XBMCbuntu or OpenELEC. It doesn't matter. But if you don't need Netflix, SkyGO, then stick with OpenELEC or XBMCbuntu. They even have the internal pin headers for extra USB ports, but also for power switch, LEDs etc. more on this later.

Celeron

Celeron - has intel HD graphics, can play everything XBMC can including 1080p SBS 3D. It will struggle with full frame packed 3D. Boot up time direct into XBMC is less than 10 seconds. Since the Intel NUC is a barebones system that requires you to add your own harddisk and memory, it is entirely possible to create a system with an 32GB mSATA SSD and 4GB RAM, which will be overkill when you want to run OpenELEC but might be interesting in case you are considering a Windows build. For a cheap alternative with upgradepotential you could use the internal USB headers to run the entire system from an USB stick. If you read the NUC thread, there are screen caps of prices to help you compare to today's prices.

Skinswise, Confluence, Ace or Bello are wonderful to use and very fluid. Once you start using the heavier skins that utilise many addons, such as Aeon Nox, MQ3, MQ4 you will notice they run smooth but not as fluid as what can be enjoyed on the i3 & i5 models.

i3

i3 - has intel HD4000 graphics. Can even software decode most formats if needed. Does everything the Celeron can do and full frame packed 3D. Good for an HTPC that also needs light gaming and maybe some more heavy Windows applications. If you don't need those things, then you might want to stick with the Celeron to save some money.

i5

Coming soon?

i5 - these puppies have USB3 and USB2 ports. You can't boot from the USB3 ports using a USB drive, but you can boot using the USB2 ports. The i5 models have built in IR receivers.

Known issues

General

Missing internal USB header on some early models?

If you have a NUC and want to know if you have the usb header installed or not:

Look at the bottom of your unit, and locate the SA number (System Assembly) on the bottom of the NUC.

http://www.treasure-cove.net/nuc_sa.jpg

If you have:

SA ######-101 --> NO USB HEADER installed

SA ######-102 --> has internal USB HEADER

SA ######-103 --> has internal USB HEADER

SA ######-104 --> has internal USB HEADER

http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/sb/CS-034370.htm

If your unit is still under warranty, visit - http://www.intel.com/support/mailform/desktop/nuc/emailsupport.htm

Send them all of the info about your unit,... Model# Serial# SA# , etc.

Be sure to fill in the description box, that you have a unit without the usb header, you want to use the headers as they were part of the reason you bought it. [For instance to fit your IR receiver inside] You've contacted the place you bought it from and they told you to contact Intel.

They'll arrange courier and you'll organise the where/when they'll collect it. Only send the mainboard, no case/accessories/etc.

Within 2 weeks. You'll have a factory fresh replacement and most likely in full retail box. So you might end up with a spare case!

Windows

  • Having graphical UI corruption with a NUC that uses Intel HD4000 graphics? Try these beta graphics drivers: 32-bit64-bit. [1]


Hi10P / 10bit

The first stable version with Hi10P support is XBMC v12 (Frodo).

The Celeron 847 NUC can play some 10bit anime near flawlessly (as shown here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myvNa9Sk0Y4 ), if they have a low enough bitrate. Editor note: Using the multithread patch for Hi10P I assume? Is this a nightly build? Or does OpenELEC already have this in their stable builds? The Celeron NUC should not be considered a "safe bet" for all Hi10P files.


The i3 & i5 shouldn't have any problems at all.

Mods

You can mod several things on the NUC.

IR mods

Here's one user's mod to add IR: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=166886

He added http://www.simerec.com which is ON/OFF capability via remote, and added in IR from a Microsoft USB RC6 IR receiver. Plenty of pics and detailed description. Even the holes were covered with LightDims, which worked fantastically.

Fanless cases

There are several fanless cases available for the NUC.

You can also buy fanless cases for these NUCs: http://www.impactics.com/d1nu1-b/

White model with RC6 USB receiver plugged into front of it: http://postimg.org/image/klk0h6yp3/

Other tips, tricks, and advice

Linux bootloader

info on what you choose when installing archboot when you do a UEFI install?

I used a GPT layout with GRUB as bootloader. Here's my partition info:

$ sudo gdisk -l /dev/sda

GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 0.8.7

Partition table scan:
  MBR: protective
  BSD: not present
  APM: not present
  GPT: present

Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT.
Disk /dev/sda: 125045424 sectors, 59.6 GiB
Logical sector size: 512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): 783A3002-626F-49A1-85D1-12225885803E
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 125045390
Partitions will be aligned on 2048-sector boundaries
Total free space is 4062 sectors (2.0 MiB)

Number Start (sector) End (sector) Size Code Name
   1 2048 6143 2.0 MiB EF02 BIOS_GRUB
   2 8192 1056767 512.0 MiB EF00 UEFI_SYSTEM
   3 1056768 3153919 1024.0 MiB 8300 SWAP
   4 3153920 125045390 58.1 GiB 8300 BTRFS[/code]

The BIOS_GRUB partition is not really needed, I just added it in case I wanted to install to MBR and still use GPT. The UEFI_SYSTEM partition is mounted to /boot/efi. Look at the GRUB page in the Arch wiki, it has pretty good instructions.

Links

Random notes

Feel free to place various notes, tips, and links here. As this section of the wiki gets more organized, those notes will be properly sorted. Consider this like a dumping ground for when you're not sure where to put something.