First Look: Luna Design DNK-H Slim Mini ITX Case

[Guest]

Available in a variety of configurations and even two materials, Luna Design's DNK-H case brings style and value pricing to the mini PC market. We compare it to two complete solutions.

First Look: Luna Design DNK-H Slim Mini ITX Case : Read more

 

[bit_user]

Close. I wanted something more airy, with an external PSU (so no fan is needed). I want to pair it with a passively-cooled Apollo Lake board.

Also, the integrated PSU is probably hurting them on the size comparison. Do the others have integrated PSUs?

BTW, I hadn't seen the Intel NUC with the Skull. That's an interesting form of market segmentation. I doubt many corporate users want a computer with a skull on it, regardless of what's inside.

 

[cmiconi]

You could probably throw an Apollo Lake board in there and just use the heatsink without the fan. I doubt the CPU is going to get warm enough on its own or pull enough power from the PSU to require active cooling.

The Mac mini uses an integrated PSU, and the NUC uses a power brick.

As for the lovely skull plate on the NUC, Intel already thought ahead and included a plain black top plate, which users can opt to install if they want something more subdued looking. It also comes with a VESA mount for people who'd rather not see it at all.

 

[bit_user]

You could probably throw an Apollo Lake board in there and just use the heatsink without the fan. I doubt the CPU is going to get warm enough on its own or pull enough power from the PSU to require active cooling.

Look closely, and you'll see there's a fan in the lower section to cool the HDD and integrated PSU. That's what I was talking about. It's probably very quiet, but those seeking a purely-passive solution will skip this one.

Thanks for the other answers.

 

[itsmedatguy]

This is going to be pretty sweet when we start seeing mini ITX boards on the market with thunderbolt 3 (if that's happens) for a cheaper + more powerful NUC alternative

 

[bit_user]

This is going to be pretty sweet when we start seeing mini ITX boards on the market with thunderbolt 3 (if that's happens) for a cheaper + more powerful NUC alternative

Thanks for pointing that out. I somehow missed that it's mini-ITX, and assumed it was a mini-STX. I guess that explains the integrated PSU, then.

 

[James Mason]

I kind of hate that you use Ultra settings for integrated graphics, and not include the settings for what it actually can run the games at, because I'm actually impress with it getting 25FPS on ultra in bioshock with just the integrated, I'm curious to see what it would get on the lowest settings as well.

 

[EpIckFa1LJoN]

I am currently in the Process of building a console sized gaming computer, complete with a full sized GPU. Using a Silverstone ML08B, just need to find the most powerful graphics card I can fit in it.

 

[Brian_R170]

BIT_USER, the "Skull Canyon" NUC comes with two case covers: one with the skull and one without.

 

[Brian_R170]

Replace the Samsung 950Pro in the NUC with with a 512GB M.2 SATA drive and it brings down the NUC's price by $200 without affecting real-world performance (certainly none of the benchmarks run here). Not sure why anyone would even look at the Luna at that point, at least not the $915 pre-built version.

 

[bit_user]

with a 512GB M.2 SATA drive

I think you mean AHCI. SATA is the connector (cable, electrical, etc.), while AHCI (or NVMe) is the command set used by the OS.

 

[Brian_R170]

No, I meant SATA (which would imply AHCI). The M.2 connector supports both PCIe and SATA electrical signalling and there are basically 3 types of M.2 SSDs: SATA AHCI, PCIe AHCI, and PCIe NVMe. The SATA AHCI M.2 drives are by far the most common and least expensive. PCIe AHCI M.2 drives got a lot of press a year ago, but now seem to be fading away in the wake of NVMe.