News Intel Exits NUC Business, Will Rely on External Partners

[Admin]

Intel begins to notify ecosystem partners about plans to can NUC business.

Intel Exits NUC Business, Will Rely on External Partners : Read more

 

[peachpuff]

I'm surprised anyone even bought these things.

 

[InvalidError]

I'm surprised anyone even bought these things.

Why? They are perfectly fine for people who just need something to type on, point-of-sale terminals, kiosks, digital signage, heaps of office seats, etc. that may require screens larger than what you can get on a laptop. If I didn't already have a spare PC to toss in my living room, I would have a NUC-like box plugged into my living room TV instead.

 

[artk2219]

Why? They are perfectly fine for people who just need something to type on, point-of-sale terminals, kiosks, digital signage, heaps of office seats, etc. that may require screens larger than what you can get on a laptop. If I didn't already have a spare PC to toss in my living room, I would have a NUC-like box plugged into my living room TV instead.

Yep, but I'm with him on why anyone bought Intel's NUC's specifically. They were almost always outclassed by offerings from others that were, cheaper, faster, smaller, more configurable, etc.

 

[Corwin65]

My company uses them exclusively with few exceptions.

 

[punkncat]

Admittedly, I think the NUC is a neat concept. The Intel offerings have been poorly priced, IMO, considering that most of them come as bare bones that you still need to spend (even more) on hardware to make them operational. In that market, the direct competition by such as BeeLink wipes the floor considering price to performance. I could fully understand why it hasn't been profitable or desirable to continue in that market.

 

[cyrusfox]

Nice premium device, but pricing was always more, even when they were 1-2 generations old. Another Intel business shuttered. Guessing they were not profitable?

NUC extreme was a fun concept, contained PC on a PCIE, but with them being less competitive than AMD and inefficient, not a winning combination.

 

[NeoMorpheus]

Love this!

Karma is indeed a * Intel.

Next, they are forced to sell their headquarters, just like how AMD was forced to do, thanks to Intel illegal actions.

 

[peachpuff]

Why? They are perfectly fine for people who just need something to type on, point-of-sale terminals, kiosks, digital signage, heaps of office seats, etc. that may require screens larger than what you can get on a laptop. If I didn't already have a spare PC to toss in my living room, I would have a NUC-like box plugged into my living room TV instead.

All those examples you mentioned are business related, and for something to type on you can get cheaper matx sized PC's. Unless you live in a closet you don't need to spend more for a tiny pc, everyone has room for a pc.

 

[outsider2k21]

I'm surprised anyone even bought these things.

I bought one for my senior parents.

 

[artk2219]

All those examples you mentioned are business related, and for something to type on you can get cheaper matx sized PC's. Unless you live in a closet you don't need to spend more for a tiny pc, everyone has room for a pc.

Even if its not a NUC form factor, several manufacturers have Micro builds that offer things like a socketed cpu, upgradable ram, m.2 and sata, and are not much bigger in size as part of their regular offerings. Making them overall better options, especially if you're looking at the used market.

Installing The Processor - Dell OptiPlex 7090 Micro Form Factor Service Manual [Page 33]

Dell OptiPlex 7090 Micro Form Factor Manual Online: Installing The Processor. Prerequisites If you are replacing a component, remove the existing component before performing the installation procedure. About this task The following image indicates the location of the processor and...

www.manualslib.com

i5 micro

 

[peachpuff]

I bought one for my senior parents.

Intel thanks you, but to no avail.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

They were always on the cusp of something interesting / great.

But off by a bit.

 

[kjfatl]

Intel didn't understand, and still doesn't understand their place for these devices.
They should have developed reference designs that could be copied and sold by others in the same way that Nvidia and AMD produce reference designs for video boards. The units sold directly by Intel would come with a huge price premium since they don't want to compete with their own customers. This would fulfill 2 market needs. For customers who need a few hundred or even a few thousand units for a kiosk, robot or similar application, they could buy a unit from one of a dozen suppliers. For a point of sale company with minimal design resources, they could lift the Intel design into their own design, modify it as needed and have a cost optimized POS system using minimal design skills.

 

[ottonis]

What a pity. I really loved Intel's NUC systems for their extremely small and compact footprint and the unparalleled plethora of I/O they used to provide.
And while not all NUC generations were equally well designed, one of their most recent iterations, the Wall Street Canyon NUC, has been one of Intel's best and finest engineering feats ever - just marvelleous.

 

[bit_user]

I'll chip in my condolences for the NUC, proper. Although it took them several generations to find their footing, Intel NUCs helped usher in a new era of mini-PCs.

At my job, we worked mostly with the Broadwell-generation of NUCs, which were very quiet and well-mannered. The chassis was completely over-engineered, but I'm a bit of a sucker for such things.

Yes, the price premium was rather high, but the flip side of that is you knew you had the best-engineered mini-PC out there, at least at the time.


I also thought the NUC Elements line was a compelling idea. Good for integrating into all sorts of commercial and industrial equipment that needed an embedded PC.

 

[-Fran-]

I was reading elsewhere that the division they're killing/selling here also created custom boards for other systems, like laptops.

I am wondering if this decision will have an impact on how Intel manages its partnering with smaller OEMs, or even big ones. I'd imagine Dell can create their own specialized designs, but I wonder Asus, Acer and such.

Maybe it's a different area? Hm...

Regards.

 

[Co BIY]

Nice premium device, but pricing was always more, even when they were 1-2 generations old. Another Intel business shuttered. Guessing they were not profitable?

I bet they were profitable but anything less than 40% margins is going to drag down the company average.

They are spinning off viable businesses where they are merely competitive to focus on the extremely profitable businesses where they have dominant advantages.

Intel is good at not letting good sidelines become the company.

As far as the NUCs go, At first I disliked them as a PC enthusiast but then came around over time as I realized they had many more of the advantages I like in desktops compared to laptops (better screens in a better position primarily) . And the commercial uses for them are really limitless.

 

[systemBuilder_49]

Now that AMD has released the 7840hx and 7940hx 4nm APUs, with 8 cores, 16 threads, and 12 RDNA3 CU's, Intel cannot compete. Their hardware is hopelessly obsolete. The AMD APU will destroy any Intel CPU + iGPU in a NUC. The AMD APU is 33% faster than the fastest iGPU for Intel, and it does 2 Teraflops of 3D compute, which means 1080p @ 60+ fps for most games WITHOUT upscaling! It even does some light ray tracing at 20-25 fps! Game over, Intel!

 

[TerryLaze]

Now that AMD has released the 7840hx and 7940hx 4nm APUs, with 8 cores, 16 threads, and 12 RDNA3 CU's, Intel cannot compete. Their hardware is hopelessly obsolete. The AMD APU will destroy any Intel CPU + iGPU in a NUC. The AMD APU is 33% faster than the fastest iGPU for Intel, and it does 2 Teraflops of 3D compute, which means 1080p @ 60+ fps for most games WITHOUT upscaling! It even does some light ray tracing at 20-25 fps! Game over, Intel!

You get a full PCIe slot allowing you to use any GPU you want, nobody needs anything better than just display from the iGPU.
Quicksync is probably 10 times more desirable in these things than gaming on the iGPU.
https://c1.neweggimages.com/ProductImage/56-102-233-V01.jpg

 

[mitch074]

So, they're getting out, but they'll support the existing parts for a while yet.
The same way they provided support for Hades Canyon? Meaning they left it alone for a year then dropped the potato in AMD's lap?
I think I'll keep building cheap ASrock Deskmini machines instead - one of these with a 5700G is surprisingly capable and doesn't break the bank.

 

[everettfsargent]

Got a NUC12WSHi3 for like $338, such a tiny thing too. So other PC vendors will take over, pretty much as they have already. Apple, the really expensive toy company, has already shown us the future and it ain't big boxen! 😀

 

[bit_user]

Apple, the really expensive toy company, has already shown us the future and it ain't big boxen! 😀

Yes and no. First, remember that Apple is hostile to its users. Their SSDs are non-upgradable and they don't support dGPUs. They want to be your one-stop-shop for all things, and they want you to toss out the entire machine to do an upgrade.

While I agree that the typical non-gamer will do just fine with a mini-PC or laptop, serious gamers and power users will continue to demand the benefits of a traditional socketed motherboard and dGPU. That won't change in the foreseeable future, even after x86 CPUs start incorporating in-package DRAM.

 

[Firestone]

I don't care about the haters, I'm grabbing a NUC13ANHi5 so I can have a copy of Intel's last design on a favorite device. It can sit on the shelf right next to my spare EVGA GPU's. Heck, maybe I'll even drop in that 8TB SSD and call it my next home server

 

[bit_user]

I don't care about the haters, I'm grabbing a NUC13ANHi5 so I can have a copy of Intel's last design on a favorite device. It can sit on the shelf right next to my spare EVGA GPU's.

If you want the tech equivalent of an antique sports car, I'd say grab an Optane SSD while you still can. The 400 GB P5800X is currently going for about $900. 5 years from now, it might still have higher QD1 IOPS than anything on the market. That's very rare, in tech.

Then again, maybe NAND-backed CXL RAM drives will come along and completely smoke it. That could be one of the reasons Intel liquidated the business instead of selling it.