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Product |
NUC D54250WYK
Barebones Mini PC |
Manufacturer |
Intel |
Street Price |
US$370~420 |
Intel's tiny NUC computer line has expanded to five kits since its release
a year ago. Recently, we examined a Logic
Supply LGX ML300 fanless system based on a NUC D53427RKE board. Our
only disappointment was that this board is not one of the new Haswell CPU boards
that incorporates a SATA port and power connector. This would have been ideal
for the ML300 chassis, which has room for a 2.5" drive, unlike
the standard Intel NUC cases.
I asked Intel about sending one of the D54250WYB or D34010WYB boards (with
SATA port). Intel responded by sending over a D54250WYK
kit instead. This was more than expected, and I hoped to transplant the D54250WYB
board into the ML300, but then it turned out that the back panel cutout on the
ML300 review sample is incompatible with the WYB boards, and the appropriate
cutouts will not be ready for a few more weeks. Hmmm... What to do? Obvious
answer: A review of the kit.
The box was clearly marked "pre-production engineering sample"
so there's no guarantee the retail product will be identical, but it should
be pretty close. The small box contained the NUC, AC/DC power adapter,
VESA adapter for mounting on the back of a monitor, a sheet of basics
info regarding compatible RAM, SSD, etc, and a folded up sheet that unfolds
into a large illustrated setup poster though this somehow managed
not to get into the photo.
This NUC case is a touch "slimmer" than our original DC3217BY
sample, measuring 5mm shorter (37mm vs 42mm including the feet). The one
piece that makes up the vertical panels is nicely finished aluminum, rather
than the plastic of the original. It features a front panel headphone/mic
jack, IR remote sensor, and happily, dual USB 3.0 ports. Our original
NUC didn't have USB 3.0 ports at all, though a single Thunderbolt back
port might have been a consolation for some.
The back panel has the DC power input jack, mini-DisplayPort, mini-HDMI,
a gigabit ethernet port, and two more USB 3.0 ports. The bigger slots
above are exhaust vents for the fan.
|
|
Form Factor |
UCFF (Ultra Compact?) |
CPU
|
4th (Haswell) generation Intel® Core i5-4250U
processor (soldered) with active fan heatsink
|
Chipset
|
Integrated QS77
|
GPU
|
CPU embedded graphics
|
System Memory
|
Two 204-pin SO-DIMM slots for 1600/1333MHz 1.35V, 16GB
max
|
Display |
- Intel® HD Graphics
5000
- One mini DisplayPort* 1.2 with audio, supporting ultra-high definition
4K displays and multiple monitors
- One mini HDMI* port 1.4a with audio support |
Expansion capabilities
|
- Full mini PCI Express, mSATA support
- Half mini PCI Express
|
Peripheral interfaces
|
- Two USB 3.0 ports (front panel)
- Two USB 3.0 ports (back panel)
- Two USB 2.0 ports (internal headers)
- One SATA port (internal header)
- Infrared sensor on front panel
|
LAN
|
Integrated Intel 10/100/1000 Network Connection
|
Audio
|
Intel® High Definition Audio (Intel® HD Audio)1
subsystem in the following configuration:
- 8-channel (7.1) digital audio via HDMI 1.4a output and via one DisplayPort
1.2 connector
- Headphone/microphone jack on the front panel
|
Chassis |
Black plastic top &
bottom; aluminum sides |
Size
|
116.6 x 112.0 x 34.5 mm
(4.59¨ x 4.41¨ x 1.36¨ )
|
Included
|
- 19V, 65W power adapter (brick)
- Power cord options (Types B, E, G, or no cord)
- VESA* mounting bracket
- Integration guide
- Wireless antennae (integrated into the chassis)
- Intel Core i5 logo
|
Warranty
|
3-year warranty
Standard Warranty Replacement
|
As with our first NUC DC3217BY sample, Intel offers the D54250WYB board in
package as a barebones kit with case, CPU-embedded motherboard and PSU. An AC
cord is not provided in all packages, presumably because of the hassles of matching
the AC plug for all the various places in the world where this product will
be sold. The AC interface is a 3-plug C6 or "cloverleaf" connector.
Some things to point out:
- The i5-4250U
processor is a dual core with hyperthreading, 3 MB cache, 15W TDP and
"tray cost" of $337. It happens to be the processor featured on
this year's MacBook Air, both 11" and 13" models.
- HD Graphics 5000 is Intel's best integrated GPU, a couple steps up from
last year's 4000.
- For display output, it has mini-DMI and mini-DisplayPort. Unlike last year's
DC3217BY the mini-DP port does not support Thunderbolt.
- Only 1.35V SODIMM DDR3 RAM is supported. A whole morning was spent troubleshooting
no-boot with half a dozen 1.5V RAM sticks before this fact was run home. The
earlier DC3217BY NUC supports both 1.5V and 1.35V RAM.
- Yay for 4 USB 3.0 ports!
- Gigabit ethernet is welcome, and you can add wireless if you like.
- mSATA SSDs now go all the way to 480GB, but for a price of course.
- The SATA port is 6.0 Gb/s, supported by the PCH. Note that the SATA power
port does not supply 12V, so only 2.5" drives are supported. This is
moot if you're staying with the stock Intel chassis, which has no room for
any extra drives. Only in a larger custom case (like the Logic Supply ML300)
is the SATA port usable.
- The $370~420 for this kit buys you a motherboard, CPU, case and power supply.
You need to add RAM and an mSATA SSD the system will run ~$500 before
OS, keyboard, mouse or monitor.
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