Hardware Intel’s new NUC Mini-PCs as console replacement?

WiiUBricker

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So in case you haven’t heard yet, Intel announced a Mini-PC called NUC in two flavors that use AMD’s new Vega M graphic cards. The higher-end version is said to perform a bit better than Nvidia’s GTX 1060 Max-Q Edition (which is weaker than the regular GTX 1060) and the lower-end version a bit better than a GTX 1050, which makes them sweet for gaming in my opinion.

The device looks a bit like the Wii U. What y’all think how it will fare as a dedicated Steam and emulator machine?
 
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MrCatFace

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Dont buy. GPU is pretty much everything these days (Source). Get a refurb, upgrade the graphics card, and the power supply. It will do you just fine.
 

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first i've seen size/weight or whatever being measured in litres
More like capacity. The smaller the case you’re working with (e.g ITX), the more the manufacturers use litres to measure it. There’s no point with ATX because it can fit just about anything.
 
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The Real Jdbye

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An A4-SFX v2 case (or a similarly sized horizontal PC if you prefer that) is a much better console replacement IMO. At only around 7L, it's about the same size as the original X-Boner, and you can fit a full size GPU and just about any CPU you want save for Threadripper/Core i9 (due to space constraints with the CPU cooler), and upgradability is almost on par with a full size tower (though you can't do SLI)
That's more of a "console replacement for those who want the power of a gaming PC" though, as the case isn't exactly cheap, so it's not really worth putting low end components in it unless you just have some laying around and are planning to upgrade in the near future.
There's something to be said for that upgradability though, which is something all of these ultra small prebuilt PCs lack. And those NUCs aren't exactly cheap either.

And if size is the primary concern, there are lots of ultra small prebuilt PCs with far better specs than this, some even have a GTX 1080 in them, although they are expensive due to the MXM form factor coming with a high price premium for high end GPUs compared to PCI-e.
first i've seen size/weight or whatever being measured in litres
It's becoming a pretty common thing in the SFF market, it's much easier to see at a glance how two different PCs compare in size, especially if they're different form factors.
 
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Dont buy. GPU is pretty much everything these days (Source). Get a refurb, upgrade the graphics card, and the power supply. It will do you just fine.
Of course smaller machines will perform worse than full-sized ones. The fun of Mini PCs are their size, not their power. They claim to be on par with the 1060 and 1050, I believe that's enough.
 

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I'm more than happy with my current setup but it honestly doesn't look that bad for people who want a small yet reasonably powerful PC. Sure, its GPU might not be upgradeable and if you're really serious about gaming then you should still build your own PC, but it's pretty cool to see a very tiny x86 PC with okay specs.
 

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Yes.. Buy a RasPi for emulation... And lose PC gaming... Buy a used PC/Build Your Own... Except you currently can't build that small. Hm...

Raspberry Pi would be good for emulation if they were a bit more powerful; for N64 emulation, they're pretty piss poor in terms of performance. I'd think one of these would fare better.
 
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Dont buy. GPU is pretty much everything these days (Source). Get a refurb, upgrade the graphics card, and the power supply. It will do you just fine.
I really dont't understand the point of that video, except for bioshock infinite none of the rest were modern games, and none of the games were even playable.
It just shows the cpu can't keep up with the games, the video is 3 years old now and cpu's play a pretty big role. You get some garbage oem refurb and slap a 1080ti in it and guess what, cpu bottleneck.
 
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