Check this out! Intel's new form-factor called NUC aka Ultrabox.

Sure, but just connect the laptop to the tv and it's essentially the same? But with a few extras, ie, a backup screen keyboard and mouse.

 

Do they sell i3 laptops with the HD4000 in them for that price? I'm not being sarcastic I'm curious, because i think that's why this is a better buy for HTPC. The HD4000 is pretty rad for streaming everythign all the way to 4k

 

Smartphone CPU's and this one aren't in the same ball park.
You're looking at the GHZ, but forgetting a few major details. Smartphones are built on the arm CPUs. Apples and oranges here.

This ultrabox, with it's current specs, would be able to play a lot of modern games, that if were ported to android would simply crawl.

I don't play WoW, but it was one of the games that came to mind, as well as many other MMOs.

When i saw it, i was wondering if these specs would be good enough for modern emulators.. It'll be able to do all the older emu's no problem, probably even the n64 emus flawlessly.
All i know, is i want one of these things, if only to mess around with it.

PS it looks like the perfect size for a carputer.

 

I thought the same thing....lol

 

I seem to go on about carputers more than most. But i've been using one for a long time, first i started with an old laptop without an LCD, using an IDE to compactflash adapter for the harddrive.

Then i upgraded to a mini-ITX which was a big boost, but was still slow, at a single core intel atom.

Now a Core i3, looks like a really nice boost.

 

Oh wow, substantially smaller than a Mac Mini. I have been thinking about getting my mom on of those, looks like I now have more options

 

Not trying to have an arguement or prove you wrong, but the end user(not enthusiasts), simply don't care about things like ARM or x86 CPU, what platform its running on. They just want a device that can play their media and is enough for stuff like internet.

As for gaming, why would someone pay almost 600 USD for this, when a much-much-much powerful system- that also offers a decent upgrade path is available for almost the same price..?

Forget WoW, that'll even run Crysis without any problem.

 

People should care between x86 or ARM. The performance difference is staggering; High end ARM cores perform close to Pentium M's (over 6 years old) while low end Intel i3 cores are in a totally different performance dimension.

Also the NUC is not about gamers, it's about offering a platform which can be easily integrated into POS and industrial applications (HTPC is more of an afterthought, since there are plenty of designs out there available). If x86 hardware keeps getting smaller, prices keep getting lower and power budgets smaller, then x86 can start thinking about the very lucrative industrial sector.

 

Yes, but does it play Crysis?

 

They should, but they don't. That's my point.
Most people today don't want to concern themselves with the internal details of how their machines operate. They are happy to have something, which is simple to use, and can do their daily jobs like internet, music, video chatting, video playback etc. Not everyone cares about minuscule details as long as the job gets done. Its called abstraction.

I don't know about you, but if i had a rupee for every non-technical person i knew, who is content to use his device(when i say device, i mean PC, laptop, smartphone, tablet etc.) for the stuff mentioned above without delving into technical details, i'd be driving an Aston Martin by now.

And yeah i agree with you about the POS/embedded systems part.

 

Japan has been building this kind of thing for a while already. Check out the Fujitsu Esprimo Q510 and Q910. A bit larger than this, but with internal optical drive.

Still these Boxes are essentially just notebook tech stuffed into a box.

 

But they're expensive, starting at £433...

 

Hm, no actually, it looks to be about £350 or so to get a laptop with a hd 4000 card (with whatever cpu)

 

woud be damn "****ty" to travel with this "invention" + carry optical drive and HD,keyboard,monitor.. As for...
Laptop WOUD be much better option, Easy to hide (keyboard power on/off) ,add monitor and keyboard and its ready.
Also it is cheaper with DVD/HDD,RAM,OS installed.

 

And yet you're a bit too concerned about the GHz.

That argument is kinda like arguing why anyone would bring an Xbox, PS3, or Wii (U) for gaming while traveling.

Well, the NUC isn't meant to be a portable computing device, it's just meant to be small; people would just buy it, set it up somewhere inconspicuous, and (hopefully) enjoy life.
For portability, Intel already covered that with Ultrabooks.
Mac Mini is also small and portable, but it's not really something you'd get for portable computing.

 

Still, laptop is just as easy to hide and extra dvd/HD is not needed. Runs same idea with less money.

 

Also, Netbooks are portable and are dirt cheap...

 

Nope, only 2 memory slots So from 4*1gb modules to 2*2gb that is going to add... Like $5 ?

Serious part: OS ? You are going to need to add that. Are there options for Win8 at the free os section ? How is the hardware support there ? How about Tizen from Intel, anyone know how it's doing or have ideas it wold be a deal for this kind of device ?

More than 64gb needed at the box then (as someone pointed that one out) ? I dont think so, as this is small box which you can put to some visible spot you dont really want to have external hdd near with extra cables going in. So stuff streamed over the network to that box would be the way to go.

 

I don't fall into the "most people" category now do i?

 

Streaming movies over a network is a great idea however, the average user will want to install some actual software, not just an OS. Since the average user doesn't do any tweaking....the pagefile and hibernation file will consume quite a bit of harddrive space....where are they going to install software?