Mission accomplished I would say. They have proposed a new form factor, kept on making and selling machines conforming to the form factor and showed the market it is feasible. And now when everyone is on board and the form factor is not so new anymore, it’s time to leave.
It’s a shame because the Nucs had a really clean but feature-rich BIOS, a modern design aesthetic and a generally high quality feel to them.
Eagerly waiting to see which manufacturer fills that spot - we’ve got the likes of Beelink, Minisforum and Gigabyte et al. but at the moment most feel like knock-offs IMO. There are some really appealing ones demoed on ServeTheHome now and again though…
Yeah the BIOSes found in Intel NUCs are not fancy but are real solid. I have only tried lower end models (N5105, N6005, and N100) from ASUS and Gigabyte. I think most of them are comparable.
Those from China (e.g. Beelink, Minisforum, and Morefine) however can get finicky from time to time. I recall getting a 1235U unit that had a nearly raw AMI BIOS… I can literally set (and break) anything lol.
Mission accomplished I would say. They have proposed a new form factor, kept on making and selling machines conforming to the form factor and showed the market it is feasible. And now when everyone is on board and the form factor is not so new anymore, it’s time to leave.
It’s a shame because the Nucs had a really clean but feature-rich BIOS, a modern design aesthetic and a generally high quality feel to them.
Eagerly waiting to see which manufacturer fills that spot - we’ve got the likes of Beelink, Minisforum and Gigabyte et al. but at the moment most feel like knock-offs IMO. There are some really appealing ones demoed on ServeTheHome now and again though…
Yeah the BIOSes found in Intel NUCs are not fancy but are real solid. I have only tried lower end models (N5105, N6005, and N100) from ASUS and Gigabyte. I think most of them are comparable.
Those from China (e.g. Beelink, Minisforum, and Morefine) however can get finicky from time to time. I recall getting a 1235U unit that had a nearly raw AMI BIOS… I can literally set (and break) anything lol.