Intel NUC 8 Mainstream Kit (NUC8i5BEH) - Core i5, Tall, Add't Components Needed, Windows 10

Added Samsung 970 Evo NVMe (250GB), 2x4GB RAM, Windows 10 Pro. Use with LG 27" 4K display (with HDMI)Amazing how fast and quiet this little thing is. This is a proper desktop class machine. Easy to assemble and works without issue. Very fast and responsive.I use it for Visual Studio and Azure programming, office docs, internet, and media consumption inc. 4K video. Handles everything with ease. Silent when it boots up and occasionally starts a light humming when under load (balanced setting in bios).Plenty of USB ports including a charging port. Unlike other machines, all the usb ports on this are USB 3.1 Gen2 so you get the full 10Gbps speed. Thunderbolt port also gives it some level of future proofing as well!Only slight negatives are: missing 3.5mm audio port on the rear so speakers must be connected to the front headphone port or to the monitor/tv if it has audio out, also would be nice to have USB Type-C port on the front of the device so can connect type-c usb sticks and phones without an adaptor.Looks nice as well!Disappointed with Amazon shipping though. I paid for expedited shipping with a guaranteed delivery date. It was missed by 3 days. To make matters worse the courier's (UPS) tracking did not update this accurately so I wasted a whole evening waiting for it. I contacted Amazon support who apologised and assured me it would be delivered over the weekend. This did not happen (UPS do not deliver on weekends) so I wasted a weekend too. Still waiting for refund of shipping costs... But this is no reflection of the item purchased hence 5 star!

I bought this to replace a 5 year old 54250WYKH1 NUC (16GB RAM) I had running:- 7 high-def SECURITY CAMERAS- Web server- NODE RED- HOMEASSISTANT in Docker VM- WINDOWS 10It'd get pretty overloaded at times, especially when performing background maintenance tasks. It was kind of lame waiting a few seconds for the lights to turn on sometimes, with some commands getting dropped altogether. I actually thought some of my home automation hardware was malfunctioning but it was all in the server.For anyone with an older 2 core HT computer you're using for things like this like the older NUC -- this really makes a huge difference. This new one has the same TPD as the 2014 version but literally twice the CPU power (benchmark verified) because of it's 4 core 8 threads (vs 2 +4) and GPU is about 50% faster on benchmarks -- BlueIris server takes advantage of the GPU, by the way. It also holds 32GB, I believe the old one only ran up to 16; though I will say that I don't seem to need more than 16 even with all the junk I'm running. One interesting thing regarding cameras: I'm not sure if has to do with the major upgrades to quicksync over the last 3-4 generations, but the thing appears way better able to offload camera stuff to the GPU, I used to range 50-90% CPU usage on the old one every time I took a look at my home cameras, now it's less than 15%.I bet this would also be pretty awesome as a second box for twitch streaming.I'm totally happy with this thing. I'm actually a bit sad it's in a server closet as it has some pretty great IO that's going to waste. It costs a bit more than a home-built solution like my all my other PCs but that mobile processor runs quiet, cold, and low power with that relatively fat blower fan on the top -- oh yeah, fan's been totally upgraded since 2014 as well.FYI: HDMI 2.0A is compatible with HDR 4k. I bet this would drive that no problem for movie watching. This is a TOTAL overkill for a HTPC though.

This little guy has almost the same cpu passmark score as my old i7 4790 from a few years ago, in this form factor. It's crazy. The new bean canyon 8259u is a little monster of a cpu. I replaced an i5 7i5bnh with this 8i5bek, going from a sata Samsung 850 pro to a 970 evo nvme. Boots crazy fast, use corsair vengeance 8gb at 2400mhz.I use this primarily as a PC when I'm tweaking my main rig and it's out of commission. To be honest, this thing is probably overkill for even that. All I use it for is web browsing, YouTube, and some other work, but this can handle so much more I think I might try to use it as an always on, online music server for a cloud music server app to my cell phone or something. It runs silent, and hasn't touched 80 degrees even with tons of tabs open, YouTube playing, and multiple programs running at once. It just chugs right though all of them.The fact it's a quad core at these clocks, is this snappy and this cool/quiet at this TDP, is insane. The bios is bare bones, and the thunderbolt is a little finnecky to get working, but even now if I wanted to get an external gpu and use it on thunderbolt, I'm sure I'd have a good gaming experience if I tried to ask something crazy for a nuc to do.If you're looking for an overkill tiny form factor pc, check this one out. Honestly, if all you're doing is light browsing and YouTube, look at the 7i3bnh i3, last year's editions which are 6th or 7th gen cpus. They're great for light work. If you are a tab whore though, either kick that habit or get 8gb of ram. They're only dual cores, but if you're not doing much they work just fine.Highly, highly recommend. Amazing little NUC.