LAS VEGAS, NEVADA—Intel released its next wave of Broadwell processors this week at CES, and PC companies are already preparing systems with the chips inside (Lenovo's new X1 Carbon and the new Dell XPS 13 are among our favorites so far). Intel is also taking this opportunity to refresh some of its own offerings, most notably the "Next Unit of Computing" (NUC) mini desktop PCs.

NUCs exist somewhere between classic DIY computer-building projects and ready-made systems from OEMs. Intel supplies a motherboard inside of a box, and you get to pick what RAM and SSD you want to use and install them yourself. Intel will be refreshing all of its high- to mid-end NUCs in the next few months, and these boxes will serve both as systems for people who want a small but fairly capable PC and as a showcase for the new features in Broadwell-U. We got to see and hold the new desktops ourselves, and in addition to the expected upgrades, they bring some interesting features to the platform.

A wider range of systems

Andrew Cunningham

Andrew Cunningham

Andrew Cunningham

Andrew Cunningham

Intel is launching a total of seven separate NUC configurations, five that are aimed at the consumer market and two that are intended for use in businesses.

On the consumer side, there are three motherboard configurations: the low-end model gets you a Core i3-5010U with the HD Graphics 5500 GPU, the middle model comes with a Core i5-5250U and the HD 6000 GPU, and the high-end model includes a Core i7-5557U CPU and an Iris 6100 GPU (the first time Iris has made it into the NUC, though the Iris Pro GPU with embedded eDRAM would be more exciting). The Core i3 and Core i5 models are available in "short" compact chassis and "tall" boxes with space for a 2.5-inch hard drive, while the Core i7 model only comes in tall. Past NUCs required users to install their own Wi-Fi cards, but all of these come with 867Mbps 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 courtesy of Intel's soldered-in 7265 adapter.

The two professional NUCs, also available exclusively in the taller boxes, include extra features that play up the NUC's potential as a mini-workstation. There's a model with the same Core i3-5010U as the consumer version and a higher-end model with a Core i5-5300U. You step down to the HD 5500 GPU in the latter model, but you pick up support for the vPro enterprise management features. Both professional boxes include an extra cutout on the back for an (optional) serial port, they include a TPM chip, and they ditch the mini HDMI 1.4a port in the consumer versions for a second mini DisplayPort 1.2 connector. By either daisy chaining DisplayPort screens or using the eDP header on the system board, these professional systems can support up to three displays, where the consumer models can only support two. Like older NUCs, users must bring their own Wi-Fi cards if they want wireless support.

The short NUC boxes are about 1.36 inches high, and the tall versions are 1.9 inches high. In height, width, and depth the new NUCs are just a bit smaller than their Haswell counterparts, though the change isn't as drastic as it was in the move from Ivy Bridge to Haswell.

Flip your lid

Andrew Cunningham



Andrew Cunningham

One of the most intriguing additions to the new NUC family is the ability to pry off the lid on the top of the boxes and replace it with something else. These lids can be either aesthetic or functional—Intel was showing off one lid that added NFC to the NUC and an early version of a TV tuner lid from Hauppauge. NFC and USB 2.0 headers on the motherboard provide connectivity for these lid-mounted accessories, and pretty much anything that won't be bottlenecked by USB 2.0 can be added to the system by stacking it on top rather than squeezing it inside or taking up one of the external USB ports.

There are two small indentations on the back of the lid—just slide your fingernails underneath and pry it up and then pop on a new lid with new functionality. Anyone who wants to build a lid for the new NUCs will be able to do it, and Intel will even be releasing 3D printable templates for people who want to create their own custom lids at home.

A showcase for Broadwell

OEMs aren't always going to support all of Broadwell's and the 9 series chipsets' features, but Intel is using the NUCs to make sure that its platform is making full use of its potential. The i5 and i7 consumer NUCs with the faster integrated GPUs will support 1866MHz DDR3 memory. All models sport M.2 SSD slots for use with faster PCI Express SSDs. The Intel 7265 Wi-Fi adapter is a relatively recent release, a refinement of last year's 7260 adapter.

The port selection remains mostly similar to the Haswell NUCs, with a couple of key enhancements. There are still a total of four full-size USB 3.0 ports, two on the front and two on the back. The yellow port on the front of the consumer models is a charging port that can provide more power to a charging smartphone or tablet than a standard USB port. Gigabit Ethernet, DisplayPort 1.2, mini HDMI 1.4a, and an IR sensor round out the remaining connectivity options; improvements made to Broadwell mean that all of these NUCs will be able to drive a 4K display at 60Hz using a single DisplayPort connection, while the HDMI port can do 4K at 24Hz. Haswell NUCs could only manage 4K at 30Hz over DisplayPort, a limitation imposed by their GPUs.

The M.2 SSD slot on the inside of the NUC can accept all but the longest and shortest M.2 cards. The 2242, 2260, and 2280 sizes will all fit, but the shorter 2230 and longer 22110 won't fit—all of these numbers denote both the width and length of the card (so a 2260 is 22mm wide by 60mm long), and longer cards can typically fit more NAND chips to create higher-capacity drives. M.2 cards still aren't as common as mSATA ones, but the Broadwell chipsets' native support for PCIe SSDs should lead to wider adoption and, eventually, a wider variety of choices.

When can you get one, and for how much?

The consumer NUCs will have a staggered launch, but the i3 model should be available for purchase later this month. The faster Core i5 and Core i7 systems will launch in March and April, respectively. We weren't given a date for the commercial versions, but we imagine they'll have the same general launch window.

Intel hasn't named specific MSRPs for all of these boxes, but has said that pricing should be the same as it is for current NUC models. The i3 and i5 consumer NUCs should start at around $280 and $350, and when it comes out, the new Core i7 model should go for around $450. Intel never released a Haswell NUC with vPro, but the Ivy Bridge version goes for about $400. To estimate the total cost of your configuration, remember to add RAM and SSD costs to those numbers, along with any OS licenses, lids, or other accessories you might want.

Intel tells us we should have a Core i5 model in for testing at some point in the next few weeks, which will likely be our first test system with a Broadwell-U chip in it. At that point, we'll be able to get more in-depth information on real-world performance and power consumption relative to Haswell.