Intel has launched the Skull Canyon NUC which completes the 6th Gen NUC family with a powerful Core i7 CPU and a redesigned chassis. I will take a look at its capabilities as homeserver running VMware ESXi. NUCs are not officially supported by VMware but they are very widespread in many homlabs or test environments. They are small, silent, transportable and have a very low power consumption, making it a great server for your homelab. 6th Gen NUCs in the old layout are also available with an i3 or i5 CPU which have been reviewed here.

Features

Quad Core i7-6770HQ Skylake CPU

Up to 32GB of DDR4 SODIMM memory

2x M.2 slot with PCIe x4 support

NVMe Support

External SD Card Slot

Intel I219-LM Gigabit Network Adapter

Thunderbolt 3 port with USB 3.1

4x USB 3.0 Port

To be used with ESXi I recommend to buy additionally:

USB Flash Drive (ESXi Boot)

32GB Memory (2133+ MHz, 1.2V/1.35V DDR4 SODIMM)

M.2 NVMe SSD (22×42 and 22×80)

USB 3.0 Gigabit network adapter (Howto)

Model comparison

The Skull Canyon NUC has a completely redesigned chassis that is wider than the standard NUC case. Compared against 6th Gen i5 and i3 NUCs, the main differences are:

Quad-Core CPU

Thunderbolt 3 (40 Gbps) with USB Type C connector

2x M.2 22x42/80 (key M) slots for SATA3 or PCIe X4 Gen3 NVMe or AHCI SSDs

No 2.5" HDD Support

Larger power adapter (120W)

Redesigned enclosure

Model NUC6i7KYK

Skull Canyon NUC6i5SYH

NUC6i5SYK NUC6i3SYH

NUC6i3SYK Architecture Skylake (14 nm) CPU Intel Core i7-6770HQ Intel Core i5-6260U Intel Core i3-6100U Base Frequency 2.6 GHz 1.8 GHz 2.3 GHz Max Frequency 3.5 GHz 2.9 GHz 2.3 GHz Cores 4 2 TDP 45 W 15 W TDP-down 35 W 9,5 W 7,5 W Memory Type 2x 260-pin 1.2 V DDR4 2133 MHz SO-DIMM Max Memory 32 GB USB Ports 2x USB 3.0 (front panel)

2x USB 3.0 (back panel) Thunderbolt Port YES NO Storage 2x M.2 NVMe or AHCI M.2 SATA or PCIe x4 SSD

SATA3 2.5" HDD/SDD SD Card Slot YES (SDXC) Gigabit LAN YES (Intel I219LM) YES (Intel I219V) VT-x with EPT YES VT-d YES vPro NO Dimensions (mm) 211 x 116 x 28 115 x 111 x 32

115 x 111 x 48 (with 2.5") Price $640 $340 $240

HCL and VMware ESXi Support

The NUC itself is not supported by VMware and not listed in the HCL. However, some essential components are listed. ESXi runs out of the box starting with the following releases:

ESXi 6.0 with patch ESXi600-201601001 (Build 3380124) released in January 2016

ESXi 5.5 Update 3 (Build 3029944) released in September 2015

To clarify, the system is not supported by VMware, so do not use this system in a productive environment. I can not guarantee that it will work stable. As a home lab, or a small home server it should be fine. I'm running Intel NUCs in my homelab for 3 years without any issues.

Network (Intel I219-LM)

On previous NUC versions it was required to create a customized Image in order to install ESXi on a NUC. The 6th Gen NUC is equipped with an Intel I219-V Ethernet controller which is listed in the HCL.

Ethernet controller Network controller: Intel Corporation Ethernet Connection I219-LM [vmnic0]

Class 0200: 8086:15b7

Storage (NVMe)

The NVMe driver is included in all ESXi 6.0 versions. There is no need to install any additonal packages. ESXi 5.5 does not have NVMe driver, however if you want to run ESXi 5.5 on the NUC, drivers are available for download here.

Non-Volatile memory controller Mass storage controller: [vmhba0]

Class 0108: 144d:a802

SD Card

6th Gen NUCs are equipped with a SDXC Slot. Unfortunately, there is currently no driver available for ESXi so it's not possible to use the SD Card slot at the moment.

SD Host controller Generic system peripheral:

Class 0805: 1217:8621

Tested ESXi Versions

VMware ESXi 5.5

VMware ESXi 6.0

Assembly

The assembly of the Skull Canyon NUC is basically the same as assembling the regular one. Loosen the 4 screws at the bottom of the case and remove the cover to install memory and M.2 drives. The internal layout exposes why the NUC is wider than the old ones. Additional space for a large fan to cool down the i7 CPU.

Installation

When you try to install VMware ESXi 6.0 on the latest Skull Canyon Intel NUC (NUC6i7KYK), the installation fails with a fatal error as explained here. The problem can be solved by temporarily disabling the Thunderbolt controller during installation.

No customization is required to install ESXi 6.0 on the Skull Canyon NUC. I highly recommed to use ESXi 6.0 because of the NVMe driver included only in ESXi 6.0. If you want to run ESXi 5.5 on the NUC, drivers are available for download here.

The simplest way to install ESXi is by using the original ISO and Rufus to create a bootable ESXi Installer USB Flash Drive.

Performance

The performance of a single NUC is sufficient to run a small homelab including a vCenter Server and 3 ESXi hosts or even a NSX Lab. It's a great system to take along for demonstration purposes.

The following chart is a comparison of all 6th Gen NUCs based on PassMark:



Power consumption

NUCs in general have a very low power consumption. The Skull Canyon NUC is a very powerful machine, delivered with an 120W power adapter, which is twice as on regular NUCs. During normal usage the average consumption is about 32W.

With that, the average operating costs are at about 5-6 Euros per month:

32 watt * 24 h * 30 (days) = 23 KWh * 0,25 (EUR) = 5,75 EUR

Consumption measured with Voltcraft Energy Monitor 3000

Shopping Guide