When you want to build a VMware vSphere Lab at home, Intel might have a great system for you: The Intel NUC family - The Next Unit of Computing. The system was initially designed to be used as home theater or digital jukebox. Due to it's power it is also a fully adequate replacement for a desktop computer. The Intel NUC is big on performance and surprisingly small in size and power consumption and thus makes it a great candidate for a virtualization home lab.

The Intel NUC System is available as system board only and with a chassis. Currently there are 4 models available, beginning with an Intel Celeron processor and ending with a powerful Intel Core i5 vPro processor:

DC53427HYE Kit / D53427RKE Board: 3rd gen. Intel Core i5-3427U (up to 2x 2.80 GHz)



DC3217IYE Kit / DC33217GKE Board: Intel Core i3 3217-U (2x 1.8 GHz)



DC3217BY Kit / DC33217CK Board: Intel Core i3 3217-U (2x 1.8 GHz)



DCCP847DYE Kit / DCP847SKE Board: Intel Celeron 847 (2x 1.10 GHz)

Features

The Kits are shipped with:

Chassis

System board

Processor

External Power Adapter

VESA Bracked

To get an ESXi Host installed you need:

Memory (SO-DIMM DDR3)

AC Power Cord (C5)

mSATA SSD or USB-Stick

Model comparison

DC53427HYE Kit D53427RKE DC3217IYE Kit DC33217GKE DC3217BY Kit DC33217CK DCCP847DYE Kit DCP847SKE Form factor UCFF Processor Core i5-3427U Core i3 3217-U Core i3 3217-U Celeron 847 Clock Speed 1.8 GHz (2.8 max) 1.8 GHz 1.8 GHz 1.1 GHz Cores 2 2 2 2 HT YES YES YES NO Max Memory 16 GB 16 GB 16 GB 16 GB Network 1x 1Gb Ethernet 1x 1Gb Ethernet 1x 1Gb Ethernet 1x 1Gb Ethernet Ports 1x USB 3.0

2x USB 2.0

2x USB2.0 (int.) 3x USB 2.0

2x USB2.0 (int.) Thunderbolt

3x USB 2.0

2x USB2.0 (int.) 3x USB 2.0

2x USB2.0 (int.) Intel VT-d YES NO NO NO VT-x with EPT YES YES YES YES AES YES NO NO NO TDP 17 W 17 W 17 W 17 W

HCL and ESXi 5.x Support

The system has hardware support for virtualization and a 64-bit capable CPU. Therefore it should be compatible to VMware ESX. The Intel 82579LM Gigabit Ethernet driver is not included in the ESXi Base Image, so you have to create a customized Image. This article explains how to do that: ESXi 5.x Installation on Intel NUC fails with “No Network Adapters”.

To clarify, the system is not supported by VMware (No HCL entry), so do not attempt to use this System in a productive environment. As a home lab, or a small home server it should be fine.