Whether you want to build a vSphere Home Lab for testing or a Home Server, basic requirements are the same: decent price, good performance and low power consumption. The Intel NUC (Next Unit of Computing) family has grown to the 4th generation, including some great enhancements for ESXi Hosts. Definitely the best enhancement is that Intel has added a SATA port to the board, that allows to use more than a single mSATA SSD.

Intel NUC Systems are available as system board only and with a chassis. The 4th Generation NUC is available with 3 type of CPUs: Celeron, i3 and a i5. You can choose between a chassis with, or without 2.5" drive support.

Available Models (Kit / Kit with 2,5" Slot / Board only):

D54250WYK / D54250WYKH / D54250WYB: Intel Core i5-4250U (up to 2x 2.60 GHz)

D34010WYK / D34010WYKH / D34010WYB: Intel Core i3-4010U (2x 1.7 GHz)

Review

Features



The Kits are shipped with:

Chassis

System board

Processor (soldered)

19V, 65W power adapter

Power cord (Type B, E, G, or no cord)

VESA Bracket

To get an ESXi Host installed you need:

Memory (SO-DIMM DDR3)

mSATA SSD, 2,5" HDD or USB-Stick

Model comparison

D54250WYK D54250WYKH D54250WYB D34010WYK D34010WYKH D34010WYB DN2820FYKH

(No ESXi support) Form factor UCFF Processor Core i5-4250U Core i3-4010U Celeron N2820 Clock Speed 1.3 GHz (2.6 max) 1.7 GHz 2.4 GHz Cores 2 2 2 HT YES YES NO Max Memory 16 GB 16 GB 16 GB Network 1x 1Gb Ethernet 1x 1Gb Ethernet 1x 1Gb Ethernet Ports 4x USB 3.0

2x USB 2.0 (int.)

1x SATA 4x USB 3.0

2x USB 2.0 (int.)

1x SATA 1x USB 3.0

2x USB 2.0 Intel VT-d YES YES NO VT-x with EPT YES YES YES AES YES YES NO TDP 15 W 15 W 7,5 W

HCL and ESXi 5.x Support

All Intel NUC systems have hardware support for virtualization and a 64-bit capable CPU. Therefore it should be compatible to VMware ESX. SATA and Network drivers are not included in the ESXi Base Image, so you have to create a customized Image. This is very easy with ESXi-Customizer by v-front.de:

This article explains how to create a customized Image for ESXi more detailed.

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