Intel has sold compact PCs and PC kits for years under the NUC brand, which have been popular as basic workstations, servers, media centers, and much more. Unfortunately, Intel won’t be making any new NUC models.
ServeTheHome reported earlier today that Intel sent an email to its hardware partners, explaining that it was ending direct investment in its NUC product line, which is short for “Next Unit of Compute.” Instead, Intel would support other manufacturers creating similar compact designs with Intel’s chips.
Intel later confirmed the news, saying in a statement, “We have decided to stop direct investment in the Next Unit of Compute (NUC) Business and pivot our strategy to enable our ecosystem partners to continue NUC innovation and growth. This decision will not impact the remainder of Intel’s Client Computing Group (CCG) or Network and Edge Computing (NEX) businesses. Furthermore, we are working with our partners and customers to ensure a smooth transition and fulfillment of all our current commitments — including ongoing support for NUC products currently in market.”
Intel NUCs have been sold in many different configurations over the years. Some of them were kits that required the buyer to supply their own storage, RAM, and operating system, while others were fully built PCs with Windows pre-installed. They were popular for use cases where a Raspberry Pi or other low-power device wouldn’t cut it… or wasn’t readily available to purchase. Intel NUCs were also built to be upgradable and at least partially repairable, which is much more difficult with competitors like the Mac Mini.
The market for compact computers has improved in recent years, with options from companies like ASUS, MSI, Lenovo, Beelink, and others. More recently, ASRock has started selling a motherboard with Intel’s N100 CPU already installed. That low-end CPU isn’t competitive with the Core i5 and Core i7 processors in some of Intel NUC computers, but it’s more powerful than a Raspberry Pi or most other ARM-powered boards.
It’s a shame to see the Intel NUC series come to an end, but hopefully, we’ll see more PC manufacturers step up with great alternatives. Intel’s existing NUC PCs are still great purchases until the company’s 14th Gen CPUs show up, at least.
Source: ServeTheHome