Intel NUC5i5RYK Review: A Broadwell-U UCFF PC for Enthusiasts
by Ganesh T S on February 20, 2015 8:00 AM ESTNetworking and Storage Performance
We have recently started devoting a separate section to analyze the storage and networking credentials of the units under review. On the storage side, one option would be repetition of our strenuous SSD review tests on the drive(s) in the PC. Fortunately, to avoid that overkill, PCMark 8 has a storage bench where certain common workloads such as loading games and document processing are replayed on the target drive. Results are presented in two forms, one being a benchmark number and the other, a bandwidth figure. We ran the PCMark 8 storage bench on selected PCs and the results are presented below.
While the storage subsystem score doesn't bring out the efficacy of the M.2 PCIe SSD, the storage bandwidth number shows a chart-leading 322 MBps for the XP941 in the NUC5i5RYK. For good measure, we also ran the inbuilt benchmark in Samsung Magician (which doesn't support XP941 due to its OEM nature) to make sure that the SSD was utilizing the full capabilities offered by the PCIe lanes.
Sequential reads came in at 1 GBps and sequential writes at 716 MBps. Random accesses had upwards of 40K IOPS. All these point to the NUC5i5RYK possessing a ultra-compact platform with support for insanely fast primary storage media.
On the networking side, we restricted ourselves to the evaluation of the WLAN component. Our standard test router is the Netgear R7000 Nighthawk configured with both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz networks. The router is placed approximately 20 ft. away, separated by a drywall (as in a typical US building). A wired client (Zotac ID89-Plus) is connected to the R7000 and serves as one endpoint for iPerf evaluation. The PC under test is made to connect to either the 5 GHz (preferred) or 2.4 GHz SSID and iPerf tests are conducted for both TCP and UDP transfers. It is ensured that the PC under test is the only wireless client for the Netgear R7000. We evaluate total throughput for up to 32 simultaneous TCP connections using iPerf and present the highest number in the graph below.
In the UDP case, we try to transfer data at the highest rate possible for which we get less than 1% packet loss.
Intel's AC7265 now behaves like a true 2x2 solution compared to the AC7260 in our testbed. While the numbers are not as good as those obtained with Broadcom-based 802.11ac WLAN cards, the improved performance is quite welcome.
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gfieldew - Saturday, February 21, 2015 - link
Damn, wrong post, please ignore.medi03 - Sunday, February 22, 2015 - link
Lack of AMD APUs in comparison charts is somewhat suspicious, to say the least.mits2k - Monday, February 23, 2015 - link
I am glad that Anandtech is evaluating 4K playback on these devices. Regular 1080p HTPCs seem to have reached a plateau in the past few years.I was confused by the evaluation of 4K scaled to 1080p. Are the new LAV filters that fix the scaling issues incorporated into the latest MPC-HC? Will LAV be taking advantage of the partially in-hardware 4K decoding via DXVA on Intel QuickSync soon? Does the HDMI output of this device support HDMI 2.0, enabling 4K/60p/4:4:4 color bit-depth? If not, does the DisplayPort support this bitrate? Will this device support HDCP 2.2 for protected 4K bluray output?
I bought an ASUS chromebox ($179 version) and have been successfully using it with my 4K monitor (Monoprice model) and 4K TV (Samsung). It renders the desktop in 4K30Hz, not at 60Hz. It is too slow/there is not appropriate software in linux to handle 4K videos without occasionally dropping frames, so I was going to upgrade to the NUC to handle this.
rangerdavid - Monday, February 23, 2015 - link
"The first Sandy Bridge NUC was important for two main reasons - the obvious one being the kickstarting of the UCFF craze."What, no nod to the Mac Mini, circa 2005? (Or even the G4 Cube if you want to geek out with me...)
Kidster3001 - Friday, February 27, 2015 - link
He didn't say NUC was the first but that it kick started the current popularity of the form factor.Haravikk - Wednesday, February 25, 2015 - link
I'm doing quite well on a small form factor system at the moment, using an i7-4790T (45W 2.7ghz quad-core, hyper-threading, 3.9ghz turbo and HD4600 graphics) in an Akasa Euler case. Only downside has been that I had to trade in the mSATA hard drive I was using for a regular 2.5" SSD, as the mSATA just got too hot in such a confined, passively cooled space.jasperjones - Wednesday, February 25, 2015 - link
I am shocked what you guys use as a HTPC. And what good are these SSDs in a HTPC???I use a rooted Amazon Fire TV as my HTPC (purchased for € 49 at the introductory rate for Prime customers). Thus far, it has handled everything I've thrown at it. By the time I need H.265 and 4K, I imagine another ARM box priced below a hundred bucks will be around.
To me, this NUC is a desktop replacement (for non-gamers) or a small-server replacement.
nerd1 - Sunday, March 1, 2015 - link
I have no idea why somebody is even bothering to try AMD - they are horrible.I am in market for small and lightweight PCs, and have used AMD once - it ate twice the current of NUC yet twice slower. So 1/4 performance per power. Oh and it wasn't that cheaper too.
piasabird - Tuesday, March 3, 2015 - link
Well I would just compare this to at least a desktop Pentium, i3,i5, i7 to see what the difference is. Is this weak slow running processor as good as say an i3 4330 that runs at 3.5 Ghz, with 4 Megs of Cache, and HD 4600 IGP?Ceois - Wednesday, March 4, 2015 - link
On the first picture from the BIOS gallery it says CPU Core Temp 51C. Isn't that a little too high for it being idle?