News Between mITX and a NUC board: 5x5

Now Intel is introducing a new platform for tiny PCs… and it has one feature that the Compute Stick and NUC lack: a socket that lets you choose your own CPU or upgrade to a new processor down the road.

Intel’s been showing off a prototype of the new board since the start of the year. Now it has a name: 5×5.

Read more: Liliputing

 

[Phuncz]

So while the PCIe socket is missing, this still allows some powerful computing. Like the Intel Core i5-6600 (link) and with a fixed CPU location and an M.2 socket, the options are there for some interesting desktop products. Think quiet Living Room PCs.

 

[Vittra]

I recall seeing this not to long ago.

This appears to lend itself well to processors of the Broadwell ilk - 65w TDP and a strong iGPU - perfect for a compact package. Of course, you are limited on video output, but chances are HDMI would be sufficient anyway. The other concern would be cooling - there's been a lot of these type of products coming out of China, and the CPU are almost always throttling.

 

[veryrarium]

They seem to have a blower type CPU cooler in mind according to the slideshow, but I'm curious if any manufacturers of aftermarket CPU coolers will provide a compatible retention kit when any motherboard vendor decides to sell boards in this form factor. I guess it's unlikely as this will most likely be sold as a barebone, but the locations of the CPU socket and the cooler mounting holes being standardized gives me a tiny little hope.

Another thing is whether the M.2 port is Gen3 x4 or not, for M.2->GFX conversion possibility.

 

[confusis]

Interesting. Will be good to see a launch product to judge it though

 

[jØrd]

 

[iFreilicht]

I'm pretty sure this is intels replacement for thin mITX boards. Those were meant for low power CPUs anyway, but reducing the board size even further without losing any functionality seems like a good idea if it's possible, which it seems to be.
These boards will be great for passively cooled single board HTPCs and other uCFF PC applications where upgradeability is important. This will find it's place, I'm sure of it.

 

[Phuncz]

Office desktops are also a potential market.

At work we're on the verge of using Intel Core i3 NUCs for replacing older machines and I couldn't be more excited to show it to them folk how awesome SFF is and what they've been missing. Try to image desks with laptops on stands, with a seperate keyboard and mouse, when it's not ever being used on the go. *shudder*

 

[jtd871]

Yeah, I've been toying with getting a NUC-like system for the wife for a year or more. Mount it to the back of a monitor and keep all the cable and desk clutter to a minimum while running multi monitor. But the retail prices compared to a "normal" desktop are ridiculously high.

 

[Phuncz]

I don't agree with that, we can configure an i3 NUC with 4GB RAM and 120GB SSD for about €350. Looking at the total package, it's not a bad deal at all. Let's not forget the VESA mount, built-in WiFi (802.11ac + BT4.0), included power supply and very low power usage, it's hard to configure something that's equal or better on most specs even for the same price.

 

[jØrd]

hospitals here (amongst other govt depts) have deployed NUC's absolutely everywhere, im not sure i see this replacing the NUC for alot of business cases. most cube farmers can do their work just fine w/ a NUC, what does the 5x5 have that they 'need' that the NUC doesnt have?

 

[Phuncz]

A 65W desktop CPU upgradeable option and a larger base design for larger cooling and possibly more ports. I'd like to see this decked out with 1Gbit ports (or possibly 10Gbit) for high performance network appliances. Or multiple SATA/SAS ports for a custom NAS builds with upgradeable CPU and RAM.