CPU Intel Nuc compute element question

[Raikkonen]

I'm looking at getting another NUC (I used to have a skull canyon) and would like to better understand how the compute element works. Is it making the NUC "upgradable"? (referring to the cpu at least).

Is there an article or explainer somewhere on the web someone knows as I am still unclear exactly how it works as far as a replacing/upgrading parts.

Cheers!

 

[REVOCCASES]

In general the upgradeability is very limited (apart from SSD & RAM)... I recently checked if it would be possible to put an NUC11 EXTREME Element into the Chassis of an NUC9 EXTREME but I found that despite it might mechanically fit, INTEL only considered upgrades within the same NUC generation. E.g. you could upgrade from an i5 to i9 ELEMENT but not from an 9th to 11th gen platform.

Not sure which NUC you have in mind specifically, but here is a comparison of the NUC9 and NUC11 Compute ELEMENTS - unfortunately INTEL chose to use different headers for each platform so you would have to do some modding and probably still loose some features (like PCIe 4.0) if the upgrade works at all.





another issue is that it's quite difficult to find those Compute Elements without having to buy a complete new system... at least INTEL changed that with NUC 12/13 EXREME where you could theoretically just swap the CPU...



anyways, if one is looking for flexibility / upgradability I came to the conclusion it's better to go for a normal ITX system...

 

[Raikkonen]

Thanks for the quick reply. I don't have a NUC currently. I was hoping you could go from gen 11 to gen 13 for example. Is that going to be the idea down the road do you think?

Originally I was looking at the Phantom Canyon but thought if I spend a bit more on say the Beast, and then could upgrade the cpu generation in a couple years (to raptor or beyond) it would be great. Sounds like a no though....

 

[REVOCCASES]

Like I said, INTEL (sadly) didn't have that in mind to upgrade different Gen Compute Elements across their NUCs. If you buy a NUC12 Exreme you'll have to stick with a NUC12 Compute Element.

If it has to be a NUC I'd just sell it and buy a new one when it's time to upgrade.

 

[msystems]

In case someone has a compute element lying around what interests me most is using a female to female x16 riser to connect a gpu to the edge.

So you can make a Nuc Element sandwich with your own psu implementation, without Intel's bulky and rigid proprietary riser which can ONLY be obtained as part of the Extreme kit.

One thing im not sure about is if the Nuc Compute card is acting as a sink or supply on the x16 connection. Fortunately, I believe the power traces can either be cut, or supplied as needed using the solderable thru-holes on the riser pcb (erm, thats what they're there for right?).

Perhaps someone is crazy enough to try it?

 

[REVOCCASES]

der8auer did a few interesting experiments with the NUC Compute Elements, here is one that might help with your question:


if you want to do some testing yourself, the prices for the NUC9 have dropped a lot... about 360,- for a 5L case, 500W PSU and motherboard with CPU isn't too bad

 

[msystems]

Incredible find, that video seems to answer the key questions. So the compute element doesn't power the lanes. It is a sink, and needs 3.3v the and 12v pins to be powered separately.