I can understand the logic in that, since mainstream users just want a plug and play computer, this would fit the bill. I however, am very controlling when it comes to hardware. Unless it is a specialized hardware, I want to build it from the ground up. That is why I still like barebone machines: I can still build it to my liking with the price point I so choose.
I've had too many bad experiences growing up with computers that have pre-installed software, which is why I stay away from pre-built computers. a fan-less computer may be the holy grail of computers, but if I can't open it up, I'm not going to touch it.
Totally understand where you're coming from there and definitely appreciate your perspective.
On the flip-side, it is a NUC, and NUCs are expensive to begin with...
This board in particular is pricey because it's brand new.
I also dislike the yellow color scheme. Or did I just miss a color-select option somewhere?
The orange definitely isn't for everyone (the finish makes it look more yellow in the picture than it really is, it's actually closer to my avatar color), but we really like it. We don't offer alternate colors out of the box, but we do offer
custom branding services so clients can choose their own colors and add a logo if they wish.
One thing that does come to mind here. Your not just paying for a NUC in a fanless chassis, I'd expect some of what your paying for is the cost of Logic Supply designing, engineering, testing, certifying, etc an industrial spec (is it rated for shocks, dust ingress, extended temperature operation, etc?) system as well. It might seem expensive and you might not be able to tinker with it but your also not the target market for this device. There are people out there who dont make payroll if the computers out on the shop floor arent running, it seems likely that those are the people this device is being pitched at. This isnt the box you buy and stick under the TV in your lounge room to run Kodi on, its the box you buy and stick under the TV in your operations room to run whatever SCADA monitoring dashboard your company has decided to standardise around.
My $0.02
Appreciate this j0rd, you hit the nail on the head with a lot of the points here. The industrial market does demand additional certification and engineering work which, naturally, gets built into system costs. That extra work is necessary to ensure the utmost reliability to prevent hardware downtime. We work with manufacturers who could lose tens of thousands of dollars for every hour a single computer is offline, so that focus on reliability and additional engineering is very valuable to them.
SCADA applications, warehouse management, manufacturing, outdoor digital signage, remote data monitoring, mobile surveillance, those are really the target applications we focus on, and their needs tend to be very different than the average home computer user.
All that said, we sincerely appreciate all the feedback here. Please keep it coming, it doesn't fall on deaf ears.