UKH

Hi, I am looking to buy two NUC’s. One to replace my old, power hungry, HP Workstation (quad core Xeon(R)) that runs my CCTV system (Blue Iris) and Freesat Kodi server, and another old NUC that monitors the CCTV program (via its webpage) and another instance of Kodi for watching Freesat TV and films (1080 and BlueRay files which it can no longer handle at any reasonable frame rate). I will be using a USB to Satellite dongle to connect to the dish (anyone know of any two channel versions) so some USB3 ports might be a good idea. I assume it will be a Win10 system but will upgrade to Win11 when it’s released so it will also need to be TPM2 compliant. I could just start looking at the high end options but am wondering what the recommendations from the hive mind are. Thanks in advance.

 (Yes, I could use Linux instead of Windoze but from previous experience it’s a faff I can do without as I no longer get paid to sort that sort of sh1t out, and have gotten to the stage of life where I just want it to work.)

ASUS PN50?

Linux isn't too much of a faff. Something like Ubuntu works well out of the box.

I've been using these at work, very capable for the size:

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/intel-nuc8i7hnk-hades-canyon-gaming-nuc-i7-...

Those are now discontinued, but the new version is much more powerful and I'll be getting these next time I need a small machine:

https://simplynuc.co.uk/phantom-canyon/

< Now discontinued, but the new version is much more powerful and I'll be getting these next time I need a small machine: https://simplynuc.co.uk/phantom-canyon/ 

That seems quite expensive why not go just a little bigger and get something like HP Z2 (the small version obviously) or am I missing the scale

I think you missed the scale. The HP looks to be a lot bigger, the NUC is the size of a small hardback book, and considering the onboard graphics is probably no more expensive then the HP.

The NUC is certainly not the cheapest option though. You are paying extra for the small size.

So much smaller! The HP is 21 cm (square with very rounded corners) and 6cm deep. Does heat exchange limit performance like some of the smaller / thinner Macs?

I've never had a problem with overheating on those NUCs, although we don't tend to run them at their limit. We use them stuck behind a screen to run 3D models in UHD,  so pretty intensive graphics in a warm confined space. They've held up really well, I don't think we've had a single failure.

Likewise. We've put a few in in companies for various purposes and haven't had any issues with them. I use a 10th gen i3 NUC at home as a media player connected to my TV. You are paying a slight premium for the form factor, but I think they're great little devices, they're quiet, power consumption is low and they seem to be fairly reliable from my experience.

Thanks all. I’ve ordered a refurbished HP EliteDesk 800 G4 Mini Desktop PC - 8th Gen Intel Core i5-8500T from Microdream (£470 before I added the bigger SSD). It’s not the latest generation but as I’m not using for gaming it should do, so I’ll load it up and see if it’s up to the jobs before I think about buying a second. It’s not a NUC but is small enough to be unobtrusive. A problem I’ve noticed with most NUC’s is they only have one display port and two is a requirement for one of them. I even reconsidered running Linux as it’s been about 10 years since I set up PC’s (if you don’t consider Pi’s) but looking at the requirement for Blue Iris they only support Windows and as it’s a package I’m happy with I don’t want to change.

The ones I linked to have two DP and two HDMI. But it sounds like they are over the top for your requirements anyway. They are in a different league to the HP you're getting, with a price tag to match.

I know you've already bought the PC, but just a point on the DisplayPort output. My 10th gen has an HDMI and DisplayPort vis USB-C. However, DisplayPort supports daisy chaining so it will actually output to up to three connected displays over the two ports.