The Compute Element comes with 32GB of Kingston RAM, and an M.2 Intel 1TB Intel Optane Memory H10 with solid-state storage device. The WLAN module in the Compute Element is an Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 which is capable of transfer rates of up to 2.4 Gbps. The TDP and RAM are shared between the CPU and the GPU. The GPU has 24 Execution Units (EUs), and can support up to three 4K displays. The CPU has integrated Intel UHD Graphics 630 which operates at 350 MHz with a burst frequency of 1.25 GHz. It also has a TDP (Thermal Design Power) rating of 45 W and 35 TPD down, supports up to 64 GB of dual-channel DDR4-2666 ECC memory, and has two M.2 slots. The processor operates at a normal speed of 2.4 GHz, with a Turbo Boost speed of up to 5.0 GHz. It has support for hyper-threading, meaning that a total of 16 threads can be running at any given time. This CPU is a 64-bit eight-core performance workstation x86 microprocessor with 512 KiB of L1, 2 MiB, and 16 MiB of cache. The Compute Element is basically a PCI Express card that contains a CPU and several major motherboard components it allows the system to have a smaller footprint and easier to upgrade.īy removing the top of the Compute Element (which had a fan on it), we found a single Intel Xeon E-2286M processor.
The unit is based on the NUC 9 Pro Compute Element (NUC9VXQNB). The Compute Element has USB ports, two RJ45 connectors, an HDMI connector, and a 3.5mm audio connector on it. Not only is the Compute Element plugged into a PCIe connector, it also has two Wi-Fi antennas and other connectors. On the right side we found the back of the Compute Element and the board that it is plugged into. After the top was removed, we were then able to remove the sides of the device. To get a better look at the hardware on the NUC, we removed the top cover of the case by removing the two Philips head screws and then pulling directly back on the cover. Its complete specifications can be found in the article referenced above.
It also has multiple video outputs and USB connectors, two PCIe slots, two 1Gbps Ethernet ports, and 2.4Gbps Wi-Fi.
To give a quick overview, this version comes equipped with an eight-core Xeon processor, a discrete NVIDIA Quadro graphics card, 32 GB of RAM, 1TB of storage, and a license to run Windows 10 Home Pro. We will be using the same NUC 9 Pro variant that we used in our prior review, the NUC9VXQNX.
Finally, we will reinstall the graphics card, install ESXi, create a virtual machine (VM) that uses the graphics card as a passthrough device, and run our benchmarks once more this time on the VM and compare the results to those of running on bare metal. We will then remove the graphics card and rerun our original benchmarks. But before doing so, we will open the case and dig into the hardware a little deeper, and while we have the computer open, we will install more RAM and storage on the system. In this article, we will go a step further and install ESXi on it. In our review, we looked at its hardware and ran our benchmarks on it. In this piece we take a deeper look at setting up the Intel NUC with ESXi. We had a chance to take an initial look at this new system in one of its variants, the NUC9VXQNX, which came with RAM, storage, and a graphics card. In the first quarter of 2020, Intel released the NUC 9 Pro, their most powerful Next Unit of Computing (NUC) system to date. In this piece we take a deeper look at setting up the Intel NUC with ESXi. In our review, we looked at its hardware and ran our benchmarks on it.