Are Intel NUC PCs the ultimate solution for a MAME machine?

[Fast351]

I'm putting together a MAME machine right now based on a 2007 Dell Optiplex 475 machine.  Nice and small (fits next to the coin box in the bottom of my cabinet) but it still has a pretty big amount of fan noise, and it isn't REALLY tiny.

It seems these NUC PCs are just made for this setup.  And you can get a pretty decent machine all configured for about $250.  Maybe if you're running a real CRT you might not want this due to the lack of compatibility with 15 kHz scan rates, but if you're running an LCD this seems like a great idea, especially for bar top machines where space is at a real premium...

Anyone done one of these before?  Maybe my next machine will be a horizontal 19" 2 player NUC based machine 

[keilmillerjr]

The nuc units are sold as bare bone kits. By the time I buy the other components required, I think I'd rather just buy a complete Mac mini for $499.

[ChanceKJ]

Mac mini...

Intel NUC...

why do I feel I need to give input in this discussion....


Mac Mini is brilliant if you want something small and good lookin to run a build, (See my FLYNN's Build)

The NUC is good if you need smaller. (as per my Super PlayChoice build where I shove one in an SNES Advantage Controler).

The NUC isn't cheap,  you'd think it is but once you add all the parts you don't have you can be at the $400+ mark really fast. I know this because I worked hard to build one on the cheap side.  I'm wondering next how I could fit an Intel edison or a chopped up Raspberry Pi into a smaller form factor.  Maybe one day I'll have something I can shove into an SNES paddle.

[Generic Eric]

Intel NUC...

why do I feel I need to give input in this discussion....

'Cause some things are better left to chance.


Really though, has anyone else posted a NUC project?

[TimeCrisis]

interestingly I was planning to build my arcade machine with either an NUC or a Thin-ITX case.

the main advantage of NUC is weight, its only 1KG, whereas the thin ITX cases are 2KG, this is assuming you are going down the fanless route, which I am.

main disadvantage is that its not very upgradable, and it's not quite as powerful as desktop CPUs, the thin ITX cases can still take descktop CPUs at 45w.

also there are only 4 usb ports in the NUC, whereas the thin-ITX has 6, so in the case of 2 light guns + sensor thats 3 usb ports already! don't forget your USB speakers so yeah.

weight is quite important if you are planning to mount it to the back of your monitor, which is what I'm planning on doing with a 19" 5:4 as I will just letter-box to 4:3.

also when you buy a monitor it has to not have a height adjustable stand, they are the only ones that have the screws available for an NUC mount, when I say weight is important I meant for your ability to lift it easily, the monitor should easily hold a 2.5KG PC on it.

I'm still undecided between the two, do you think I could run Pcsx2 and dolphin games on an NUC CPU?

[yotsuya]

For a full size cab, I wouldn't waste the cash on a NUC. You can get a Core2Duo for $60 or so now.

[adder]

.....it still has a pretty big amount of fan noise.....

http://www.blackfiveservices.co.uk/fanspeed.shtml

[ChanceKJ]

That's also what's great about Mac minis: barely use any power, and they are whisper quiet. As fo the nuc, you can go fanless to save some noise

[BorgDog]

I put the Gigabyte Brix Celeron 2807 fanless in my vigolix bartop (link in sig).  Totally silent and runs all the classic games just fine and was a perfect fit size wise for what I was building.  Not sure on newer games or other emulators as I'm just running Mame and Mess (NES).  Got it on sale barebones and after adding 4gb ram and 128gb ssd I'm still under $200. Did consider the Nuc celeron as well, but the gigabyte was less expensive and already had the vga port I needed for my monitor.

I do wholeheartedly agree that if you are building anything that has a larger case (any upright for example) that a nuc, brix, or even mac mini is not the way to go.  I am very fond of mini-itx boards and those can be as powerfull as you want and still fairly small and inexpensive.

[jaharr01]

ECS Elitegroup Liva BAT-Mini (1.0) Desktop    $134.64 Runs windows 8 out of the box
http://www.amazon.com/ECS-Elitegroup-BAT-Mini-1-0-Desktop/dp/B00KX93WQW

Intel Celeron N2807 Processor 1.58 GHz(1.0 MB cache)
1GB DDR3
32.0 GB Solid State Drive
Intel HD
NA
CPU (on Board): Intel Celeron N2807 Processor (1.58GHz, 1MB Cache)
Chipset: Intel Bay Trail SoC
Interface: 1x USB 3.0 Port, 1x USB 2.0 Port, 1x VGA Port, 1x HDMI Port, 1x Micro USB Port (power connector), 1x RJ45 LAN Port, 1x Audio Combo Jack
LAN: Realtek RTL811G Gigabit Ethernet Controller
Memory: 2GB DDR3L
Storage: eMMC 32GB

[BorgDog]

ECS Elitegroup Liva BAT-Mini (1.0) Desktop    $134.64 Runs windows 8 out of the box
http://www.amazon.com/ECS-Elitegroup-BAT-Mini-1-0-Desktop/dp/B00KX93WQW

Intel Celeron N2807 Processor 1.58 GHz(1.0 MB cache)
1GB DDR3
32.0 GB Solid State Drive
Intel HD
NA
CPU (on Board): Intel Celeron N2807 Processor (1.58GHz, 1MB Cache)
Chipset: Intel Bay Trail SoC
Interface: 1x USB 3.0 Port, 1x USB 2.0 Port, 1x VGA Port, 1x HDMI Port, 1x Micro USB Port (power connector), 1x RJ45 LAN Port, 1x Audio Combo Jack
LAN: Realtek RTL811G Gigabit Ethernet Controller
Memory: 2GB DDR3L
Storage: eMMC 32GB

You can load up Ubuntu on these as well.

[TimeCrisis]

great finds, do you think you could run some more intensive games on your setup, say time crisis 1 on mame, those NUC PCs are much cheaper than the ones I was looking at, mainly as I was unsure what level of CPU was required for 3D games in mame or wii/PS2 (think time crisis 2, Hotd 2/3).

unfortunetely it's hard to tell what level of CPU I need, all I can do is run them on my 3570K CPU to see if they work fine, but an NUC with that CPU power costs 3x as much as the ones you are linking from my memory.

but yeah 2D sprites based gaming is almost non resource intensive to my knowledge.

[keilmillerjr]

Mac mini...

Intel NUC...

why do I feel I need to give input in this discussion....


Mac Mini is brilliant if you want something small and good lookin to run a build, (See my FLYNN's Build)

The NUC is good if you need smaller. (as per my Super PlayChoice build where I shove one in an SNES Advantage Controler).

The NUC isn't cheap,  you'd think it is but once you add all the parts you don't have you can be at the $400+ mark really fast. I know this because I worked hard to build one on the cheap side.  I'm wondering next how I could fit an Intel edison or a chopped up Raspberry Pi into a smaller form factor.  Maybe one day I'll have something I can shove into an SNES paddle.

Raspberry pi is extremely small, easy to set up, and cheap. Real cheap.

[EMDB]

Mac mini...

Intel NUC...

why do I feel I need to give input in this discussion....


Mac Mini is brilliant if you want something small and good lookin to run a build, (See my FLYNN's Build)

The NUC is good if you need smaller. (as per my Super PlayChoice build where I shove one in an SNES Advantage Controler).

The NUC isn't cheap,  you'd think it is but once you add all the parts you don't have you can be at the $400+ mark really fast. I know this because I worked hard to build one on the cheap side.  I'm wondering next how I could fit an Intel edison or a chopped up Raspberry Pi into a smaller form factor.  Maybe one day I'll have something I can shove into an SNES paddle.

Raspberry pi is extremely small, easy to set up, and cheap. Real cheap.

And not to forget underpowered to run more recent MAME games...

[TimeCrisis]

after some research here are my findings:

NUC’s can be atom based (CPU 1000 benchmark, poor on board graphics), USB cable for power, cheap
NUC’s can be laptop based (CPU 2500 benchmark, good on board graphics), can spend more money to make it more powerful, but might as well just get thin-itx instead.

Thin ITX       45w ‘T range’ desktop CPUs: 5000 benchmark (Core i3-4360T) ,same graphics.

Overall laptop based NUC is about $130 more expensive than thin-itx and half the CPU power, and half the weight.

[Fast351]

I was thinking something like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856164017

($105, Intel Celeron N2807)

Add 2GB of RAM (Kingston, $22) and a 120GB hard rive ($30).  So for roughly $160 you have a tiny, quiet, computer.  What am I missing?  Is that Celeron insufficient to run MAME well?  What if I stipulated that I was interested in the Classics games, not necessarily the most recent high graphics intensity games?

[TimeCrisis]

yes that would be perfect for 2d sprite mame games.

But for high end games, obviously none of these systems would work, you'd heed a dedicated graphics card for that.

I more mean that, wouldn't you be interested in tekken or soul Calibur on pcsx2 and dolphin?

I would like others to chime in on their experiences running those types of games on low powered CPU's, I don't really know myself.

[bulbousbeard]

Depends on what you're doing. If you have a CRT monitor and want to run games at their native refresh and resolution, you want a ---smurfy--- old AMD card for GroovyMAME. You can't just use anything.

[nitrogen_widget]

Mac mini...

Intel NUC...

why do I feel I need to give input in this discussion....


Mac Mini is brilliant if you want something small and good lookin to run a build, (See my FLYNN's Build)

The NUC is good if you need smaller. (as per my Super PlayChoice build where I shove one in an SNES Advantage Controler).

The NUC isn't cheap,  you'd think it is but once you add all the parts you don't have you can be at the $400+ mark really fast. I know this because I worked hard to build one on the cheap side.  I'm wondering next how I could fit an Intel edison or a chopped up Raspberry Pi into a smaller form factor.  Maybe one day I'll have something I can shove into an SNES paddle.

Raspberry pi is extremely small, easy to set up, and cheap. Real cheap.

And not to forget underpowered to run more recent MAME games...

I plan on an odroid-c soon. 1.5 GHz quad core armv7. Thats an am logic s805 for $35.
Right now my tegra 3 runs the tekken games in slow motion on android .139.
The odroid is supposed to be twice as powerful as the ouya so it may be able to handle up to that.
It'll run android or lubuntu and I think I'd probably go with lubuntu.
I'll probably order one mid January and I'm eager to see what it can actually do.

[Unstupid]

Heres one of my projects I was playing around with: 

[ark_ader]

I would look at the AMD 8 series of CPUs as they have graphics on the same die as the processor.  Plop in 4gb of memory and a nice and cheap itx board and it shouldn't break the bank.

[holaplaneta]

I was looking into upgrading my ZOTAC IONITX-C-U Intel Atom 230 Mini ITX ION Platform Motherboard/CPU Combo with 90W PSU, since it wonīt run mortal kombat, killer instinct, nba jam, moonwalker and metal slug at full speed even with all the RAM it can handle. They are choppy and laggy. Sound is terrible.

Is there a recent Mini ITX model that could do so? Without the need of an external power supply? (meaning, it comes with itīs own AC adapter)

Thanks guys.

[Typefighter01]

I was looking into upgrading my ZOTAC IONITX-C-U Intel Atom 230 Mini ITX ION Platform Motherboard/CPU Combo with 90W PSU, since it wonīt run mortal kombat, killer instinct, nba jam, moonwalker and metal slug at full speed even with all the RAM it can handle. They are choppy and laggy. Sound is terrible.

Is there a recent Mini ITX model that could do so? Without the need of an external power supply? (meaning, it comes with itīs own AC adapter)

Thanks guys.

I run this mobo http://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/AM1H-ITX/ in this bartop build http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,144156.0.html and it will accept both 19V DC-in or an ATX PSU.

I am by no means a computer expert, but the "vs" comparisons between your existing Atom 230 and the AM1 5350 Kabini shown here http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/512/AMD_Athlon_5350_vs_Intel_Atom_230.html shows the AM1 spanking it, so a jump from 1.6MHz to 2.05MHz and going from 1 core to 4 cores, might be the ticket. I have played a handful of games on it in testing and haven't noticed any slowdown, but TBH, I haven't or don't usually play those games.

Note: It does not come with the DC power brick, but at 19V your current one might fit the bill.

Your next question to me might be for me to test it for you...this might be possible and I am happy to, but not until Christmas Holidays 

[RTyper56]

i wonder if anyone is aware of Intels "PC on a schtick" Compute Stick.
http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/compute-stick/intel-compute-stick.html
by all means, its nowhere near as being a powerful PC, only having a 1.3GHz quad core atom processor and 2gb of ram.
its roughly the size of a chromecast, maybe a little bigger, but its only video output is HDMI and a single USB port.
from what i seen, depending where you buy it, price is anywhere between $100-150.

[vwalbridge]

i wonder if anyone is aware of Intels "PC on a schtick" Compute Stick.
http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/compute-stick/intel-compute-stick.html
by all means, its nowhere near as being a powerful PC, only having a 1.3GHz quad core atom processor and 2gb of ram.
its roughly the size of a chromecast, maybe a little bigger, but its only video output is HDMI and a single USB port.
from what i seen, depending where you buy it, price is anywhere between $100-150.

The Kngaroo is a better value now compared to the Intel Stick.

[RTyper56]

i wonder if anyone is aware of Intels "PC on a schtick" Compute Stick.
http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/compute-stick/intel-compute-stick.html
by all means, its nowhere near as being a powerful PC, only having a 1.3GHz quad core atom processor and 2gb of ram.
its roughly the size of a chromecast, maybe a little bigger, but its only video output is HDMI and a single USB port.
from what i seen, depending where you buy it, price is anywhere between $100-150.

The Kngaroo is a better value now compared to the Intel Stick.

hardware wise, it is, tho it isn't quite as versatile as the stick.
if it were to be able to plug directly into a tv like a stick, then this would be a lot better.
only draw back I find on both is that sound is strictly through HDMI, and with the money your saving on the PC, your spending on a monitor with HDMI, or a small LED TV.
If they had a 3.5mm audio jack, then you would be able to slap these on a HDMI to DVI-D connector, and work with a large majority of LCD monitors on the market.
One thing I seen too is that the kngaroo has separate docks, so idk if there is one with external audio.

[h45e]

What about the i5 or i7 nuc's?

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

[GlynH]

I'd never even heard of a NUC until I saw this thread!

I had to Google it just to find out what it was and wow...this looks to be a great piece of kit to me.

Some years ago I had a Stealth PC and for what it was purchased for (hosting a WiNRADiO PCI card) it was great.

Might have to revisit this form factor...shame about the limited built-in USB ports though.

Currently running a Dell Optiplex 755 SFF with Core 2 Duo 233GHz E6550 CPU and built-in Q35 graphics.

I wonder how the NUC and graphics compare to the Dell/Q35?

-=Glyn=-