New Intel 6th generation Core i7 NUC, Skull Canyon NUC6i7KYK with dual M.2 and up to 32GB of RAM
Mar 18 2016 Update - additional information, and podcast with video, added below. If you find this article helpful, consider shopping for the NUC6i7KYK with these affiliate links: Amazon, Newegg, Wiredzone.
Intel dropped a little surprise late Wednesday, with new and improved GPU capabilities, in a new shape. Introducing an Intel NUC that's a little bigger, taking aim squarely at more demanding customers users this time around.
Intel makes it pretty clear what their intentions are for this new NUC, right in their Product brief:
- Intel NUC: Your gaming solution
- Intel NUC: Your content creation solution
- Intel NUC: Your heavy workload solution
Gaming
Oculus Ready PCs with VR Ready Intel® Core™ i5 or i7 processors are certified to meet your expectations on Rift."
– Nate Mitchell, VP Product
* It seems an external GPU could enable this NUC6i7KYK to be VR capable, but it's not on the VR Ready list. Read more about VR Ready initiative here. Keep in mind that the NUC6i7KYK kit requires RAM and disk, add in a VR capable (USB Type-C connected) Thunderbolt 3 dock, AND a beefy GPU (up to 375 watts). You're likely looking at a total near $2000. We'll have to wait for a bit to know more.
Here’s an amazing statistic: Earth’s population has reached nearly 7.5 billion people—and 1.3 billion of them are PC gamers!
– Gregory Bryant, Corporate Vice President/General Manager Desktop Client Platforms
Workstation / Content Creation - M.2 x2 is a very nice touch
For workstation use in a small home office, that Iris Pro 580 GPU claims to have enough grunt to handle 3 4K displays (60 Hz max), paired with the Intel® Core™ i7-6770HQ Processor with 4 cores at 2.6 GHz / 3.5 GHz, and 6 MB of cache, at a TDP of 45 watts.
This is the first of any 6th generation NUC to feature a Core i7, with considerably more capability than any 6th generation Gigabyte BRIX. And adding a 2nd M.2 slot in there for storage was a very good move.
Family Room TV / Home Theater
Now this could be interesting for some families, I would think. HDMI, (possibly) quiet operation unless gaming, speed, and compact size. Still, close to $1000 once configured with some memory and storage. Would have been nice to have something like this, back when Media Center was still a thing ;-). Too soon?
Home Server / Home Lab / VMware Cluster/vSAN (RAID over 10Gb)
Yes, I'm biased here. TinkerTry tends to focus on small servers that can be suitable for home lab use. Especially for virtualization, where a watt burning GPU is not needed, or desired. For example, Xeon D-1541 based servers share the same TDP of 45 watts as the new NUC, and runs at a little lower GHz while getting more work done per clock cycle). But what you also get is 2 times the cores and cache, 4 times the RAM (full size/cheaper DIMMs in 4 slots) and NIC ports (2 of them 10GbE!), M.2, and 6 SATA drive bays. Oh, and a low profile PCIe slot that can fit a quad-4K GPU that I'm currently testing seen here as a Datacenter/Workstation all-in-one working experiment that I actually use. But I fully realize mini-towers that start at ~$1700 equipped with 64GB aren't for everybody, especially folks considering a 2nd or even a 3rd cluster node, where affordability is crucial.
For folks interested in experimenting with VT-d passthru, the new NUC's CPU does support it, seen at Intel ARK here. It's not certain that the Intel Iris Pro 580 GPU could be passed through, or that the BIOS will enable VT-d. This NUC is said to allow connection to external GPU, see also Skull Trail NUC Fact Sheet.
So for this Intel NUC6i7KYK, perhaps 3 of them in an All Flash vSAN 6.2 role, with 2 M.2 drives in each.
Or perhaps a single NUC6i7KYK in a dual-boot role, using an external drive (since there's no internal bay for 2.5" drives). Such a light gaming workstation that could also occasionally be part of a All Flash vSAN 6.2. None of this would be officially supported by VMware for Virtual SAN of course, as is the case with pretty much all affordable (non-enterprise) consumer gear.
This little NUC will be particularly compelling if the M.2 in this NUC can get the full speeds of the M.2 slots this time around. This seems likely, given it can do USB 3.1 Type-C and Thunderbolt 3 (40Gbps). See also page 45 of the Core i5 NUC615SYH manual, which states that model's M.2 limitations:
for the Using PCIe x4 M.2 SSD maximum bandwidth is approximately 1600 MB/s
What if 10GbE can be creatively added? Without 10GbE, those stellar NVMe M.2 speeds of 2,500 MB/sec reads and 1,500 MB/sec writes wouldn't be seen for vSAN anyway. Still, it could be an interesting thing to try, assuming the designed-for-Windows 10 hardware gets along well enough with VMware ESXi 6.
What if William Lam's ESXi experiments with Thunderbolt broadens to even more devices? Interesting possibilities.
For virtualization enthusiasts hankering for more NICs, here's a little something:
- Development Project – M.2 Ethernet Card for Intel NUC
To meet this need we’re currently developing an M.2 Ethernet card for the 6th generation Intel NUC. Here’s what is promises:
Two Intel i210 Ethernet ports
Since it's PCIe based rather than USB based, VMware ESXi support shouldn't be an issue.
from the same company that did this with the 6th generation NUC:
You may also be interested in a recent close look at the specs of another new 6th generation NUC, the NUC615SYH:
Now let's imagine ripping that skull-decorated plastic shell off (which doesn't look as great once dusty anyway), and putting it into something else, more like the above pic, or even a custom Lego case.
Closing thoughts
It's always fun to see what kind of tweaks and hacks folks come up with, and having a nice solid foundation for enthusiasts to build upon can only lead to good things. I'm glad the Intel NUC platform, and the huge community of support around it, really seems to be thriving. Such competition is good for all of us. People are finally realizing that modest electricity usage, noise, and heat are rather important when living near your versatile PC, no matter what role you choose for it to fill. Using less resources before it eventually becomes landfill.
For home server use, the Xeon D-1500 mini-tower with lots of drive bays and IPMI for remote management is still a better choice for most, knowing that the NUC's 32GB of RAM maximum is going to feel pretty small in 2-3 years time.
Pricing
The price is expected to be roughly $650, arriving in May. I haven't found any US sites taking pre-orders quite yet, but Newegg may be first. As was the case with prior NUCs, this is a kit: you'll need to provide memory and disk.
Sep 23 2016 Update - If you find this article helpful, consider shopping for the NUC6i7KYK with these affiliate links: Amazon, Newegg, Wiredzone.
CPU Specifications
See comparison of the following 4 CPUs, to get a sense of how they differ:
- Xeon D-1541 (SuperServer SYS-5028D-TN4T)
- Core i5-6260U (NUC615SYH)
- Core i7-6770HQ (NUC6i7KYK Skull Canyon)
- Core i7-6700K (higher-end Skylake Desktop PC)
Mar 17 2016 Update 1
New post at engadget
Great new post that really sums things up quite nicely.
- Intel's first 'Skull Canyon' NUC has Core i7 power
Mar 17 2016 by Steve Dent at engadget
Price-wise, it's a large step up from the latest gaming consoles, though. The bare NUC is $650, and Intel says a typical build with 16GB RAM, a 256GB SSD and Windows 10 would run $999. Should you go for external discreet graphics via the Razer Core (now on pre-order for $500), and an NVIDIA GTX 970 graphics card (the minimum for an Oculus Rift and HTC Vive) you're in for another $850. That makes the total investment $1,850 and you could easily build a much better PC for that price.
However, NUCs do have their place. If you don't have a lot of space and are fine with the Iris Pro graphics, you'll get an okay gaming PC and extremely competent media server. The NUC goes on pre-order at Newegg in April for $650 and will ship in May 2016.
Comparative Size
- Intel NUC6i7KYK Dimensions
216 mm x 116 mm x 23 mm
which converts to:
4.6" depth x 8.5" width x 0.9" height
- Supermicro SYS-5028D-TN4T Dimensions
279 mm x 210 mm x 240 mm
which converts to:
11" depth x 8.3" width x 9.5" height
See also at TinkerTry
-
World's fastest consumer SSD - Samsung 950 PRO M.2 NVMe benchmark results
- Supermicro SuperServer 5028D-TN4T vSAN dream is alive! Home lab video overview features Intel SSDs and Samsung M.2 SSDs
-
NVIDIA 560 Ti to 750 Ti GPU upgrade makes Core i7 Z68 system quieter, faster, cooler, using half the power
Aug 19 2014 -
2013 Apple Mac Pro as a virtualization platform? Think about it...
Jun 11 2013 - “gZilla” Z68 Gaming System – built for speed and fun
Oct 01 2011
Mar 18 2016 Update
This new NUC is featured in this just-published PC Perspective Podcast episode, including a discussion about (pricey) external GPU options:
Here's the audio queued to just the right spot:
Here's the video queued to just the right spot:
Sep 23 2016 Update
Special thanks to Leandro G Faria Corcete DUTRA who dropped a comment about an error I had made in my Intel ARK table and caption:
The NUC6i7KYK Skull Canyon sports the i7-6770HQ, not the 6970HQ.
I have made the appropriate correction to the relevant section of the article above.
See also
-
communities.intel.com/community/tech/nuc
Intel NUC Support Community -
2016 Game Developers Conference | Intel Newsroom
Mar 16 2016 by Intel -
Intel Ups the Ante in Gaming, Outlines VR Strategy and Highlights New Opportunities for Game Developers
Mar 16 2016 by Intel -
Intel Skull Canyon NUC Unveiled, Will Pair With Razer Core External GPU Dock
-
Meet Intel NUC NUC6i7KYK – Skull Canyon Arrives With Thunderbolt 3
Mar 16 2016 by Nathan Kirsch at Legit Reviews - Meet the new Intel Skulltrail NUC; Changing the Game
Mar 16 2016 by Jeremy Hellstrom at PC Perspective
Reactions
All Comments on This Article (25)
Was wondering with vt-D support ont he Intel NUC, which built-in hardware can be passthrough to a VM ??
the Intel GPU? USB2 Controller? USB3 Controller? Thunderbolt ??
You are welcome!
Nice catch, I have made the fixes, and attributed them to you:
https://tinkertry.com/sixth-gen-intel-skulltrail-nuc#sep-23-2016-update
I really appreciate your taking the time to let me know!
The NUC6i7KYK Skull Canyon sports the i7-6770HQ, not the 6970HQ.
Nice find femton, thank you for helping Chuyên out, much appreciated!
Yes, according to Intel it is.
http://ark.intel.com/products/89187/Intel-NUC-Kit-NUC6i7KYK?q=Intel%20NUC6i7KYK
Hmm, good question. Intel RSTe is on many systems, but I don't believe we know yet whether they'll choose to include NVMe devices in the RAID device list.
On my Xeon D-1540 server for example, RSTe is there, but the RST utility in BIOS or UEFI BIOS modes won't let me choose NVMe M.2 (Samsung 950 PRO) devices.
EDIT:
Yes is the answer, thanks to femton. See reply (above) at:
https://TinkerTry.com/sixth-gen-intel-skulltrail-nuc#comment-2632582809
Is it possible to set up a RAID-0 with 2x PCIe NVME 4x SSD on this NUC?
Thanks
You are absolutely right about that, that's a 2008 pic
http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphics-Cards/Intel-Skulltrail-and-Multi-GPU-Graphics-Mixed-Results
Sorry about that. Made the honest mistake in haste. Suitable clarification now added.
Another article for you http://www.servethehome.com/supermicro-x10sdv-6c-tln4f-review-xeon-d-1528-mitx/
Yes, is helpful. Really my challenge is deciding which approach makes sense. If financials where no matter, I'd just get both. And if that is the ultimate outcome, then the current decision is which do I need now.
I believe that motherboard pic is actually of the original (several years back) Intel Skullcanyon MB which did indeed have two CPU sockets.
Thank you for making those good points. I try to be thorough in my description of the SuperServer, perhaps too thorough (and distracting ;-)
As for running my server as a workstation too, that has worked out pretty well:
https://TinkerTry.com/superserverworkstation
but certainly isn't the kind of thing everybody would like, and Hyper-V would likely make the setup easier for you, especially if you don't have work-related reasons to learn VMware.
If driver and support are concerns, then the Supermicro will work well with those server OSs
http://www.supermicro.com/support/resources/OS/Broadwell-DE.cfm
These are really very different machines. I hope I helped at least a little. If you haven't read through the benefits and things to know about the SuperServer quite yet
https://TinkerTry.com/superservers
I would encourage you to do so, because VMs really do like a lot of RAM, and each of those 4 32GB ECC DDR4 modules are down to low $200s these days.
The biggest pic I could find of the motherboard appears here:
http://www.pcper.com/news/Shows-and-Expos/Meet-new-Intel-Skulltrail-NUC-Changing-Game
certainly SATA spotted on there, strange that there's an (unused) 2nd CPU socket, as mentioned in this spot in this podcast, audio pca.st/tWzi#t=3021 or video https://youtu.be/4zsh7GBP1XY?t=50m7s
I am actively debating (with myself) what should be my next home server. Found this site since I've been researching XEON-D, and saw here first the NUC announcement (stopped visiting Engadget since I found it too distracting). My current machine is 4th gen i5 homebrew. Still a great machine, but is about 5 years old now and thus due to be replaced.
I do the type of development that lends itself to having lots of virtual machines. I am considering a SuperMicro 1U Xeon-D and getting all my VMs off my desktop (where they are now using VMWare Workstation). But this new NUC is tempting. 32GB would be sufficient for me ( they should support more). I guess I could still use it only for VMs using Server 2016 Core as the host. But as it has better graphics than my current desktop, I'd probably use it in place of my desktop and thus still have my VMs share the machine - which I would sort of like to avoid. I'm more likely to screw up my desktop than I am to screw up my VM host.
One thing you didn't mention in regards to the memory is that Xeon-d can also (should also?) use ECC, which is a consideration for my next machine. I used to always use ECC but didn't on my current build.
I expect that with the custom lids that we will see a lid with two 2.5" mount brackets. It would only add a bit to the height. I also assume here that there are SATA ports available on the motherboard. Has anyone seen that motherboard?
I wouldn't run cloud environments for my home storage either. I was thinking more along the lines of using the cloud options for setting up temporary lab environments for my studies. Yeah having your own hardware is WAY better but needing 3 nodes is expensive if you buy your own kit whereas the cloud options (can be) much cheaper.
Appreciate the tip and I look forward to your thoughts on this topic as we're both thinking about the same thing!
I'm thinking about the same stuff, it's all a work in progress.
Cloud experiments would certainly be a whole lot cheaper, but likely a lot slower too. For me, with 5TB of local "family cloud" storage to move around, I'm all for hands-on hardware, doing bare-metal restores of laptops and such quite often (just finished a Lenovo Yoga 13 restore 10 minutes ago using VEB 1.5).
I'll have to think about forming a better response for a bit, meanwhile, please re-read this greatly improved article (there may be ethernet hacks for NUCs, but yeah, Xeon D on VMware HCL likely makes more sense, even if you step down to fewer cores like Xeon D-1548, saving a bit of $):
https://TinkerTry.com/sixth-gen-intel-skulltrail-nuc
Little tip: my articles tend to kind of suck the first hours, then I get them polished off and sort of complete them, adding addendums to the bottom as things come up. That means if you're just reading my RSS feed, I would encourage you to also visit the actual article.
Thanks Paul.
So as you may (or may not) know I am interested in building a vSAN 3 node cluster for my studies/lab. I'm posting this because I am battling with which option to choose so I thought someone may be able to help me in my decision making process!
So the options I have been considering for a 3 node VMware cluster are as follows:
1) Using my current i7/32GB desktop with nested virtualisation. Pros: Free as I own it already. Cons: Little bit slow and not enough RAM to create more than a couple of VMs in the nested ESXi hosts so its limited
2) Buy 3 Intel NUCs. Pros: Almost affordable (still quite a lot of money though!), very small and use little electricity. Silent. Cons: Only one gigabit port (a deal breaker for vSAN if you ask me)
3) Buy 3 SuperServers. Pros: Rolls Royce of hardware, great performance Cons: Cost ;-(
4) Use https://www.ravellosystems.com/ to create the lab/learning environment
online in the cloud. Pros: Much cheaper (provided you watch the hours you run your VMs for) and you can create (in theory) unlimited VMs. Cons: You have nothing to show for it afterwards and if you run your VMs for long periods of time it could add up and be costly.
Anyways, hoping someone can chip in here and help steer my decision ;-) I'm leaning to option 1 or 4 or this stage and then maybe when the cost of RAM comes down the SS will be more affordable. Or if Intel release a NUC that takes one M2, one SATA SSD and has dual gigabit ports that may sway the decision.
Option 4 is an interesting one. Are the days of the homelab numbered?
Cheers!
Yeah, not turnkey/simple for ESXi 6, but see also http://www.virtuallyghetto.com/2013/09/running-esxi-55-on-apple-mac-mini.html
Great questions. I have never managed to reach Intel PR folks directly, to discuss currently GA products for example, I'm sorry to have to admit. I keep trying, gave it another shot early today actually...
That would be much more interesting/agreed (and a 2nd NIC at 10GbE would be good)
Perhaps they'll release a NUC6i7KYH as well, which adds a little height, and thus more room for an extra 2.5" SATA3 SSD.
I had high hopes for this as I thought it may make a good choice for a 3 node vSAN cluster but there are two problems I have with it:
1) Two M2 ports - this sounds nice but I would really like the option to use a SATA SSD drive with an M2 SSD for vSAN
2) Single NIC is going to be a problem for VM traffic, vSAN, vMotion AND FT traffic. I doubt its going to be a simple task adding additional NICs via USB3 or Thunderbolt with ESXi 6!
Back to the drawing board for setting up my vSAN cluster in the future ;-) I was thinking two SuperServers and then use my existing server as a witness appliance.
Do you know if Intel have any plans for their NUCs to have dual gigabit ports? That would be a winner for home labbers and firewalls!
Paul Braren | TinkerTry.com
VT-d is listed as supported on this NUC;
https://ark.intel.com/products/89187/Intel-NUC-Kit-NUC6i7KYK
but I only had access to a borrowed NUC for a short time, and it's long gone. I will say you may find answers at these amazing sites:
http://www.virtuallyghetto.com/?s=NUC
http://www.yellow-bricks.com/?s=NUC
http://www.virten.net/?s=NUC
Hope this helps!