XBMC on Intel NUC

seanmnaes

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Jun 14, 2012
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I got my Intel NUC DC3217IYE in over the weekend. Works great with XBMC when it works. Much nicer than the WD Live Hub I've been using.

The when it works part is pissing me off though. I bought an Intel 525 Series Lincoln Crest 30 gig SSD and an Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6235 wireless card with it. Everything installed great. I used XBMCbuntu and was up and running in a matter of minutes. Everything worked great until I had it start scrap my media. As soon as the network got rocking it would take a poop and the SSD would disconnect and not show back up until I pulled the power. This sounded a lot like this article:

http://techreport.com/news/24286/intel-tackles-nuc-heat-issues-with-fan-speed-tweak-ssd-fix

Except that I am using ethernet and not wifi. I pulled out the wifi anyway though. The SSD was smoking hot when I pulled it out to get the wifi card out. I still had the issue, so I updated the BIOS on the NUC to version 036. This seemed to help. It crashed a couple of times and then ran great all night.

When I woke up this morning it had crashed again over night and the SSD was missing. I pulled the plug and let it sit for a bit. I put the Intel SSD firmware update tool onto a USB drive to see if there was an update for the drive. LLKi was what was on there and the updater said there was no new version.

Running the LiveCD version off of USB does not reproduce the problem so my guess is that the SSD is to blame right now. I don't exactly have mSATA drives laying around, so I'll have to order another one to narrow the problem. I think I'm going to pickup the Crucial M4 and see if it has the same problem.

I figured an all Intel setup was the way to go. The NUC+525 seem like a natural pair. I'm a little frustrated with where I sit with the two right now though. I was surprised that non of the reviews pointed out similar issues. They all seem to be using mSATA to SATA adapters provided by Intel though, so the NUC might be just hot enough to push it over the edge.

Just thought I would post my experience with this setup.

-Sean
 
Rock on!

I've been thoroughly impressed with XBMC on the NUC. I was formerly running it on an Acer Revo 1600 (an older XBMC barebones king).

I've been running the Crucial M4 32GB in mine without any ill effect. I don't have a wireless card installed (using gigabit ethernet).

I scrapped the Openelec install in favor of a Windows 8 based install due to artifacting and sound clipping in some random movies. Much happier now.

The CPU utilization while watching 1080p is so low! Love this box. Tiny, low power consumption, and quite powerful!
 
Running XBMC on an Intel NUC too. I've been very impressed so far. I went with a Mushkin SSD since the Crucial M4 was out of stock. It's been rock solid under Windows 8.
 
What do you guys use for a remote on that thing? I'm looking into getting a Intel NUC now. Does it handle DTS/1080p well in XBMC?
 
I currently use the Boxee remote.

I have a PulseEight USB CEC adapter on the way, so I'll hopefully be using just my TV remote soon. :)
 
I think I might wait for the April release, I heard there will be one. Hopefully they come with better options for that.. don't really know what to do if the Harmony won't wake it up.
 
I've been using the Snapstream Firefly Mini IR receiver I had laying around from a past HTPC project (Sage TV). Works great. Zero config and works great with the harmony remote.

As a side note, all of my instability is gone now. Works like a champ. I get an occasional lockup, but I don't think it's from the SSD overheating.

Just trying to get ROM collection browers and zsnes to work the way I want. Great little box.

-Sean
 
I'm interested when intel releases valley view (atom + HD4000 graphics) and put this into the NUC form factor to bring the cost down.
 
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