Most Intel NUCs are cooled with a fan, and so far if you wanted a fanless NUC you had to purchase a third party enclosure. But Intel has been working on a new model named either “Chaco Canyon” NUC or Intel NUC 8 Rugged that’s both fanless and rugged.
The fanless NUC is powered by a dual-core Intel Celeron N3350 Apolo Lake processor coupled with 4GB of RAM and a 64GB eMMC flash both of which are soldered to the board. You can add to storage thanks to an M.2 2280 slot with support for NVMe or SATA SSD’s.
Intel NUC 8 Rugged specifications:
- SoC – Intel Celeron N3350 dual-core processor clocked at 1.1 GHz / 2.4 GHz with Intel HD Graphics 500; 6W TDP
- System Memory – Dual-channel 4GB RAM soldered-down
- Storage – 64GB eMMC flash soldered-down, M.2 2280 key M slot for PCIe x4 NVME or SATA SSD
- Video Output
- 1x HDMI 2.0a “Protected UHD” port, 1x HDMI 1.4 port with CEC support for both ports
- Internal 4-lane eDP connector
- Audio
- Up to 7.1 multichannel audio via HDMI
- Analog audio stereo output jack
- Connectivity
- Gigabit Ethernet via Intel i211-AT PHY
- Intel Wireless-AC 3168 M.2 card with WiFi 5 and Bluetooth pre-installed (in kits SKUs only)
- USB
- External – 2x USB 3.0 ports, 2x USB 2.0 ports
- Internal – 2x USB 2.0 headers
- Serial – 1x RS232 serial port header
- Misc – Kensington lock
- Power Supply
- 12-24V DC via rear jack or internal 2×2 connector
- Front-panel header with 5V/1A, 5V/2A, and 3.3V/1A
- Delayed AC start; DC transient voltage suppression
- Dimensions – Chassis: 154 x 108 x 32 mm, board: 146 x 102 mm
- Temperature range – 0 to 40°C
The specifications are both for the bare board and the NUC kits. Intel NUC 8 Rugged is qualified for 24×7 operation and supports features such as EDID emulation for headless display, 2nd virtual display or persistent display. Mounting options include VESA mounting holes built into the chassis, picture frame keyholes, zip-tie indentation, as well as third-party DIN rail brackets.
The fanless NUC supports Windows 10 Pro or Windows 10 IoT Enterprise and is compatible with various Linux distributions, and Android may be supported too.
AFAIK, Intel has not announced the computer yet, so all photos and information above come from Koolshare which has much more details with unboxing, close-up to the board’s components, a look at the BIOS and Windows information. If you prefer videos, Simply NUC has an unboxing and teardown video of the Mini PC Kit NUC8CHK which is yet another name for NUC “Chaco Canyon”.
SimplyNUC has started taking pre-orders for the kit above with price starting at £245.00 ex VAT, or about $300 US.
Via FanlessTech and Liliputing
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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It’s nice to see Intel going fanless. For 2 decades they haven’t cared that much about this despite having the technology available to run at low power.
Pretty sure you could run a 386 without a fan and the atom based Ion stuff was usually fanless as well.
I really mean “going back to fanless”. Even most atom boards come with a fan (mostly to comply with wide operating temperature ranges, because when placed on the desk, you happily unplug it). But since the pentium intel hasn’t made much effort going fanless, most likely because that’s not where most of the customers are.
There seems to be fanless atom systems available for industrial environments.
For the consumer stuff I would guess that working fan control has negated going totally passive.
Pretty sure all mainstream Gemini Lake motherboards are fanless 😉
https://www.asrock.com/mb/index.asp#Intel%20CPU
A few years ago, most Bay Trail and Cherry Trail-based mini PCs or PC sticks were fanless.