When we reviewed the first iteration of Intel’s NUC (Next Unit of Computing) do-it-yourself kit($1,297.00 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) late last year we were impressed with its diminutive size and Core i3 processing power but bemoaned the lack of USB 3.0 technology and the additional costs associated with making it a workable PC. The new NUC D54250WYK ($360 street) is still tiny, and you still have to put it together yourself, but this time around Intel has made some much needed improvements by adding support for USB 3.0 and including a DisplayPort video output and a Gigabit Ethernet port. Moreover, this NUC( at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) is fueled by a Haswell Core i5 CPU and Intel’s HD Graphics 5000, making it a powerful home theater box for consumers and an ideal digital signage solution for businesses.

For around $360 the NUC D54250WYK kit gets you the system board with a soldered-on Core i5-4250U CPU that has a standard clock speed of 1.3GHz and a turbo clock speed of up to 2.6GHz. You also get a power adapter, a VESA mounting plate, an integration guide that shows you how to install components, and a Wi-Fi antenna, which is built into the NUC chassis (also included). As with the earlier version, you’ll have to pony up a few hundred dollars more for RAM, a solid state drive, and a Wi-Fi adapter. You’ll also have to supply your own operating system, keyboard, and mouse.

Design and Features
The new NUC is the same size as its predecessor. It measures 4.4 by 4.6 by 1.4 inches and weighs in at around 17 ounces. The year’s model has brushed aluminum sides, a matte black bottom, and a glossy black top that holds the power button and an activity light. On the front side panel are two USB 3.0 ports, a headphone jack, and an infra-red sensor which will come in handy if you decide to incorporate the NUC into your home entertainment system. On the back side panel are two more USB 3.0 ports, mini-HDMI and mini-DisplayPort video outputs, a gigabit LAN port, and the power jack. There are also two cooling vents back there. A cable lock slot is located on the right side. The VESA-compliant mounting plate allows you to attach the NUC to the back of a VESA-compliant monitor, freeing up even more desktop real estate.

Loosening the four screws on the bottom releases the base and gives you access to the interior where you’ll find Intel’s D54250WYB system board. It contains a soldered Core i5-4250U CPU and Intel’s integrated HD Graphics 5000 circuitry. There are two empty SO-DIMM sockets that will accept up to 16GBs of RAM and two PCIe mini-card connectors (one full length, one half length). Intel sent along two 4GB memory modules, a Wi-Fi adapter, and a 180GB solid state drive to help with this review, but none of these items are included in the $360 price. The SSD will run you about $199 and the Wi-Fi adapter goes for around $30. The 8GB of RAM adds another $85 or so, which means you’ll have to come up with another $315 to build out the NUC. You’ll also have to factor in the cost of a keyboard, mouse, and operating system.

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On the plus side, this NUC comes with a power brick (last year’s version did not). Also under the hood are SATA power and data connectors for use with an external drive (there’s no room inside for one) and two USB 2.0 headers.

Assembly and Performance

As with the first NUC, there’s not much to assemble with the D54250WYK. Once the base is removed you can install the memory modules and the PCIe cards. You’ll have to install the half-height Wi-Fi card first and connect the two antenna leads to the card. A screw holds the card in place.

The full height SSD card is installed over the Wi-Fi card and secured with a single screw, and the memory modules snap in exactly as they do on a notebook system. We installed Windows 8 using a USB optical drive and then installed the chipset, networking, and graphics drivers.

The Core i5-4250U and 8GB of RAM combined to produce an impressive score of 4,207 on our PCMark 7 productivity benchmark test. That’s 500 points higher than last year’s NUC and more than 2,500 points higher than the Zotac ZBox Nano XS AD13 Plus( at Amazon)(Opens in a new window).

On the Cinebench R11.5 test, which we use to measure raw CPU performance, the NUC actually trailed the older NUC, if only slightly. It blew past the AMD-powered Zotac ZBox but was left for dead by the Core i7 fueled Polywell B8500.

The NUC D54250WYK isn’t exactly a multimedia encoding powerhouse but it’s no slouch either. It needed 2 minutes and 24 seconds to complete the Handbrake video encoding test. The Lenovo ThinkCentre M93p Tiny($301.50 at Lenovo)(Opens in a new window) finished the Handbrake test in a little over one minute and the Polywell B8500 did it in 35 seconds. On our Photoshop encoding test, the NUC needed 9 minutes and 11 seconds to finish the job

The NUC’s Intel HD Graphics 5000 GPU will handle light gaming duties but it can’t deliver the frame rates needed for smooth high quality gaming. It churned out 22.5 fps (frames per second) on the medium quality Heaven Direct X11 gaming benchmark but could only muster 8.1 fps on the high quality test.

Results were similar on the Aliens vs. Predator benchmark; the NUC managed 17.2 fps on the medium quality test but dropped to a dismal 5.4 fps on the high quality test.

Conclusion
The Intel NUC D54250WYK is a good bet for home users looking to add Core i5 power and networking connectivity to their home entertainment center. Moreover, it offers more than enough processing power to act as a primary household PC, as long as you can live with the limitations of an integrated graphics solution. It’s also a good fit for businesses looking for a space-saving office desktop or powerful digital signage solution. Granted, you don’t get much in the way of expansion options and you’ll have to shell out over $300 to populate the system board with components, but unlike the NUC’s diminutive form factor, the payoff is big. Competitors like the Zotac ZBox Nano XS AD13 Plus may offer more hardware for less money, but it can’t match the productivity and graphics power of the Haswell-enhanced NUC. If you require a more powerful business-centric small form factor PC, the Polywell B8500 is your best bet, but it’s bigger and more expensive than the NUC.