The Intel NUC6i5SYK Skylake UCFF PC Review
by Ganesh T S on March 11, 2016 8:00 AM ESTPerformance Metrics - I
The Intel NUC6i5SYK was evaluated using our standard test suite for low power desktops / industrial PCs. Not all benchmarks were processed on all the machines due to updates in our testing procedures. Therefore, the list of PCs in each graph might not be the same.
Futuremark PCMark 8
PCMark 8 provides various usage scenarios (home, creative and work) and offers ways to benchmark both baseline (CPU-only) as well as OpenCL accelerated (CPU + GPU) performance. We benchmarked select PCs for the OpenCL accelerated performance in all three usage scenarios. These scores are heavily influenced by the CPU in the system. The benchmark numbers show that it is a toss-up between the Broadwell-U Iris Core i7-5557U in the NUC5i7RYH and the Core i5-6260U in the NUC6i5SYK. The former is a 28W TDP part and can sustain higher clocks. Despite that, the performance of the two are comparable for day-to-day usage activities (such as web browsing and spreadsheet editing), as tested by PCMark 8.
Miscellaneous Futuremark Benchmarks
The Futuremark GPU benchmarks present a different story. The advancements in the Skylake GPU enable the Skylake NUC to easily outscore every other mini-PC that has been evaluated before.
3D Rendering - CINEBENCH R15
We have moved on from R11.5 to R15 for 3D rendering evaluation. CINEBENCH R15 provides three benchmark modes - OpenGL, single threaded and multi-threaded. Evaluation of select PCs in all three modes provided us the following results. In the single threaded case, the higher clocks and TDP ratings help the NUC5i7RYH (based on the 28W TDP Core i7-5557U), ECS LIVA One (based on the 35W TDP Core i3-6100T) and the GIGABYTE GB-BXi7H-5500 (based on the Core i7-5500U - usual TDP of 15W configured upwards to 28W) to outscore the Skylake NUC (based on the 15W TDP Core i5-6260U).
However, in the OpenGL case, the Skylake GPU with eDRAM enables the NUC6i5SYK to have a comfortable lead over other UCFF PCs.
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CajunArson - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
Keep in mind that the older i7 NUC is a 28 watt TDP part with a 3.1GHz *base* clock (turbo to 3.4GHz) while this is a 15 watt part with only a 2.9GHz *turbo* maximum clock. It seems to beat the older i5 Broadwell at CPU benchmarks too.MattMe - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
I've been buying NUCs for desktop replacements at work now for the last year. We have around 40 Broadwell units and so far around 20 Skylake units.I've never experienced any of the issues mentioned in this article, so it's a shame to have what I see as excellent SFF PCs receive a poor review based on that. Understandable, of course.
The only issues we have experienced is the power supplies which are universal, interchangeable plug units. We have had 5 or 6 that have started buzzing and crackling due to arcing on the contact points. A little persuasion with a screwdriver fixes it, but they really let the whole thing down in my opinion.
Otherwise the performance, price, low power and near-silent operation make them perfect office PCs for all except power users and devs. Mounted on the supplied VESA bracket behind the monitor saves a lot of space too. You can set the BIOS to allow power on USB so the users simply press a keyboard key or move the mouse to switch it on in the morning. Perfect.
Zingam - Sunday, March 13, 2016 - link
What type of work is your business? Text editing?TheinsanegamerN - Monday, March 14, 2016 - link
Text editors, powerpoints, excel spreadsheets, web apps, all sorts of stuff business does runs wonderfully on NUCs.We've started using them to drive our POS systems, and our AV systems that broadcast to TVs in our buildings. They work quite well.
8steve8 - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
No idea why they keep pushing NUCs with 15W cpus, excessively low power for a non-mobile system.the 45W CPU skull canyon is exciting, when should we expect this to launch?
damianrobertjones - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
...because people buy them? People want them?(I'm sitting in front of one now)
Valantar - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
If what you want is the tiny NUC form factor, then 15W seems to be spot on. Anything higer would require a very noticeable size increase to help with cooling - unless you're willing to increase noise dramatically, which ... no.Is >30W in a NUC-ish form factor doable, and with low enough noise? Absolutely. Skull Canyon will be intriguing. But it will also undoubtedly be quite a bit larger than the standard NUCs.
8steve8 - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
yes it would have to be noticeably larger, but still tiny. 45W is a better sweetspot IMO for this kind of SFF PC... and please for skull canyon... please use a regular CPU cooler, and not a noisy blower like gigabyte tried with their brixxx.TheinsanegamerN - Monday, March 14, 2016 - link
It will most likely still be a blower, since the case will most likely be too small for a typical cooler, which needs more space and a different design than what the NUCs use.That being said, intel does a much better job with their blower coolers then gigabyte does.
8steve8 - Monday, March 14, 2016 - link
the intel retail HSF that comes with 65W CPUs is pretty small, yes taller than the NUC blowers, but only by like an inch... no bigger in other dims.Intel may do better than gigabyte with blowers, but gigabyte tried to cool a 65W cpu with a blower, intel is only trying on 5,15 or 28w CPUs... it's easy to be quiet when you are dealing with 15W vs 65W