Deskmini110 vs a NUC??

There are some impressive small form factor CPU coolers that will work with the Desk Mini. Personally I would go for a T variant unless you actually need the raw power of the standard 6700. The Desk Mini will wipe the floor with the Skull Canyon when it comes to computational tasks (with the i7 6700) given both a higher operating frequency and larger cache. If graphics are important to you then the 6770HQ in the Skull Canyon does come with a fairly significantly more powerful iGPU in the form of iris pro. The Iris Pro performs about on par with AMD's A10 7XXX integrated graphics or slightly slower than an R7 250. 

The i5 6600 is a lot snappier than the i5 3350p and the HD 530 integrated graphics is quite capable.

Are you owning a Deskmini?

"Silent" can be subjective, but if one fan on a small CPU cooler creates enough noise to be bothersome, then you must be very, very sensitive to noise.

I have a DeskMini 110w, with an Intel 600p. I replaced the stock Intel Skylake CPU cooler primarily because IMO they are the most minimally built stock cooler ever supplied by Intel. I was not happy with the idle CPU temperature. Not that they were excessive, but I prefer low temperatures, and the CPU cooler fan cools the entire PC. M.2 SSDs need cooling due to their case-less design. Samsung has improved the cooling on their 960 series, but it can be an issue with long periods of intense IO. I was pleased with the SSD temperature under load, but that was with a different CPU cooler. The difference in SSD temperature between the two coolers would not be significant.

Since the DeskMini is so small, it can easily be located away from the user to mitigate noise. I would never call the DeskMini loud with the stock Intel CPU cooler.

Your usage priorities should bias your overall balance of choices about this PC. Doing software development, compiling/building your software takes time and CPU power. If absolute silence is a priority over longer compile times, then rather than using a T type processor, use a Skylake i3 dual core CPU that has Hyper Threading. The i3-6100 and i3-6300 are those processors, and have the same 530 graphics as the Skylake i7 processors. But your compile times will be longer. The non-K i5 and i7 Skylake processors have more processing power than the i3s. The NUC PC processors will have much longer compile times, but if slightly better graphics performance is very important, than it's your choice of priorities.

I built a DIY, All in One PC with the DeskMini 110W and a 40" HD (1080p) TV. I mounted the DeskMini on the back of the TV, using the VESA mounting adapter ASRock offers as an option ($6.) The initial impression of others was how nice the image on the TV is, while streaming video with the included wireless network card. Of course the integrated graphics are not adequate for dedicated gamers, but otherwise the graphics are more than adequate.

With a UEFI update, the DeskMini's H110M-STX board can use Kaby Lake processors. While there seems to be little to no increase in CPU performance over Skylake, Kaby Lake processors have the newer Intel HD 630 graphics. The Kaby Lake i3s have slightly increased clock speeds compared to the Skylake i3s, the same 630 graphics as the Kaby Lake i5 and i7 processors, some new graphics features, the same TDP, and their price is the same.

Again, we cannot expect the DeskMini 110 to be the equivalent of a full sized desktop PC. It comes close in some ways, but the small form factor is still a compromise with current hardware. While the DeskMini is a breakthrough in some ways, it is not the same as a full sized desktop PC. Nothing as small as the DeskMini is equal to a desktop PC. You will need to balance each factor that is important to you, against the others. You can't have everything in almost any PC.

If one fan on a CPU cooler can make the difference between accepting or rejecting this design, you will need to invest more money into your project, for a better CPU cooler. You will need to do that carefully, since only small coolers will fit into the DeskMini's board and case. You also need to understand you can't have everything for the price of the DeskMini and the CPU cooler included with an Intel CPU.

Intel coolers from Socket 1155, 1150 and 1151 are all cross compatible. If you already have a stock intel cooler from Sandy Bridge onward it will work, in fact, the older coolers tend to be beefier and have better cooling.

Edited by Xaltar - 04 Jan 2017 at 11:26pm