Small PC i.e Intel NUC,Gigabyte Brix for using Ableton Live

[davlar]

Thinking of updating my five year old latptop (i3 2.3 GHz 8GB RAM Windows 7). It's mostly fast enough for what I need but is quite big, noisy and takes several minutes to start-up (not good if something goes wrong in the middle of a gig ).

Was considering one of the small PCs noted in the subject heading above, as in my set-up I don't really need to see the screen and I like the idea of it being small so can fit nicely on top of my keyboard. I've seen someone use an Intel NUC as a pedalboard about 18 months ago:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=206856&p=1623298&hi ... C#p1623298
but was just wondering if anyone has used one in "anger" more recently - i.e. do they start-up quickly, stability, OS used, etc. ?

[Tagor]

they look tempting
http://www.notebooksbilliger.de/intel+n ... wwodKxcEVQ

but:
do they support 2 screens?
8 GB Ram limit ?
4 MB Cache (2 Cores / 4 Threads) ?

until these minis or even notebooks are not ready to compete with i7355k, 16 MB RAM, 8 Threads
i would not go for it - i would try to build an miniITX or microATX or wait with that until Skylake-Processors
middle/end of 2016 - with such a machine you should be safe for the next 5 Years

[davlar]

Hi Tagor,
For instance, the Intel NUC NUC5I7RYH i7-5557U is 3.1 GHz(boosts to 3.4 GHz), does support 2 screens, 16 GB RAM, is dual core (4 threads), can have both a SSD and 2.5" HD. But yes not as fast as a quad core, so might wait to see what the Skylake processors are like later this year.

[Tagor]

kewl - thanks for the info -- hopefully we can soon go for them
i tried Notebooks (alienware) and came to the conclusion that for prosducing & on stage
desktops very powerfull but just more weight to carry - so these minis will be a quite
good to get best of both worlds... you may not be able to produce in a plane or train..
but whats in the box will be small&powerfull, still looks strange to bring a monitor extra
but the power and solidness is just an argument, when you can get them for under 1k thats
a good deal... please report back if you go for it later in the year.. tnx