Review on 🖥️ Intel NUC 8 Mainstream Kit (NUC8i3BEH) - Core i3, Tall, Additional Components Required by Shree Carmean

This review is for the BOXNUC8i5BEH1, a 'tall' i5 'kit' that does not include RAM or hard drive. (Note that i3, i5, and i7 reviews are uselessly merged here if you don't know how to filter reviews.) First and foremost: It's great hardware. I have had several Mini PCs including the latest generation Atom based Gigabyte and Asus. I've built dozens of PCs over the years. I use this NUC as a media center (HTPC) and so far it's *completely* quiet and doesn't emit any noticeable heat. Considering my Gigabyte sounded like a hair dryer at times and my fanless Atom got pretty hot, I'm very happy with it. I don't game on this device but for everyday use I'm very happy with the thermal profile. On the other hand. The experience with this kit is the worst I have seen. Instructions/documentation is almost non-existent. The assembly instructions omit many important details, such as the installation direction of components, etc. And there is no "support" at all on the Intel side. I had to go through a lot of hoops to get drivers for this thing as the support pages are only for the unbundled versions and Intel doesn't bother to sort this out. It wasn't even easy to find the BIOS manual or enter the BIOS settings. I think most people with less PC build experience would give up. In short, the Intel hardware team does a great job with this model. But their support team, drivers and documentation fail.