8-core NUC

[Uber Hamburgler]

Is anyone making a mini-pc board with an 8+ core processor, preferably with thunderbolt.  I've checked Intel, Zotac, Gigabyte, and Newegg and haven't been able to find anything with more than 4 cores.

 

I'm trying to build a small business server with an identical copy at home for redundancy.  The idea is the NUC with 2 external drive boxes sitting on top of it.  The demands on it won't be too great, just office files, web server, and e-mail server.  However, I want as many cores as I can get because I effectively want it to run 2 VMs, one for personal stuff and one for business stuff.  I primarily want Thunderbolt so the initial transfer doesn't take eons - we're looking at several terabytes of One Piece hentai here, but using it to add 10+ Gbps networking would be awesome as well.

 

Right now I'm thinking I'll just go with one of Intel's yet, unreleased 6-core 10th gen NUCs.  I could use a thin mini-ITX board, but that seems more expensive and uber-overkill.  

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[WereCat]

12 minutes ago, Uber Hamburgler said:

 we're looking at several terabytes of One Piece hentai here

what

[Zando_]

Any reason to not just use internal drives? Can probably build something for a similar price in a Fractal case. Node 304 is mITX and fits up to 6 3.5" drives, Node 804 is mATX and fits up to 8 3.5" drives and 4 2.5" drives. Then snag a B-series board and an R7 1700 or 2700 on sale along with a cheap GPU for a display out and you should be good to go. 

[sphbecker]

Lets get the disclaimer out of the way first. What you are suggesting is an AWFUL idea. Your house is not a backup data-center, small appliance boards are not server grade hardware. If you were building a home project server, that is fine, but if this is for a real business, nope, bad idea.

 

Having said that. You will need to look at mini-ITX to get the features you want. NUC simply isn't going to do it. Even 10th Gen isn't going to give you Thunderbolt.

[Uber Hamburgler]

23 hours ago, sphbecker said:

Lets get the disclaimer out of the way first. What you are suggesting is an AWFUL idea. Your house is not a backup data-center, small appliance boards are not server grade hardware. If you were building a home project server, that is fine, but if this is for a real business, nope, bad idea.

 

Having said that. You will need to look at mini-ITX to get the features you want. NUC simply isn't going to do it. Even 10th Gen isn't going to give you Thunderbolt.

None of what you said is true. 

 

There are dozens of models of NUC style computers with Thunderbolt, unfortunately most of them are using dual-core 7th gen processors.

My house is perfect for a backup data center.  The only 2 requirements are broadband internet and geographic separation.

The only meaningful difference between NUC boards and "server grade hardware" is ECC memory support - Intel NUC boards are actually designed for 100% uptime embedded uses, then thrown in a plastic case.

 

You're implication of "real" business is bogus.  Even if the only employees are myself and 2 part-time assistants; it makes money and pays the bills.  If I had 20 employees it wouldn't make any fundamental difference - just would need more storage space.

[sphbecker]

11 minutes ago, Uber Hamburgler said:

None of what you said is true. 

 

There are dozens of models of NUC style computers with Thunderbolt, unfortunately most of them are using dual-core 7th gen processors.

My house is perfect for a backup data center.  The only 2 requirements are broadband internet and geographic separation.

The only meaningful difference between NUC boards and "server grade hardware" is ECC memory support - Intel NUC boards are actually designed for 100% uptime embedded uses, then thrown in a plastic case.

 

You're implication of "real" business is bogus.  Even if the only employees are myself and 2 part-time assistants; it makes money and pays the bills.  If I had 20 employees it wouldn't make any fundamental difference - just would need more storage space.

Its your choice, do what you feel is best. I will admit that I am not an expert on NUC systems, if some exist with Thunderbolt, then great, I stand corrected on that count.

 

I firmly stand behind all of my other statements. Not because what you purpose can't work, but because so many major issues can come up from what you suggest. Honest question, would you like me to help you see some of those issues or do you not really care what I have to say? No point in me wasting my time typing if your mind is already set. For your sake, I truly hope it all works out. I have seen companies go out of business due to catastrophic data loss when they thought their IT guy's "creative" solution had them covered. I hope that isn't you.

[kidroc666]

I would love to hear more if you don't mind!!