All vExperts who signed up at the right time received a NUC as a gift to help them out with Home Labbing and their career, and definitely, this NUC will pass the wife’s approval factor.
Corey and Eric, needed to go the extra mile to make it happen, and Cohesity sponsored the gift. Thank you all.
The NUC supports 64 GB RAM (2x 32GB), CPU Celeron J6412 (4 Core and 4 Threads), and SATA m.2 or SATA Drive. It is passive cooling and only takes power 10W. NUC made by Maxtang, specializes in industrial computers, motherboards, and embedded solutions. Meaning the NUC is intended for outdoor usage and could get hot easily with indoor usage. (Many vExperts notice the NUC gets hot at room temperature without any usage.)
- CPU: Intel Elkhart Lake J6412 Processor
- Memory: Dual Channel SO-DIMM DDR4 up to 32GB
- Display via: Intel Integrated Graphics display via 2xHDMI2.0
- I/O Ports: 2xLAN, 2xUSB3.2, 2xUSB2.0, Type-C, SIM
- Ethernet: 10/100/1000Mbps
- Storage: 1x M.2 2242/2280 SSD, SATA optional
- Power: 12V DC-in
At the moment, I do not have the money to buy RAM for the NUC, or time to test out the NUC. My 1st priority is to max out my current Home LAB servers before everything gets very expensive.
RAM I would buy (2x Crucial RAM 32GB DDR4 3200MHz CL22 (or 2933MHz or 2666MHz) Laptop Memory CT32G4SFD832A)
I have two scenarios where I will use the NUC.
1) My Flat and Home Lab power monitoring server, where I run ESXi 8 and Schneider Data Center Expert.
2) When I get so far and start doing Home Lab Guidance sessions and demos about Home Labbing for my company people or other events. Opening people’s eyes to the fact that you don’t need expensive power-hungry servers at home to do a Home Labbing and run ESXi. You can use a small NUC like this and do a lot with this.
I do not plan to buy m.2 SATA SSD, but I would use a USB to SATA adapter or USB nvme encloser with this NUC.
If you need a VMware ESXi license and software for your Home LAB, you have options
- Become vExpert
- VMUG Advantage member and use code vandu for 10% off
Thank you Corey, Eric and Cohesity!