Use a NUC 9 Extreme to Stream from Your PC within a PC

Peter_Brosdahl

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Image: Intel

Intel has debuted it's newest NUC mini PC line at CES this year. From the NUC 9 Extreme to NUC 10 series they are attracting attention for how much power they pack into such small packages. We reported on the NUC 10 recently here. Do not overlook NUC 9 Extreme either as PCGamesN has reported on an interesting option for users wishing to stream.

  • CPU options: 9th Gen Core i5, i7, i9 Xeon
  • Ram: Up to 64 GB DDR4 2400Mhz or 32 GB DDR4 2600Mhz, 2 x SODIMM Modules
  • GPU: Intel UHD Graphics 630
  • Storage: 2x M.2 PCIe x4 NVMe SSD slots
  • Connectivity: i219-LM and i210-AT LAN, WiFi 6, Bluetooth, HDMI 2.0a
  • Ports: 4 x USB 3.1 Gen2, 2 x Thunderbolt 3
  • S/PDIF out via TOSLINK
You can place the compute unit within a PC and attach it to a spare PCIe slot. Then power it thru a standard 8 pin power cable. The unit will not communicate with the external PC but allow you to contain a powerful streaming solution inside the main rig.

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Image: Intel

They spoke with Intel Product line manager, Faisal Habib, who stated they've actually tried this at Intel and seen it work. He also said they're using 45w CPU's overclocked to 65w for these.
 
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never mind I realized I got my product threads crossed
 
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"The unit will not communicate with the external PC but allow you to contain a powerful streaming solution inside the main rig. "

So really it's just housing it and providing power? A computer, inside a computer, but they don't talk to each other internally? Um.... why do we want this again?
 
Burticus said:
"The unit will not communicate with the external PC but allow you to contain a powerful streaming solution inside the main rig. "

So really it's just housing it and providing power? A computer, inside a computer, but they don't talk to each other internally? Um.... why do we want this again?
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might be marketable to competitive gaming streamers .. maybe ..

Parasite PC™ .. the host PC is going to see it though and would want to load some kind of driver for it.. so it would be like a hardware VM I suppose... You'd want to control it via some remote desktop software of your choosing so you didn't have to mess with a KVM or another keyboard and mouse setup right in your way.

If host PC gets infected, it would stand to reason that this parasite pc would also be able to get infected .. and vice/versa. .. maybe
 
ThreeDee said:
the host PC is going to see it though and would want to load some kind of driver for it..
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It's possible that it may just load a generic driver of some sort.

ThreeDee said:
might be marketable to competitive gaming streamers .. maybe ..
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Pretty much the take that PCGamesN had.

ThreeDee said:
If host PC gets infected, it would stand to reason that this parasite pc would also be able to get infected .. and vice/versa. .. maybe
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Too true.
 
ThreeDee said:
If host PC gets infected, it would stand to reason that this parasite pc would also be able to get infected .. and vice/versa. .. maybe
Click to expand...

Only if they share data in some way or there is actual communication between the two. If the host is just powering it via the PCIe slot and an 8-pin power cable, then this isn't necessarily the case.
 
Looks a lot like the old Orange PC cards for Mac -> Windows
 
I think if your a streamer getting a high end ryzen CPU like a 3900x or 3950x would probably be as good for streaming then getting this. Isn't that part of the marketing of the high end ryzens. Game + Stream with no compromises?
 
With the latest Ryzen's I know a few streamers that are going back to single PC setups. Dual PC works, but requires capture cards and a lot of other complications that can go wrong.

I don't see this taking off.

I stream and game from my PC at 6000 bit medium setting. No issues. A 3900 or 3950 would be icing on the already delicious cake.
 
If the host pc can't communicate over pci-e that lowers the value proposition further. I'm struggling to think of a reason it's worth buying unfortunately.
 
I don't believe that most people would actually do this. I find it more interesting in that over the years we've seen GPU's reach insane amounts of processsing power, ram, and physical size to the point they rival some of the builds they can go in. We've also had some "PC's on a stick" that have popped up here and there. With this we actually have a full blown PC on a card. For me, it's more of a "Well whadda ya know?" kind of thing.
 
And this also is confusing. If there is no communication with the host PC, then you still need a capture card for the stream PC. How do you install a capture card? Serious streamers use PCIe capture cards since the USB ones introduce some latency.
 
Riccochet said:
And this also is confusing. If there is no communication with the host PC, then you still need a capture card for the stream PC. How do you install a capture card? Serious streamers use PCIe capture cards since the USB ones introduce some latency.
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Good question. I think the statement from Intel may not be complete. Could be that the NUC is able to see the host but not vice versa.

from PCGamesN, ". . .but the available ports out of the rear of the Compute Element would make it a worthy streaming PC for high quality encoding or capture card surrogate. "

Sounds like the host is seeing it as some kind of display card and sending display data directly to it for processing like a GPU.
 
I could see it being cool if it’s in just a backplane / case; then you get plug and play upgrades almost like a macro version of a SOC - but not as some sort of second computer inside a computer.
 
Brian_B said:
I could see it being cool if it’s in just a backplane / case; then you get plug and play upgrades almost like a macro version of a SOC - but not as some sort of second computer inside a computer.
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Intel and Razer agree with you. Hope you have a fat wallet.

www.theverge.com

Razer’s first desktop gaming PC is the stunning modular Tomahawk

Cooler Master will be selling a NUC Element-equipped desktop, too.
www.theverge.com www.theverge.com

www.tomshardware.com

Intel Pulls Wraps Off NUC 9 'Ghost Canyon' Extreme Kit and Compute Element

The first NUC to support discrete graphics brings a new modular computing platform.
www.tomshardware.com www.tomshardware.com
 
Zarathustra said:
...and there I was hoping that this streaming fad would die off...
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Nope. I expect any day that Apple decide to cash in with it too. Already trying to tap the school/gaming market. Ad campaign for slo-mo selfies for latest iphone. I'm sure the next thing will be a mac based streaming product. Just sayin'
 
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