[HN Gopher] Intel NUC P14E Laptop Element Features Intel NUC 11 ...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Intel NUC P14E Laptop Element Features Intel NUC 11 Compute Element
        
       Author : zdw
       Score  : 61 points
       Date   : 2021-09-07 18:11 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.cnx-software.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.cnx-software.com)
        
       | clipradiowallet wrote:
       | Does anyone see a product to buy on this page? As I click through
       | the models, all I see are "pricing unavailable" for the laptop
       | kits.
        
         | OldHand2018 wrote:
         | With enough clicking, I got to this page [1] which lists a
         | 5-pack of the laptop elements for $674.10 - I am not an expert,
         | but that seems like you get 5 for $674.10 and not $674.10 each.
         | Of course, you have to add your compute element and the SSD. Am
         | I reading this right?
         | 
         | [1]
         | https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/212650/...
        
         | pengaru wrote:
         | It says it's for "channel partners", so they're probably
         | looking to sell in bulk to resellers, maybe vendors like
         | System76 who don't make the laptops they sell.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | intricatedetail wrote:
       | Why do they bother with this repackaged vintage technology? Intel
       | should focus on new products, that could compete with M1 and
       | Ryzen, instead they waste time on another generation of the same
       | old underwhelming tech.
        
       | jvanderbot wrote:
       | I love my NUC Extreme compute element for my gaming rig. It
       | performs extremely well, and my whole rig is the size of two full
       | size graphics cards side by side, so it'd fit into a shoe box.
       | 
       | The board is also very customizable -- I can scale down to ~3.0
       | ghz x8 for nearly silent operation, or up to ~4.5 Ghz before
       | thermal throttling takes over. Plenty of timing, voltage, and
       | thermal options. On a more spacious case with better circulation,
       | I'm sure it'd go higher.
       | 
       | I got this case for it: https://www.newegg.com/white-cooler-
       | master-mastercase-nc100-... but my experience with coolermaster
       | customer support was not great.
        
         | Agingcoder wrote:
         | This sounds very interesting. I've been looking for a
         | reasonably powerful, yet compact and silent gaming rig for a
         | while (not too far from a mac mini size-wise) . I had ignored
         | the nucs assuming they'd be too compact and therefore very
         | noisy.
         | 
         | What kind of gpu did you put in it?
        
           | jvanderbot wrote:
           | I've scraped by with an older GPU for now. I'll probably get
           | a geforce 3xxx when hell freezes over.
        
       | FootballMuse wrote:
       | It would be amazing to replace the battery and get an upgraded
       | Cumpute Element every few years while reusing the same basic
       | hardware.
       | 
       | CPUs tend to get tied +/- 1 or 2 chipset generations, but given
       | that this uses a PCIe interface, it may actually be plausible.
        
         | sneak wrote:
         | Then we can be stuck with the same low-res <200ppi screen for
         | many years to come!
         | 
         | (My personal pet peeve is the stagnation of pixel density in
         | displays outside of Apple hardware and phones.)
         | 
         | What's wrong with replacing the display and keyboard? They're
         | the cheapest parts of the computer.
         | 
         | (I think the compute module includes the chipset, too, given
         | that it includes the ram and wifi. It probably exposes pci to
         | the laptop which is at that point just a bunch of peripherals.)
        
           | ltbarcly3 wrote:
           | My Thinkpad T490 has 210ppi and it's nothing special. Runs
           | Debian like a champ (I am addicted to TrackPoint so I'm stuck
           | with Lenovo these days). The picture quality on this laptop
           | is far superior (contrast, color saturation, black levels) to
           | my 16" MBP (the LCD panel on the 16" MBP is _shameful_ , it
           | is the worst Apple display I've had in 15 years. If you
           | calibrate it so that colors aren't washed out it is so dark
           | it's impossible to use. If it wasn't a work laptop I would
           | sell it, but luckily I have a good external 4k monitor).
           | 
           | So I call shinanigans on what you are saying here.
           | 
           | That said, I'm staying with the T490 because the best
           | generation AMD thinkpads aren't available with high
           | resolution panels yet, so I will grant you that you have to
           | be patient to get a good laptop display. OTOH, you are wrong
           | about retina displays, they aren't uniformly good so you have
           | to be selective there as well.
        
       | MisterTea wrote:
       | Removable CPU modules make no sense for a laptop. I do want a
       | more serviceable laptop but I want that accomplished via an open
       | form factor. Modules just limit the thermal performance and take
       | up valuable interior volume that could be better filled with a
       | bigger battery, discreet GPU, or more useful ports.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | 1-6 wrote:
         | The article is showcasing a laptop that already has delivered
         | on your request. Interior volume is optimized onto a single
         | board. You no longer have various headers on the motherboard
         | because of that. You can easily put a heatsink/thermal pipe on
         | too.
         | 
         | Laptops are perfect for this type of application. We have yet
         | to be able to modularize smartphones in a way that will satisfy
         | our current idea of form-factor but that will be coming too.
        
           | MisterTea wrote:
           | > Interior volume is optimized onto a single board. You no
           | longer have various headers on the motherboard because of
           | that.
           | 
           | The module must plug into the motherboard via a set of card
           | edge connectors so that statement is not true. Those
           | connectors consume board space.
           | 
           | To be clear, I don't dislike this idea. I just don't see the
           | need to split the motherboard in two to allow easily swapping
           | a part that 99% of users don't need to swap often, if ever.
        
             | tcbawo wrote:
             | I imagine that a huge percentage of laptop failures come
             | from physical damage to the screen, hinges, keyboard, or
             | battery. It would be nice to be able to swap the body out
             | and be able to reuse the existing core components
        
               | rvense wrote:
               | Or vice versa. Think about how many fully functional
               | keyboards, screens and laptop cases are tossed because
               | someone wants a slightly faster CPU.
               | 
               | I like the idea of a SoM in a laptop shell, but TBH it
               | doesn't look like this laptop shell (as a MBP knockoff)
               | will be particularly repairable.
        
       | kop316 wrote:
       | It's hard to tell, but it looks like the laptop is effectively a
       | shell for a compute element that can go in a NUC too.
       | 
       | It's a neat idea, and I recall there being a push for an open
       | source device that was a computer in a PCMCIA card
       | https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68/micro-desktop which
       | unfortunately looks like it hasn't been updated in a while.
        
         | chaz6 wrote:
         | Intel actually made a compute card [1] but I have not seen
         | anything that uses it.
         | 
         | [1] https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/compute-
         | card/compute...
        
       | codezero wrote:
       | This looks neat as a laptop, but I worry how much I'd care to use
       | a laptop that doesn't have S3 suspend - is this still the case
       | for all Tiger Lake CPUs, or am I misunderstanding? Also, I guess
       | I'm curious just how bad lacking S3 suspend is, are there
       | workarounds? Does it end up working fine in Windows for
       | "reasons"? It's my understanding that Linux drivers aren't yet
       | able to work around the lack of S3, but again, I could be
       | misinformed!
       | 
       | edit:
       | 
       | I assume this is not really available/details are off, but
       | looking at the comparison page for the 15 inch laptops, it says
       | they are recommended to be priced around $1500 and include
       | discrete RTX 3070 graphics cards... I find that unlikely, but if
       | it's true I'd definitely buy one :)
       | 
       | https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/compare.htm...
        
         | my123 wrote:
         | S0ix is the replacement, which allows for connected standby.
         | 
         | (see https://01.org/blogs/qwang59/2020/linux-s0ix-
         | troubleshooting)
         | 
         | Connected standby has been the norm on mobile since ages, quite
         | popular in laptops now and is making its way to desktops.
         | 
         | The OEM cannot both provide S0ix and S3 suspend at the same
         | time though. (togglable through UEFI firmware options on some
         | systems, but that's getting rare)
        
           | zozbot234 wrote:
           | S0ix is a pretty clear regression compared to plain S3
           | suspend, it drains more power in pretty much any OS. People
           | can try to make it work a bit better at the OS/kernel level,
           | but it will never be as good.
        
             | emptysongglass wrote:
             | It's really not that bad. Saying this as someone with a
             | ThinkPad Nano running Fedora 34. I really don't notice a
             | difference.
        
             | akvadrako wrote:
             | What makes you say that? My laptop can switch between S3
             | (for Linux) and S0ix (for Windows). I've measured power
             | usage and it's almost identical.
        
         | MisterTea wrote:
         | Why are you averse to turning off you computer?
         | 
         | I understand saving state but I never let my workflow depend on
         | program execution state. Power on, log in, do work, sip coffee,
         | browse net, finish work, shutdown computer. I like to keep
         | things simple.
        
           | codezero wrote:
           | Frankly, I've become VERY accustomed to quickly closing my
           | lid and expecting to open it later with about the same
           | battery life and whatever I was working on sitting there
           | waiting. Apple has set a standard that I think in the year
           | 2021 is totally reasonable to expect from a laptop. The
           | concept of power management isn't one, I, as an end user,
           | think I should have to worry about any more.
        
             | birdman3131 wrote:
             | With the speed of modern nvme drives I would much rather
             | hibernate than sleep. The ability to know you can come back
             | in a week to the same amount of battery is way better than
             | saving a couple seconds off resuming from sleep.
        
               | djrogers wrote:
               | > The ability to know you can come back in a week to the
               | same amount of battery
               | 
               | That's pretty much the modern MacBook experience. And I
               | don't care if it suspends, hibernates or serruptitiously
               | crawls over to a power outlet in the middle of the night
               | to recharge, I as an end user should _never_ need to
               | think about such things.
               | 
               | Close lid. Wait hours or days. Open Lid. Work.
               | 
               | I like to keep things simple too.
        
               | codezero wrote:
               | Coming from the Apple side of things: I don't care what
               | you call it, I just want to close my laptop, then open it
               | and get on with working, and Apple seems to do this
               | really well.
        
           | evilduck wrote:
           | I'm on a MBP where I pretty much only reboot for system and
           | security updates and my workflow is the same as yours but two
           | steps shorter. I basically never need to power on or power
           | off. From my perspective it seems to me that you're adding
           | steps and complexity. What does power cycling provide that
           | I'm missing?
        
       | karmicthreat wrote:
       | This would be a bit more interesting at about half the price. I
       | could think of some fantastic applications at that point.
        
       | jeffbee wrote:
       | It's sort of interesting but also sort of very impractical. As a
       | buyer the _only_ thing you should care about inside a laptop is
       | the effectiveness of the thermal design. The ability to remove
       | heat from the CPU decides whether your laptop is fast or slow,
       | over a range that is much, much larger than the generation-to-
       | generation improvement in CPU speed. A ThinkPad X1 with an 8th-
       | generation Core CPU is going to outperform a Asus ZenBook with an
       | 11th-generation CPU. So when I look at this replaceable computer
       | on a stick, it just makes me wonder how hostile it is to proper
       | mechanical engineering.
        
       | rbanffy wrote:
       | I'm not sure I like this. It's a laptop, but if 2 years from now
       | I want to upgrade its CPU, will there be a compute module that
       | fits? It's matches the expandability of a MacBook with the beauty
       | of a Dell Vostro - not a hugely attractive proposition.
       | 
       | Good you can make it faster, if Intel decides to make a
       | compatible module in the future.
        
       | georgewsinger wrote:
       | Simula's portable Linux VR headset is also planning on including
       | an Intel NUC 11 Compute Element: www.simulavr.com
       | 
       | The modularity of Intel NUCs is nice. We'll be able to offer a
       | seamless upgrade to Alder Lake when it arrives.
        
       | krasin wrote:
       | Modular laptops are neat, but trying to fit a NUC into a laptop
       | feels a lot less reasonable than the approach taken by the
       | frame.work laptop.
        
         | heresie-dabord wrote:
         | Previous discussion about the Frame laptop:
         | 
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27926425
        
       | PostThisTooFast wrote:
       | The guy's experience with shitty drivers reflects what people
       | have been saying in reviews of NUCs for years. They appear to
       | suck.
        
       | ocdtrekkie wrote:
       | So this is a rehash of the Intel Compute Card:
       | https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-compute-card-bad-ide...
       | 
       | The problem here is the Compute Card was killed before one could
       | meaningfully upgrade the internals of hardware using it. What
       | commitment is there Intel won't do the same for the NUC Compute
       | Element?
       | 
       | Putting the NUC brand on it doesn't change that you need a
       | commitment to the form factor for people to buy into it.
        
         | blacksmith_tb wrote:
         | I suppose the idea is that if the element board is used in
         | multiple product lines (this laptop, and desktop NUCs as well)
         | Intel is less likely to kill it suddenly?
        
           | soneil wrote:
           | I don't think putting it in a NUC gives it the groundswell it
           | sounds like. There's no reason the 12th gen couldn't have a
           | processor on a dinky motherboard just like every generation
           | before it.
           | 
           | What the compute element really needs is a solid commitment.
           | If they can promise me the next 3 generations will be drop-in
           | compatible, there's value to it. If all we get is "in theory
           | the next generation could be drop-in compatible, but Intel's
           | track record says otherwise", less so. very much less so.
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2021-09-08 23:01 UTC)