UncleNUC collects used Intel NUCs and refurbishes them. “Dead” NUCs are examined and brought back to life where possible.

Working NUCs are at times sold on eBay or donated to educators use to benefit their students.

• May 2024 - Advanced lab entitled Kubernetes App Lab remastered and re-released
• May 2024 - VirtualBox Linux Lab remastered and re-released
• May 2024 - Basic lab entitled FAH Folding on Ubuntu Server released
• May 2024 - Original Stack of NUCs lab remastered and re-released

• February 2024 - VMware ESXi free is no longer available (https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2107518?lang=en_US) - need to explore XCP-ng as a replacement
• February 2024 - Advanced lab entitled Kubernetes App Lab released!
  • super-automation with a two-tier web application on Kubernetes and Virtual box using Ansible
• January 16, 2024 Technical and Warranty Support for Intel's NUC 7 through NUC 13 systems has transitioned to Asus. (Intel) (Asus)
• January 2024 - New Lab entitled VirtualBox Linux Lab released
• April 2023 - Lab entitled “Stack of NUCs” released

This site contains UncleNUC's process to clean, recondition and repair Item NUC computers.

• Enter the UncleNUC Lab
• Find handy links to NUC resources
• Notes on Refurbishing NUCs

You will find some non-NUC miniature PC projects

This site will not tell you how to repair your NUC. The procedures provided are provided without warranty of any kind.

Important: I have tried using mSATA video cards and different means to solve the “no video” problem. To date, I don't have a solution to this issue. This seems to be the #1 NUC killer I have seen, so if you have a solution to rescue NUCs with no video, please share with the community.

You can help UncleNUC give NUCs a new life.

• Don't throw NUCs in the trash– responsibly recycle NUCs or sell even non-working NUCs on eBay
• On this site Amazon and eBay affiliate links are provided. Purchasing items using these links helps support UncleNUC
• Contribute tips via this wiki or by emailing UncleNUC
• Donate to UncleNUC
• Purchase NUCs on eBay and give them a new life
  • Use them or give them to a friend
  • Refurbish and release (clean, install missing components, add missing power supply)
  • Perform electronics repair on NUCs (replacing CPU fans, power jacks, etc.)

• Build Your First PC Lab
• Home Entertainment
  • Home Theater PC (HTPC) Home Theater PC
    • (link) (LibreELEC)
    • Media server (https://ubuntu.com/appliance/plex/intel-nuc)
    • Audio server (Roon Core)
• Gaming
  • Small LAN Party server
  • Portable PC game console
• General use
  • PC in compact space (Mount NUC on back of monitor using VESA mount)
  • Basic office PC (NUCs work great with Windows 10)
  • Backup server
  • NAS
  • Monitoring server
  • Proxmox server for virtualizing projects
• Maker
  • Combine with Adafruit FT232H to do GPIO projects similar to a Raspberry Pi
  • Home automation server
  • Digital signage adapter to the home (photos, weather, power utilization, home automation)
• Advanced
  • ESXi server Broadcom no longer provides a free ESXi version (check out virten.net)
  • OBS streaming workstation
  • Some NUCs have 2 network interfaces and thus can be firewalls
  • Network testing PC - test a network connection or firewall performance
  • Add a second NIC via an Ethernet USB adapter and use as a Security Onion device for low-volume networks
  • Open source PBX server
  • Remote access jump box or Guacamole server

Follow my NUC Lab project! See what I'm doing with a literal stack of NUCs.

• Stack of NUCs Lab
  • Hands-on exercise in automatic server building, Ansible, and Kuberetes