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Table of Contents
Build Your First PC
A NUC is the perfect choice for building your first PC. It's small, few pieces to assemble, and only requests a couple Phillips screwdrivers.
What parts will I need?
- NUC mini PC
- SO-DIM RAM
- Storage (mSATA SSD, m2 SSD, or 2.5“ SSD/hard drive depending on the model of the NUC)
- Power supply
- Optional: wifi card
New NUC
A new NUC kit comes as a bare-bones system. You will need to provide RAM and storage
Used NUC
Used NUCs purchased off eBay have often been stripped and are missing the power supply, RAM and storage. Sometimes the wifi card and even some screws are missing.
How to Assemble
There are a number of great videos to refer to:
You should also locate the model number from the bottom of the NUC (for example “BOXNUC7i3BNK”) and search for the terms NUC and that model number, and then add the keywords “user guide”. Official instructions and information about what components are compatible with your particular NUC are found there.
Connecting Your NUC
NUCs have the usual PC connections:
- Power (external power supply)
- USB (for keyboard, mouse, flash drives and other devices)
- RJ-45 ethernet port
- There are models that don't have an ethernet port
- Some models have a multigig (2.5Gbps) ethernet port
- Video
- This varies per NUC
- Some NUCs don't have full-size HDMI ports, so you may need an adapter to use a Display Port, Mini Display Port or Mini HDMI adapter
Installing Software on Your NUC
Whatever operating system you choose, the process is basically:
- create a bootable USB flash drive
- plug it in to the NUC
- start the NUC and press F10 to enter the boot menu
- select the USB flash drive as a boot option
See https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000005471/intel-nuc.html
Ubuntu Desktop
Ubuntu offers great documentation.
Windows
With Windows, a special tool for creating installation media is provided.
IMPORTANT Windows requires a product key. If you don't have a product key, you can still use the unactivated device for one month without any restrictions