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  • MrCommunistGen - Tuesday, May 17, 2016 - link

    Sweet! Glad to see this update be released as well as a publicized update to the state of the union on the Skylake NUCs.

    Ganesh, any chance you might attach a link to this Pipeline post in the original NUC review to at least partially amend the relatively bad rap the Skylake NUC got in the initial review?

    If I were in the market for a NUC this'd be great news overall for the platform. As is, my next SFF machine will need to do 4K60.
  • ganeshts - Tuesday, May 17, 2016 - link

    Done! Update posted at the end of the original review: http://www.anandtech.com/show/10121/intel-nuc6i5sy...
  • MrCommunistGen - Tuesday, May 17, 2016 - link

    Thanks!

    I feel that in a lot of cases, updates significantly past the release date of a product (for better or for worse) often get lost in the shuffle and can result in a lot of uncertainty to the casual reader who doesn't follow the issues closely.
  • Dreamwalker - Wednesday, May 18, 2016 - link

    Its 2016, not 2015;)
    "Update (May 17, 2015): "
  • cygnus1 - Tuesday, May 17, 2016 - link

    Improved electrical overstress protection in the voltage regulator circuitry - this was the reason for BSODs with WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR reports.


    I read on one of the Intel forum threads that if you're getting these BSOD's, you're hardware is basically already toast and to send it in to Intel. That sucks that a firmware voltage setting problem was able to kill good hardware.
  • hojnikb - Tuesday, May 17, 2016 - link

    even chinese x86 boxes dont have that many bugs.

    pretty sad of intel
  • Flunk - Tuesday, May 17, 2016 - link

    Sure they do, they just don't fix them.
  • hojnikb - Wednesday, May 18, 2016 - link

    Believe it or not, they do. I have a noname z3735f box and as far as i'm aware it gor atleast two bios updates.
  • ikjadoon - Tuesday, May 17, 2016 - link

    What's up with "top of the food chain" companies like Intel and Microsoft releasing iffy hardware? First the Surface Book had BSODs and sleep issues, then Intel had BSODs and RAM incompatibility.

    Aren't these *just* the companies who you would think could get BSODs out of the way on launch day?

    I don't get how BSODs are still a thing in 2016 on new hardware. Feel like I've been transported back to the early 2000s with Vista.
  • cm2187 - Wednesday, May 18, 2016 - link

    You are giving a lot of credit to these companies. I heard the head of the Windows division had already been fired by the time he walked up on stage to introduce Windows 8. Microsoft knew it was a piece of shit, the OEM warned them repeatdly but they went ahead with the launch anyway. It is very common with large organisations where no one really owns anything (and at the end of the day really gives a shit), are moving extremely slowly, and where it is very common for senior management to get intoxicated with the fume of their own bullshit!
  • damianrobertjones - Wednesday, May 18, 2016 - link

    Yet millions of people liked Windows 8. MS stated that they were taking a risk and I'm glad that they did.
  • abhaxus - Wednesday, May 18, 2016 - link

    Also glad that they took the risk. The original launch of Win8 was not ideal of course, but it was stable and a massive improvement over Windows 7 at multimonitor. It taught me to stop using the start menu and rely on universal search. Glad they released it.

    Always thought it was disappointing that smart people bitched about the start button missing when the hot corners were superior in almost every way. Right clicking the corner in Win8/8.1 is quite a bit better than the start menu for power users. imo.
  • TheinsanegamerN - Wednesday, May 18, 2016 - link

    You make like them, but most people would agree that the hot corners were great...on tablets. on desktop, they were a waste of resources, and took much longer than just goint to the start menu. Same with search, it was faster just to search from the start menu.
  • zodiacfml - Wednesday, May 18, 2016 - link

    True. Windows 8 was awful. It was fine though after Windows 8.1 Update 1, which I prefer than this W10. It will probably the same time frame for W10 to get some polish.
  • damianrobertjones - Wednesday, May 18, 2016 - link

    Intel... Anything from intel, that's new, has pretty poor drivers.
  • zodiacfml - Wednesday, May 18, 2016 - link

    It's because the product is built by a small team.
  • yuhong - Tuesday, May 17, 2016 - link

    I wonder if all SK Hynix chips have this problem and if not which ones does.
  • raf77 - Tuesday, May 17, 2016 - link

    Installed and tested the firmware... Does not seem to have fixed the bandwidth on the SM951. It still looks like it is running OPT2
  • ganeshts - Wednesday, May 18, 2016 - link

    Have you tried the Recovery BIOS update method (using the jumpers) ? Intel tells me that the BIOS will install and function without doing the Recovery BIOS update, but it will not make the changes needed for the OPI link rate fix as the required changes are not in the portions of BIOS that are replaced during a normal BIOS update. After the update, it is also necessary to set BIOS system defaults by pressing the F9 function key.
  • ganeshts - Wednesday, May 18, 2016 - link

    FWIW, I tested out the beta BIOS and used the recovery method to get the new OPI link rate.
  • raf77 - Wednesday, May 18, 2016 - link

    Hmm I need to look into it. It would be nice if they documented it.
  • raf77 - Wednesday, May 18, 2016 - link

    Indeed, The BIOS needs to be updated in recovery mode for the OPI to get updated. It works now.
  • scan80269 - Thursday, May 19, 2016 - link

    There's a way to get the new OPI link rate without the need to open the box and move the BIOS configuration jumper: invoke "Power Button Menu Update" (below is from Intel's BIOS update readme):

    1. Download and save the Recovery BIOS (.BIO) file to a portable USB device.
    2. Plug the USB device into a USB port of the Intel NUC when it is turned off (not in Hibernate or Sleep mode).
    3. Press and hold down the power button. The system emits three short beeps from the PC speaker. You can plug headphones into the front panel audio jack, if available on your Intel NUC, to hear the beeps.
    4. After the beeps, release the power button before the 4-second shutdown override.
    5. The Power Button Menu displays. Options on the menu can vary, depending on the Intel NUC model.
    6. You can do a normal BIOS update by pressing F7 or a BIOS Recovery by pressing F4.
    7. Wait 2-5 minutes for the update to complete.
    8. The computer either turns off when the recovery process is completed, or it prompts you to turn it off.
    9. Remove the USB device.
    10. Restart the computer.

    I went through this and confirmed the OPI link rate having increased, as my SM951 SSD sequential 64.0 read speed (from "WinSAT disk") went from ~1650MB/s to ~2500MB/s.
  • hubick - Wednesday, May 18, 2016 - link

    I just bought one of these and then immediately returned it when bios 0042 wouldn't give me the option to encrypt the 950 Pro (someone else on the Intel forum also reported having this problem, do you guys?), the Club 3D miniDP to HDMI 2.0 adapter wouldn't let me run at 4K@60hz (only 30), and I had all kinds of graphics lockups/resets on my fresh Fedora 23 install :-(
  • mackanory - Wednesday, May 18, 2016 - link

    It's good to see these issues being resolved - glad I've delayed getting one of these but might consider the i5 model now. However, will you be reviewing the Skull Canyon i7 variant that's just been launched?
  • ganeshts - Wednesday, May 18, 2016 - link

    Yes, we have the unit in for review. All things going well, the review should go out early next week.
  • damianrobertjones - Wednesday, May 18, 2016 - link

    Would be amazing to see how it performs with an external GPU unit!
  • ganeshts - Wednesday, May 18, 2016 - link

    Unfortunately, we don't have an external GPU chassis in hand to use in the review. The gaming benchmarks are going to concentrate on how it compares against PCs in this form factor from previous generations (including dGPU systems like the ZOTAC Magnus EN970).

    On the Thunderbolt front, we are planning to focus on Thunderbolt networking.
  • TheinsanegamerN - Wednesday, May 18, 2016 - link

    Will you be testing linux performance in games as well, or just windows?

    Intel GPUs and linux games seem to play pretty well together.
  • ganeshts - Wednesday, May 18, 2016 - link

    Windows only.

    I would love to test out Linux gaming perf, but time constraints and my pending review queue dictate otherwise :|

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