Intel NUC 8 (Bean Canyon) Tiny PC Review

Lisa Gade reviews the Intel NUC8i7BEH mini PC that fits in the palm of one hand. This is the NUC 8 Bean Canyon model with 28 watt quad core Intel CPUs (Core i3, i5 and i7 available) and Intel Iris Pro 655 graphics. This tiny PC can be VESA mounted to the back of a monitor or TV, or placed on a desk. It has 2 DDR4 RAM slots, an M.2 SSD slot and a 2.5” drive bay. It’s sold both as a barebones kit (you supply the RAM, drive and OS) and as a turnkey PC with RAM, SSD and Windows 10. The NUC has Thunderbolt 3, HDMI, 4 USB-A ports, Ethernet, WiFi, Bluetooth and 3.5mm audio.

[stephenhavilland]

I'd watch Lisa just to see the latest t-shirt. Of course, we know that Lisa will always give us a thorough, objective review that sets the standard for everyone else.

[sdushdiu]

...Always a treat to be notified of a new review!

[simonguppy]

The i5 model also has 4 cores 8 threads and performs just as well as the i7 version. I own the i5.

[Psoewish]

I was just doing some research on these (and the hades canyon ones), and was like "wonder if Lisa has a video on them yet", I come look at "uploaded 19 hours ago". Talk about excellent timing! :D

[lx_srs]

These are actually great for homelab use. Great way to have an ESXi/vCenter cluster without having lots of big loud servers everywhere.

[jerrygundecker]

You very often show me things I would not have known existed without you. This is one more example, thanx, Lisa.

[richarddcrossley]

I've got the i5, 8GB, 256GB NVME and a 7200 rpm HDD linked to a Razer Core X with a rx580. Running far cry 5 for hours it does get a little hot and noisy but I love this combo has replaced my desktop PC and with the NUC on top fits in an IKEA shelf! My Mac mini with 32GB linked to HP Omen with rx580 and 1TB SSD cost a lot more but both together take up less space then old desktop. One for work and one for play/Linux. I love small form factor computers and can take either away fro very decent work performance without eGPU easily.

[KentSpain]

I use one of these as a home media server, it runs Plex for media serving and phone backup, Resilio Sync for file distribution and backup and an FTP server for remote access. I love this little guy :D If mine ever dies, I'll get another one fo-sho!

[crft-k]

NUCs are perfect corporate productivity workstations, we use some for that, especially if you have a way to distribute OS images to them more or less automatically instead of having to install Windows manually. They can handle dual screens (if you choose the right variant) and they come with VESA mounts so you can just bolt them to the back of a screen if the screen isn't already using VESA. Obviously also great for home users who don't need gaming capability. For IT staff, the ability to just grab a monitor with the PC on it and boom, you're carrying the entire workstation, is awesome. No more schlepping needlessly large computers around.

[jauffins]

I use this exact model, with 16GB RAM and a 500GB PCIe SSD, as my daily office PC and it is fantastic. Enough threads to handle virtually all workloads, more power graphics than your average iGPU, super low power consumption and fits on the back of my monitor's VESA mount.

[TheUtuber]

5:07 - The taller model provides space to mount a 2.5" drive internally. There should be no difference between the two heights from a cooling perspective since the CPU is on the top of the NUC and is cooled using the same cooling fan for both models.

[MrHsv]

I have the i3 model and it's quick.I don't game just browsing, microsoft office use mainly.I love it

[tpenn]

Always enjoy your videos. Excellent communication and very informative.

[Omizuke]

Lol loved the shirt. And also the review. Everything Lisa related is always top notch. My favorite reviewer. Always.

[brenwest]

Fabulous, concise, objective and informative review. I really like your presentation style. After watching, I spent my pennies on a NUC8

[JohnSmith-ylen]

I learned more here than on videos twice the length <. Just the right information, no more, no less.

[Godflakes]

bet she’s like the coolest grandma ever, i have no choice but to stan

[sweetdreamsDIAMND]

Really good thing for college specially, specially many colleges have bad computers for computer programming so I can plug this into the school pc monitors, and when Im home I can also use an E gpu, also for 200 more you can get the nuc 8 performance one with a 30% faster i7 even tho both are old fashioned quad cores.

[evenios]

perfect think i will invest in this with a premade kit on amazon. going to go on a trip for a few months and it just is a nice size to put in a suitcase and not be as big as a laptop and you can connect to a hotel tv with beat that!

[bgill]

Thank you for this review, it was very helpful :)