Power consumption.
This Intel NUC consumes about 36 watts of power (about the same as a netbook). The 24x7x365 (yearly) expected cost of running this NUC is less than $32 USD in energy costs. A 52 watt laptop will cost about $45 USD per year. And finally an old desktop computer running for year continuously will cost abut $131 USD. While there isn’t a huge saving difference in consumed electricity, there is a difference. In the scope of the my brothers project it isn’t quite as important as the dentist’s office.
Contains a standard x86 processor
While is isn’t specifically a requirement it makes it easier to use off the shelf pre bundled packages instead of having to cross compile packages for the target hardware (thinking Raspberry PI here). FOG should run on a PI because you can run linux on a PI without issue.
Uses commodity hardware
The NUC uses off the shelf common bits for add on and expansion devices. There are no special device specific memory or storage modules that only work in device x or product y. Actually I for my business project I used an 8GB memory stick from a Dell e7440 and it worked without issue. NOTE: In regards to memory you MUST purchase DDR3L (low power 1.5v) memory. I made the mistake of ordering DDR3 (5.0v) memory once and it didn’t work.
Kit of bits and bytes
The NUCs are classed as a kit computer. Intel provides the foundation hardware so you can purchase the amount of memory and disk storage you need for your project. If your project needs 2GB of ram and a 2TB hard drive you can purchase off the shelf components to meet these system requirements. Another thing to note is that the NUCs do not come with any OS license. Since we will be running FOG under linux, having a windows OEM license baked into the hardware costs of the NUCs is just a waste of money. The other hardware platforms I looked into all come with windows OEM licenses so it pushed the unit costs over the self imposed $200 limit. But conversly, if this project required a Windows OS license then having to purchase a reail license for the NUC would put the total unit cost in the same ballpark as the other hardware manufacturers offerings.
I’m not saying this is the only hardware that meets the requirements. But from a size and costing standpoint it is in line with the expectations.
I do have concerns about the NUCs. Can I deliver the image at a high enough bandwidth to the target computer to make this a viable option. My brother has to image 30 computers in 2 days and have enough time with the computers post deployment to ensure that they work as intended before the sales guys fly back to where ever they came. This is a big risk, but technically FOG should be able to lay the image onto the target computer in 6 to 8 minutes (I can do it in about 4 minutes with my production servers). Once the image is on the laptop FOG is out of the picture (in this case we will not be loading the FOG client so no interaction is needed by FOG once the image is on the computer). For the dentist office, speed is not important at all.
