Timetable of a NUC build

I've been building computers since 1992 and over the 28 years I have learned to take my time, savour the construction of a PC, debug and when I sold computers, deliver a fully functional machine to my customers, which were usually my workmates.

They called us home brewers back then.

The last project I detailed here on the blog took me around 10 days to complete, I took my time, there were certain technical challenges in placing a proprietary motherboard in another case, it was satisfying, I'll do it again, and again...

This morning, I thought I'd demonstrate the timeline of "building" a NUC. I started at 8.50am with this photo comparing the size of the NUC with the previous project case.

Another photo to show the NUC, the Kingston 240GB SSD and 4GB of DDR3L memory.

It was 9.00am and I thought I would start the build. To access the working end of the NUC there are four Phillips head screws holding the base, when opened the 2.5" hard drive caddy is lifted away, but not detached, to show the innards. This model of NUC came with a single 2GB stick of DDR3L memory, which I replaced with 2 pieces (matched) of 2GB DDR3L for a total of 4GB - interestingly I bought this memory from eBay and it was originally from a Macbook Pro Mid 2012 Laptop, total price including shipping was C$20.

It was a little fiddly to install the memory, mainly as I have big sausage fingers and the eyesight of Mister Magoo. The only difference I can see between this SKhynix memory for the Macbook and the PC variant is the nomenclature PB NA AA which appears to be PB NO AA for the PC. As a note, this NUC requires 1.35 Volt memory and the PC3L designation indicates that it is DDR3 memory and the lower voltage.

I took a photo of the wireless card, something I'll review later.

The memory installed, the SSD card installation was as simple as sliding it into the caddy and it clipped into place. If I'd installed a moving disk hard drive I would have secured with a couple of screws (belt and braces) but as the SSD has no moving parts the latch mechanism on the caddy is enough.

An entire five minutes had passed by as I screwed the base back on. As an ancient homebrewer I find that setting up the hardware on a NUC to be unfulfilling, although granted, I am not the target market for these "appliance" type computers.

I connected a wired keyboard, mouse and for initial setup, used the VGA graphics option. I selected F2 on startup and set the date and the time in the Intel visual BIOS, it was 9.09am. The build process had taken my big fat fingers less than ten minutes.

I played around with the various screens for about five minutes then saved the settings (it is always advisable to do this when first setting up a PC so that the BIOS is aware of the new memory and hard drive configuration) and then the machine booted into the Windows 10 Home start screens, asked for my wireless password and Microsoft account details. It was 9.23am and my NUC was complete!

Well, a little white lie there, Windows 10 will need to update a little, but I've found that process to be a lot more straightforward than it used to be, I expect the update process will take about an hour.

I will then update the NUC BIOS.