Intel NUC Kit NUC5i3RYK (Core i3-5010U) Review

Performance Analysis

Performance-wise, the Core i3-5010U put in some impressive numbers in the image editing test, coming close to matching its Ivy Bridge-based Core i5 predecessor and it wasn't far off doing the same for the Haswell equivalent, the Core i5-4250U too. There's still a long way between it and a modern desktop Core i3, with a Core i3-4130 posting a score of 1,774 compared to just 1,181 for the new NUC. However this is also significantly faster than the 835 scored but the older Core i3-3217U and it's also more rapid than AMD's latest APUs such as the A10-7850K and indeed its budget-focussed desktop parts such as the FX-8350 too - not bad for a 17W TDP CPU.

While it does sport Hyper-threading, the four or more physical cores of the AMD CPUs and APUs on test saw them leave the Core i3-5010U in their dust, as did the Intel Pentium G3258 and Core i3-4130. Clearly if video encoding is something you'll be doing a lot of, you'll need to weigh up the advantages of the NUC5i3RYK in terms of power consumption and size, versus it's shortcomings in multi-threaded applications.


Overall, its score of 1,207 was a sizable chunk faster than the Core i3-3217U and again very close to the 1,247 scored by the Core i5-3427U so Intel has made clear gains here with the Broadwell-based Core i3 giving previous generation Core i5's a run for their money. It went one better in the game tests, where it pipped the Haswell Core i5 by a couple of frame per second at 1,280 x 720 in Left 4 Dead 2 while also managing a playable frame rate at 1,680 x 1,050 too. It's not ideal as a gaming system by any means, but it's certainly able to handle modest 3D tasks, offering up to 50 per cent of the performance of older AMD APUs such as the A10-5800K.

Power consumption was another strong area for the NUC5i3RYK - we measured just 9W at idle but more importantly, just over 15W under load - 9W less than the Core i5-4250U-based Intel NUC D54250WYK and 12W less than the Intel NUC D33217CK sporting a Core i3-3217U. If the desktop counterparts of the new Broadwell CPU offer this amount of efficiency then things could get very interesting later this year.

We were limited in our ability to compare the storage performance as there's just a single M.2 port and no mSATA ports as with previous NUCs while the OS also had to be installed on the drive. However, with an Intel 530-series M.2 SSD installed, we measured a read speed of 518MB/sec and a read speed of 485MB/sec.

Conclusion

With a price tag of £234, the NUC5i3RYK kit isn't likely to leave you much change from £300 once you've factored in an M.2 SSD and memory. However, the Core i3 proved to be a match for previous generation Core i5-based NUCs in many of our tests and coupled with the ultra-low power draw, the NUC5i3RYK makes for a compelling small, quiet and power-frugal PC.

We've already heard rumours that a Core i7 version is likely to appear at some point but even this Core i3 model offers enough grunt for most tasks - even basic 3D gaming at sub 1080p resolutions. Our only niggles are the fact that it doesn't use standard HDMI or DisplayPort connectors. We also highly recommend paying the EFI a visit and lowering the fan duty cycle and also don't forget that desktop Pentium and Core i3 CPUs offer much better bang per buck. If minimal size and power consumption are your main goals, though, the NUC5i3RYK kit is definitely for you.