Intel 8i7BEH 8th Gen NUC + Akasa Plato X8 Fanless PC Build

fallinlight

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For years, I wanted to downsize from my Fractal Design R4 mid tower PC to a HTPC + general purpose PC. I finally have with the Intel 8i7 8th Gen NUC inside a fanless Akasa Plato X8. I love this PC.

Parts

Intel 8i7BEH 8th Gen NUC
Akasa Plato X8 from Quiet PC
Crucial CT2K8G4SFD824A DDR4 2 x 8 GB SO-DIMM
Samsung 970 Evo M.2 250 GB
Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut

A negative and warning for new builders

Intel provided the wrong instructions for preparing the chip set and marrying them to the case. They used the same instructions from the X7, which are incorrect. The X7s raised platform for the chipset, is uneven, and requires thermal pad(s) to be used on the right side to level the chip set out to have proper contact between case and chip set. However, the X8 platform is level and only requires thermal paste alone or pads alone, to be used.

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Not thinking, I followed the instructions. Fortunately, I only realised afterwards from re-treading an X7 build online. And I was also curious about the CPU temperature, thinking it could or should be a bit lower and less sporadic, build and paste being new and fresh withstanding. And so, it then occurred to me that it was incorrect. So, I had to re-do the entire installation, which was very time consuming, but a learning process at the same time.

Build

Disassembling the 8i7 NUC is very easy with a little guidance from a build for the X7 online, so I won’t go into detail with this. But here are some photos of the disassembly.

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The fan comes off easily, and then finally, the heatsink beneath.

The X8 is a beautiful piece of design and hardware, solid, heavy, a deeper black than some other cases and it looks and feels built to last. One great aspect is that the main section of the case is essentially fully sealed. UPDATE 21/04/19: I opened it up a few week's later and not a trace of dust was inside or on the components. It is a lot larger in reality than you might expect, but I was prepared for this. The X8 a very low profile though, which is lovely.

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However, I was sad to find the following blemishes: There are some scratches to the base of the case, most likely from the metal tips of the extension leads rattling around inside the case. I think Intel should protect the lead ends with something and tie all the wires together to prevent this. There are also a couple of minute chips to the casing throughout.

The space is quite cramped so care and patience should be taken when performing the installation. Two gripes I have are:

1. The USB 3.1 extension leads are set OOB so that they are the wrong way around be default. You have to twist them 360 degrees aggressively in order for them to plug in. It does not feel great doing that, and feels unpleasant since the leads are also overlong for the 8i7/ not sure about the i3 and i5. But it's fine once you have twisted them and they are in place. Poor design by Intel.

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2. The HD audio jack sits in the most awkward position for the extension lead to plug in, since the light bar is in the way. There is only one way I found to fit it, which is as below. You have to wrap it beneath and around the light bar and light bar pole. This might have been the only way for Intel to have this, but once in, it’s absolutely fine and looks clean.

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Thinking I needed to use pads either side of the CPU, I felt slightly careless, but it probably could not be helped (crushing) anyway. The stock thermal pads a very thin – perhaps 0.5 mm by guess – and thus, crushed a bit taking them off. And I ended up getting them messed with Kryonaut. They definitely could not be used, and it is best to use new pads once the old ones have been handled, anyway. Slight moment of panic as I did not have any spare, and would have loved to use some Thermal Grizzly pads. But I managed to use what looked like the same make pad, from the NUC SSD thermal pad. I cut some to a roughly similar thickness and size using a surgical knife. This was very tricky as I was not working at a desk and I ended up cutting the entire piece with attempts for the best pieces. In the end, this was all wasted, after I realised I just needed to use my Kryonaut for all the chips.

With my OCD, I would never be happy with not doing a clean job, though it is a very delicate and intricate job working with such tiny chips. It came out looking very clean and proper.

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Installing the MOBO is much easier than I thought, though you will need some patience and a careful hand to get the washer for each screw onto each standoff hole, as the space is so cramped. Was quite fun though. The worst one is the bottom left (facing from right side of the case) as the power supply socket is in the way.

I think you can get away with leaving your RAM in the whole time, if you are that lazy but the SSD needs to come out if you are re-installing Wi Fi and or Bluetooth antennas, since they connect below the SSD.

I needed to keep my Wi Fi and Bluetooth for sure, so ended up safely ripping out the old NUC case antennas to use. I thought they would be soldered in, as I read of people asking where to purchase new antennas for similar builds and NUCs. I purchased some new antennas from Amazon, as I had intended to originally use them, but for the life of me, I could not get them to fit, despite them apparently being the correct size. Note: You will need the MF4H (smaller) size. I used black electrical tape to neatly tape them to the top side of the case, it looks very nice and you can hardly see it in certain lighting conditions.

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I realised afterward why the case has rear holes for external antennas and why I have only seen other similar builds use external antennas; the aluminium lid really kills the Wi Fi and Bluetooth connections. I dropped from around 100 Mbps download to around 10 – 25 Mbps and a full 3 line signal to 2 lines. As soon as I pop the lid off, my speed and connection goes back up strong. I get by OK for now, but it is not ideal. So, I am planning to either install a pair of rear antennas, which I have already, when I find a pair of wires that do fit the Wi Fi board. Or, make an acrylic lid – a passion project I had started when I wanted to make a clear top window for my PS4 Pro. This time it will be much simpler.

The front blue LED is extremely bright and might jar some. In my home cinema environment, this is a no, but it will be less of a problem when inside my new AV rack at the back of my room. I can always mask it with some electrical tape, too.

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Another gripe is that all the rear ports apart from the HDMI, do not align properly with the case port holes. The worst is the thunderbolt port and I don't have a lead to see if it fits safely or not. This is despite trying various methods of repositioning the MOBO when screwing it in place. The misalignment reflects slightly in the feel of how they fit in, but I don't think there is any real affect to operation.

When I get my new AV rack it will sit lovingly with my other gear at the back of my room.
I had several worrying, random handshake issues for the first 3 nights, after realising I had only updated the BIOS. You can get the full update pack from the Intel website. But you will need to execute each individual application – always a good feeling. So, hopefully the handshake was just due to missing/ old drivers. Everything has thus far been stable.

Value and size

The entire PC cost me around the same as what I paid for my near 10 year old PC, and is far more powerful and I don't even know much smaller, but either the size of the palm of your hand if you are keeping it inside the stock case, around the size of a 4 in/ out audio interface, or, very close to a Lenovo Thinkcentre M73: By the manufacturer's specifications, the X8 is 6.3 cm longer in width, 5.8 cm longer in depth and 2.65 cm shorter in height. Amazing.

Performance

I have not run any benchmarks yet so cannot comment on graphics, CPU and memory performance. But I have a boot time of about 22 seconds, which feels too long. I need to check the BIOS and Samsung Magician settings again. The operating system is as snappy as you would expect but I still get choppy video and audio/ video sync issues playing 4K HDR in Cyberlink Power DVD, possibly a software and or certification standards issue. It's fine if playing the film from the beginning, but once I skip through it, it messes up as above and from there it is a lucky draw to get it to a point where it plays fine again. I imagine this little beast will make light work rendering large music files and tons of plug ins at a time.

Noise

The NUCs fan I found very jarring. The smaller you build a fan and the smaller the enclosure, the more likely the noise and unnerving frequencies - the fan would often sporadically rev up like a tiny jet, for no reason I can think of, when simply browsing the internet. It also revved up a little when transferring files to USB or installing software. I had passing thoughts about applying some Kryonaut to help the issue, but that was soon a thought long gone.

The X8 saved the day. Being fan and thus, noise free is very, very liberating, too. If you have sensitive ears and very good hearing like I do, you will certainly appreciate this. It is ideal for quiet working conditions in an office or for music production, which I intend to get back to - I had built my Fractal Design R4 PC with music production as the priority at the time - but this of course, takes the cake. And even when playing a film, having even the slightest bit of fan noise absent, is just great.

Temperatures

The Kryonaut has clearly proven great results, first time using it. In my warm room with a hot radiator on, with normal desktop and internet use with a few HD
YouTube videos open, I have fabulous CPU temps for an i7, of around:

Temperatures using CAM:
On boot, first 30 minutes or so: 24 c
After 1 hour or so: 30 - 34 c
2 hours +: 36 - 37 c

To think this is without a fan, is just super cool. Temps are even better since first built 4 nights ago. This should improve further.

Remotes and IR

I have tested two remotes so far with the IR but have not found one yet and managed to get it to do what I want, which is turn on from off, as well as send my PC to sleep, and shut down. I’m fine with my wireless mouse and keyboard for the most part anyway, as this is my general purpose, main PC, which also doubles as my HTPC.

Other things to note

You loose the NUCs SD card function, unless it is possible to mod the X8. I forget the location of the SD card chip, but perhaps there is a workaround. You also loose the microphone function, unless you purchase new wires that run the correct length for the X8s left and right microphone holes. These are either side at the face of the case. The mics would come in handy for me for the odd video call, but this will soon be in my AV rack at the back of my room.

I’m looking extremely forward now to adding an SSD drive + external storage for my full and main film file BR disc rips and hopefully some of my UHDs, too.

I hope my write up has helped someone do the same or similar build. Despite some minor gripes with the quality control of the case, I highly recommend the 8i7 NUC and Plato X8.
 
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Update 12/04/2019

I lost all audio waking up my PC from sleep this morning. I had accidentally hit the sleep shortcut on my keyboard and then again, a few seconds afterwards. My projector was missing from audio devices and troubleshooting did not help. Restarting my computer fixed the problem and my projector was again showing. Hopefully, this is not a recurring issue.
 
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Nice build!

What kind of thermal performance do you get if you run prime95 torture test for 1 h?

Will the cpu be throttled or is the cooling capacity enough?

Thanks for the nice post!
 
Cheers, @magin846.

What kind of thermal performance do you get if you run prime95 torture test for 1 h?

Not tried that, can do so and let you know.

Will the cpu be throttled or is the cooling capacity enough?

Perhaps the prior, I imagine. This is fanless, remember. But won't know till I try.

Now that the weather has turned, since I first built it and posted those initial temperatures, I just checked and the CPU is currently at 38 - 40 c. It's been on all day and my room is the hottest in the heat/ warm weather. So, I am very happy with that, I think that is still superb.

You are very welcome, I am glad someone replied.
 
@magin846, I tried running some Metroid Prime on Dolphin earlier today and got away with 5.1 and Atmos upmixed from the 5.1, plus 4x native 1440p, per-pixel lighting, anistropic filtering 16x and 16:9. This was at 120" diagonal screen size. Did not have the FPS counter running but it was smooth. I just realised I did not set the backend, so going to try again with Direct3D and Vulkan. Should be able to hit 4K plus smoother FPS now. Going to try the 3D, too.

Pretty nuts, the above. I remember my old PC would never be able to run the above off my i5 3570k. Off the top of my head, I remember having to use a 980 ti at the time, to get such performance on my ultrawide monitor.
 
Thanks for the reply. Please run the test. I am trying to decide between the Akasa Plato X8 or the Cirrus 7 Nimbini, with the 28W i7 in both cases.

Cirrus are generous with posting their numbers, but I have not seen any numbers for the Akasa Plato X8 with the 28W i7.

My Mainframe is a Fanless solution with an i7-8700 in a Streacom DB4, with the additional CPU-cooling kit, which I would say is necessary considering that the CPU runs about 115W flat out. I can really recommend the DB4, but it is much bigger than a Akasa or Cirrus solution.

Once you go Fanless and passively cooled, you never go back. ;-)
 
You're welcome.

Will test later or tomorrow if I have time.

The Cirrus looks nice, but no black, all my AV is black in my home cinema. Will keep an eye on it, though.

Once you go Fanless and passively cooled, you never go back. ;-)

Absolutely!
 
No, not yet, sorry. Will post back when I do.
 
Think I will get the Akasa Turing now its official (can't find anywhere to buy yet) my older dual core i5 NUC could get warm in my Newton case and did read someone stating issues with the i7 quad in the Plato X8 case.

Akasa Thermal Solution

I'm fine with the larger size for cooler operation. Wish they had increased the internal space for 15mm 2.5" drives instead of just the 9.5mm ones (to put my 5TB 2.5" internally).

Will be fitting my NUC8I5BEH in this case. I use mine purely headless with 512GB m2 for OS, 2TB internal, 13TB via USB drives and 32GB RAM. Just used for Plex, downloads & music server (Roon). Total power load idling with drives in standby is only 17w (only 7w without external powered drives!)

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Negative comments I read on the Plato X8. 80C still too hot for my liking & can be transcoding 4K movies in Plex to remote connection so CPU does hit peak power for a sustained time and standard Intel case can hit 100C.

Sampo
February 26, 2019 at 19:50
Just got this, unfortunately the i5 overheats. Not sure what’s the point of this case then.

Reply
  • bf7d6ad73b1c11660971685a0d8ee230
    Ploin F
    February 28, 2019 at 23:12
    How warm does it get?

    Reply
    • 2bb5b68c6e64453c6ddb7aca09ef5f45
      Sampo
      March 1, 2019 at 09:20
      About 100 celcius, after that the system will shut down. This is with sustained ~28w load when playing some videos with mpc-hc and madvr. Possibly this case is more suitable for 20-25w sustained loads. I will test it a bit more before returning it.

      But even the stock case will be practically silent with custom fan profile if TDP is limited to about 20W. Temperature will hower around 90 degrees with this approach.

      I’m using the Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut thermal paste and have also undervolted both gpu&cpu.

      Reply
      • 2bb5b68c6e64453c6ddb7aca09ef5f45
        Sampo
        March 1, 2019 at 17:15
        It seems I might have made some mistake during the build. I applied the thermal paste again and made sure that the screws are tightly fastened. Now I get around 80c temps with 30-35w load.

        Reply
      • f620f4647fb816073c9152a284245e64
        Me
        March 1, 2019 at 17:15
        Very disappointing(
        Now it is clear why they built much bigger Turing case for this new Bean Canyon NUC.
        But it’s looks too big for NUC, I would rather build passive cooled PC in Streacom FC8 Alpha case with 35-65W desktop CPU.
 
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did read someone stating issues with the i7 quad in the Plato X8 case.

Good evening, @psikey. What are the issues you read about the i7 in the X8? Since sorting out my leads and drivers, I haven't had any issues for about 2 weeks. Everything is stable and sound.

I'm fine with the larger size for cooler operation.

On a colder day like today, I get a stable 34 degrees after running general browsing duties, 1 to 2 hours from boot up.

Wish they had increased the internal space for 15mm 2.5" drives instead of just the 9.5mm ones (to put my 5TB 2.5" internally).

Yes, totally agree with you. I still have my 4TB Barracuda with tons of (some of) my BR rips.

Nonetheless, I have no need for the Turing, the Plato X8 is the perfect size and shape for my AV cabinet. But I do love the design and shape of the Turing.

Will be fitting my NUC8I5BEH in this case. I use mine purely headless with 512GB m2 for OS, 2TB internal, 13TB via USB drives and 32GB RAM.

Lovely. Yeah, I thought about maxing out storage via USB drives, they are so cheap now. Then I can go for a 2TB internal, too. As a 4TB, which I would love, is still dear.

Just used for Plex, downloads & music server (Roon). Total power load idling with drives in standby is only 17w (only 7w without external powered drives!)

Yes, the power loads of these things are amazing. Certainly helps me in my cinema room, where I am running a big 4K projector and a plethora of speakers (previously 9 + sub, but will be 13 soon in a 13.2.4 configuration) and AV gear.

I thought about streaming but I don't think my network can handle it. I'm a physical media guy anyway. Picking out a film from the case in my library and placing it into my player is all part of the ceremony. But I want to keep as many BR and UHDs ripped as possible, too.

Negative comments I read on the Plato X8. 80C still too hot for my liking & can be transcoding 4K movies in Plex to remote connection so CPU does hit peak power for a sustained time and standard Intel case can hit 100C.

What??!! I do not understand this. Again, my temperatures are very low, lower than my old Fractal R4, i5 3rd gen. 34 C after a couple hours. No trouble playing 4K HDR films. I also played some Dolphin with quite high settings with 40 - 50 FPS.
 
Streacom FC8 Alpha case

Just had a look at this. Did not know about this one, I would have probably gone for this for my home theatre. I have use for the optical drive and the size would be perfect for my AV rack/ cabinet.I might purchase it.
 
I do prefer the look of the Plato X8.

Any chance you could run Prime95 (64bit) for ~ 30 mins and see what max temperature CPU hits and then stabilises at? (using CPUID HWMonitor or other utility)

http://www.mersenne.org/ftp_root/gimps/p95v294b8.win64.zip

Yes, I can do this now. Which settings shall I choose? Blend (tests some of everything, lots of RAM used)?

I have CAM to measure the CPU temperature.
 
I just use default normally, whatever maxes out the CPU for an extended period to see if any CPU throttling due to temperature & max temp. HW Monitor good for showing all component temps.

Does Akasa case get hot to the touch? I know my Newton case would get really warm with just the dual core i5
 
Also, did you buy external antenna and the 20cm U.fl/IPEX to Bulkhead RP-SMA Pigtails for wireless & BT ? If so, which ones.
 
I just use default normally, whatever maxes out the CPU for an extended period to see if any CPU throttling due to temperature & max temp. HW Monitor good for showing all component temps.

Thank you, I left it on blend, then. That was the default/ what it was on when the application opened up.

About 15 minutes in, CPU is about 74 c min/ 86 max under max load. I will never do anything with my PC that stresses it like this, though. I guess these readings are normal? And heavy users want better? Is there anything else to look out for?

Also, did you buy external antenna and the 20cm U.fl/IPEX to Bulkhead RP-SMA Pigtails for wireless & BT ? If so, which ones.

I purchased some MHF4 pigtails but was unaware of the different types at the time and ended up getting the wrong SMA Female ones (10 cm). I think I have the correct antennas already though. Going to purchase a pair of RP-SMA later. Getting 10 cm again.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07GZN5GBF/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A3EDVZIJLWZ11I&psc=1

Be careful with some, as at first I purchased some in built MHF4 antennas, and I could not get them to fit the Wi Fi card at all. They are defunct anyway after realising I need external antennas to get a proper signal and after using the NUC case antennas for the interim. It currently only gives a working signal which isn't too shabby considering the aluminium case, in one area of my room, which must be over my router downstairs.
 
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HW Monitor Pro just stopped responding and closed. I recorded the stress test and it saved some logs. I have not time do start it again just yet, sorry.

All the worker tabs (are these the 8 cores?) say passed.
 
Does Akasa case get hot to the touch? I know my Newton case would get really warm with just the dual core i5

No, it barely gets warm. I just felt it after the test and it is very warm but not quite hot and I can safely leave my hand on the top of the case, firmly pressed without damage to my hand. Like a radiator on a medium setting, perhaps.

I currently have my Plato X8 on a spare Atacama Nexus 5i stand on the supplied good chunky rubber speaker stand feet. Only because I can't put it on my AV rack just yet, at the back of my room, not till I install the pigtails. Air flow around the case is top.
 
Thank you, I left it on blend, then. That was the default/ what it was on when the application opened up.

About 15 minutes in, CPU is about 74 c min/ 86 max under max load. I will never do anything with my PC that stresses it like this, though. I guess these readings are normal? And heavy users want better? Is there anything else to look out for?

Based on my experience if your seeing 74/86c after only 15 mins it will hit 90's after 1 hour. When transcoding say a 50-80GB 4K UHD rip to a remote player over internet at anything from 720p to 1080p (typically 10Mbps internet) the i5 quad can be hitting 90% CPU constant for a single stream (I upgraded from the dual core I5 NUC to the quad core i5 as it couldn't handle the demand).

Think I will have to stick with the Akasa Turing case. Will likely get even hotter still once the internal GPU adds support (if testing with the like of Heaven benchmark) . Thanks for testing.

After a hour with CPU at or near max you will likely find case getting uncomfortable to touch if you used your NUC as a high-end Plex server with 4K media transcoding.
 
Based on my experience if your seeing 74/86c after only 15 mins it will hit 90's after 1 hour. When transcoding say a 50-80GB 4K UHD rip to a remote player over internet at anything from 720p to 1080p (typically 10Mbps internet) the i5 quad can be hitting 90% CPU constant for a single stream (I upgraded from the dual core I5 NUC to the quad core i5 as it couldn't handle the demand).

Think I will have to stick with the Akasa Turing case. Will likely get even hotter still once the internal GPU adds support (if testing with the like of Heaven benchmark) . Thanks for testing.

After a hour with CPU at or near max you will likely find case getting uncomfortable to touch if you used your NUC as a high-end Plex server with 4K media transcoding.

You are welcome. I'm not streaming so all good for me. I didn't have trouble playing a 4K HDR file for some screen and sound tests multiple times. I am sure the FC8 Alpha case would be an improvement though, and sufficient enough for me. But still very happy with the Plato X8.
 
I didn't have trouble playing a 4K HDR file for some screen and sound tests multiple times.

If your only playing movies at home to the likes of smartTV's or other kit with built-in plex or media servers then they will play files without the need for transcoding which even a lowly old i3 NUC could easily handle if your on good home network (gigabit wired or high-speed wi-fi).

Family can be watching stuff from my server remotely (son at uni, best mate at his house & brother-in-law at his house) over my 50/20mbps internet. That could lead to 3 simultaneous transcodes to downsize my media files to each (normally anywhere from 3mbps 720p to say 12mbps 1080p transcodes). If the source file is a 4K rip it can be a big load on the NUC.

If your not streaming, why go for the i7 ? It will have a higher power usage (I also like to keep this to a minimum).

I'm obviously pushing the little NUC hard on occasion.
 
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I also have a high-end QNAP NAS with Xenon QUAD CPU and 3 x 12TB WD Gold drives but that uses ~50w idling so I just use that as a backup now (off most of the time) and as mentioned the NUC setup only uses 17w idling with my 13TB of external drives (only 7w without external drives).
 

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