SimplyNUC Onyx v9 Internal Hardware Overview
Many who purchase their first NUCs do not know this, but the top pops off. If you want to get to the motherboard and clean the cooler, this is a step you can take. Most users, however, will never open this side of the chassis.
The bottom cover is removed via four screws. SimplyNUC uses a retention mechanism so they do not just fly out and stay with the cover. That is a great little touch of quality we do not see on so many mini PCs.
That top cover has a surprise. There is a 2.5″ drive bay to add a HDD or, realistically these days, a SSD. It is integrated near the SSD heatsink on this cover, but that adds a cable to carry SATA data and power connections. We wish the system had a second M.2 storage slot instead of a SATA slot since that is more useful in 2023-2024.
By removing the cover and the cable, we can see the fully assembled system. SimplyNUC sent us the system with a 256GB Kingston PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD and two DDR5-5600 DIMMs running at DDR5-5200 speeds. These days, with similar-class 2TB NVMe SSDs running at around $95-120, we would skip the 256GB SSD capacity point.
Pulling those components out, we can see more of a barebones views of the slots in this system.
Something that we were not expecting was an Intel Killer AX1675x NIC, which is basically a WiFi 6E and Bluetooth NIC like the Intel AX210.
The ports onboard, like the SATA port, are labeled. Labeling is a minor feature, but it is another one that distinguishes higher-quality mini PCs from lower-cost ones. Overall, this is a very NUC-like build.
Next, let us see how it translates to performance.
You’re right. I’m not sure $999 with those specs and expensive upgrades is good pricing. So I don’t see them targeting consumers
Quick question on the footer of the NUC’s – are the screws connected to the base with metal fasteners (a spring loaded clip)? I really appreciate that there options for a vesa mount but I am limited / unable to mount it as the screws are immovable from the original base so they are not lost.