1. Our Lab Server INTEL NUC - Specifications

After scrutinizing multiple vendors in the market and with an help from my senior and very good friend, I have chosen to purchase Intel NUC(NUC10i7FNH3) which seemed to fit my requirement of having enough of resources to run virtual machines for my lab till carrying the server where ever I want. NUC is mobile which obviously means very very minimal heat dissipation, less burden on your pocket for electricity bill and noise which my wife always complained with the earlier rack server I had.

Note : A vendor(Alfaitein Middle East LLC) from UAE-Dubai helped me in purchasing this server.

Our Intel NUC has the following configuration

Processor             -   Intel i7-10710U Processor (12M Cache, up to 4.70 GHz)

Total Cores           -               6

Total Threads        -              12

Processor Base Frequency     1.10GHz

Memory Size        -               64 GB

Memory Types      -               DDR4-2666 1.2V SO-DIMM

Max # of DIMMs   -               2 , we have 2*32GB DIMMS

NVME SSD           -               1TB

SATA SSD            -               2TB

Note : You can always get a bare bone and assemble it yourself to choose configuration to be assembled by the vendors. I have chosen to get the server assembled by the vendor and thorough testing before shipping the same.

Other configuration regarding the details can be found from the below link from Intel

https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/188813/intel-nuc-10-performance-mini-pc-nuc10i7fnhaa.html 

And below is how our server looks like and it is very portable with an overall weight of not more than 1 KG

Front View

Rear View

And below is how my workstation looks like with Laptop,Monitor and the complete setup and the little one hiding there asking for not more space 

Let us have a look at how we can install ESXi on our Intel NUC in our next blog