"Portable" gaming: NUC or laptop?

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I'm a truck driver these days gee, how'd y'all guess?, I've got a 40" 1080p TV in my sleeper, and I'm trying to decide if I want to get a gaming laptop, or a NUC to plug into the TV as a monitor, again for gaming and movies.

I get the portability of a laptop, but I just do not carry it around or into places, I will only use it in the sleeper, mostly with the TV.

The NUC is attractive because it's really small, and I can take it home & use it on the TV there (55" 1080p), and replace my ancient desktop (i7 1366 xeon hexcore, RX580-8GB vidcard, 12GB RAM) when I'm home.

Amazon has a NUC for right at $600 barebones that's got the Vega integrated chipset and processor, which most reviews show it's pretty good at gaming. It'll be far better than the desktop I have now, for sure.

Appreciate the advice, in advance, of course. Thanks y'all.
 
Does it have to be prebuilt? You can build some pretty decent form factor computers now with better graphics for what it would cost for a laptop. Just my opinion though. I'm not too familiar with Vega benchmarks. I'm not a huge fan of onboard.
 
I second the small form factor build with discrete graphics card over the NUC or laptop for your situation. A $600 intel nuc is not going to have the graphical horsepower anywhere near your RX580. You would have to shoot for the Hades Canyon nuc for any kind of quality gaming performance at 1080p.
 
SFF is an issue in the sleeper of a big rig, because space is at a premium. Not to mention the power supplied by the inverter isn't the greatest. Unless said SFF is small as in the vicinity of the NUC.
IMG_20190721_010029.jpg
 
The Zotac Magnus series may be worth looking into. I wouldn't buy into the Skull Trail NUC for gaming. Hades Canyon NUC is a much better gaming experience vs the Skull Trail NUC. But given your space and power constraints, if it was Skull Trail NUC or nothing, I would take the Skull Trail NUC. I may be wrong but I just don't see a $600 NUC gaming any where near a 1366 hexcore and RX580. I personally wouldn't buy a NUC for gaming unless it's a Hades Canyon.
 
Skull Trail NUC? Lol I think not. This is Skull Trail:
intel_skulltrail_part_i___d5400xs_birdseye.jpg


OP, I would suggest a gaming laptop for a few reasons:
1. Laptop has a built in power smoother (aka battery)
2. Laptops are engineered for being portable. A moving vehicle has all kinds of bumps and vibrations going on which can rattle a tower heatsink right off an itx board for example. It is possible to have a vibration tolerant SFF, but most reviewers dont test that sort of thing...
3. Second screen

And a question: what do you use for Internet? Mobile broadband? I know most truck stops have wifi, but...public wifi...
 
I'd go with a SFF myself, however I don't know much about what sort of power restrictions there are in semi-tractors. I'd guess a SFF built with sipping power in mind would fit the bill, but am only guessing. I imagine the nerds in the SFF section would be able to help you out in that regard.

I was thinking a Phanteks Shift-style case underneath the tv (it's more a vertical than horizontal case), or perhaps a Node 202/RVZ-style case placed vertically underneath the TV (or bunk if there's space beneath it).

I'm not a big fan of gaming laptops, I had one myself and found it quickly felt long in the tooth, and upgrade options are usually limited (no idea how the external GPU upgrades are faring).

As far as vibrations knocking off heatsinks... maybe? I haven't heard of that before. I've read about guys taking their itx systems on business trips and whatnot (snuggled in their luggage or carry on during flights) and I imagine those scenarios would have a lot of vibrations - but can't recall anyone complaining of loose heatsinks.
 
I second the small form factor build with discrete graphics card over the NUC or laptop for your situation. A $600 intel nuc is not going to have the graphical horsepower anywhere near your RX580. You would have to shoot for the Hades Canyon nuc for any kind of quality gaming performance at 1080p.

The Hades Canyon NUC8i7HVK was $597 on Prime Day, if you managed to pick one up, it's a $600 nuc that's fine for 1080p gaming.
 
The Hades Canyon NUC8i7HVK was $597 on Prime Day, if you managed to pick one up, it's a $600 nuc that's fine for 1080p gaming.
This is the one I'm looking at on Amazon. Everything I've seen & read shows it's very good at 1080p gaming, and the processor is well beyond that xeon in my desktop, not to mention the architecture (the desktop is X58, fer cripe's sake! I built it in 2009). Plus, coupled with an M.2 SSD as boot, and a standard SSD in the slot, it should be pretty vibration resistant.
 
Skull Trail NUC? Lol I think not. This is Skull Trail:
View attachment 175528

OP, I would suggest a gaming laptop for a few reasons:
1. Laptop has a built in power smoother (aka battery)
2. Laptops are engineered for being portable. A moving vehicle has all kinds of bumps and vibrations going on which can rattle a tower heatsink right off an itx board for example. It is possible to have a vibration tolerant SFF, but most reviewers dont test that sort of thing...
3. Second screen

And a question: what do you use for Internet? Mobile broadband? I know most truck stops have wifi, but...public wifi...
Hence why I was leaning toward the NUC: similar architecture to a laptop, but even more portable/hideable. I've used a laptop before, a few years ago (does my Sony Vaio 505g actually count as a laptop?_SONY505.gif
)
...and it wasn't the greatest experience, I just don't like a laptop on my lap when I'm gaming. I know, I'm wierd. Plus, the one I had had nVidia graphics alongside the Intel shitset, and whenever I plugged into the TV, the damned laptop would run the Intel graphics, I could never get past that.
 
This is the one I'm looking at on Amazon. Everything I've seen & read shows it's very good at 1080p gaming, and the processor is well beyond that xeon in my desktop, not to mention the architecture (the desktop is X58, fer cripe's sake! I built it in 2009). Plus, coupled with an M.2 SSD as boot, and a standard SSD in the slot, it should be pretty vibration resistant.

Yeah, it's a great little desktop. But if you haven't already ordered it, it's not $600 anymore and when it comes back in stock, it probably won't go back to that price.
 
Skull Trail NUC? Lol I think not. This is Skull Trail:
View attachment 175528

OP, I would suggest a gaming laptop for a few reasons:
1. Laptop has a built in power smoother (aka battery)
2. Laptops are engineered for being portable. A moving vehicle has all kinds of bumps and vibrations going on which can rattle a tower heatsink right off an itx board for example. It is possible to have a vibration tolerant SFF, but most reviewers dont test that sort of thing...
3. Second screen

And a question: what do you use for Internet? Mobile broadband? I know most truck stops have wifi, but...public wifi...
Oops, forgot to answer the wifi question : mobile broadband, using one of the devices (phone or tablet) as a hotspot. Truck stop, rest stop, etc wifi usually blows serious chunks, even with a VPN.
 
Skyreach 4 Mini?

Interesting... I could use the existing bid card, would need new MB/proc/ram... I would have to be very careful with vibration, tho. Likely create a vibration-absorbing mount for it.

Another nice thing with the NUC: light enough to mount to the back of the TV & not adversely affect the swingarm.
 
Yeah, it's a great little desktop. But if you haven't already ordered it, it's not $600 anymore and when it comes back in stock, it probably won't go back to that price.
I couldn't pull the trigger right now, the price was right for me, but the 12 month financing offer on the Amazon card didn't work, so I have to wait a couple months to get the money together. :-(
 
I'd go with a SFF myself, however I don't know much about what sort of power restrictions there are in semi-tractors. I'd guess a SFF built with sipping power in mind would fit the bill, but am only guessing. I imagine the nerds in the SFF section would be able to help you out in that regard.

I was thinking a Phanteks Shift-style case underneath the tv (it's more a vertical than horizontal case), or perhaps a Node 202/RVZ-style case placed vertically underneath the TV (or bunk if there's space beneath it).

I'm not a big fan of gaming laptops, I had one myself and found it quickly felt long in the tooth, and upgrade options are usually limited (no idea how the external GPU upgrades are faring).

As far as vibrations knocking off heatsinks... maybe? I haven't heard of that before. I've read about guys taking their itx systems on business trips and whatnot (snuggled in their luggage or carry on during flights) and I imagine those scenarios would have a lot of vibrations - but can't recall anyone complaining of loose heatsinks.
Heat sinks vibrating off aren't exactly an issue, unless it's a tower, which would neento be secured; but the connections themselves can vibrate loose, and the PCI connections can be problematic, too.

Given how hard those rigs can move in certain situations, I could see how cards and components could go flying, if not solidly secured.
 
I would recommend a notebook with a TB3 port. A NUC is not going to give you much in terms of upgradability over a gaming notebook and you can get a gaming notebook with a GTX 1060 for ~$700 nowadays.
 
I have a Hades Canyon NUC and it does well in 1080p gaming. I bought the 65w TDP version and it often stays under 50w at full load.

The major caveat is the lack of upgradability..
 
I have a Hades Canyon NUC and it does well in 1080p gaming. I bought the 65w TDP version and it often stays under 50w at full load.

The major caveat is the lack of upgradability..

That's the million dollar question: what is upgradeable out there that could fit the bill??
 
Find a laptop that uses MXM GPUs since that's what will hold you back first.
 
I would recommend a notebook with a TB3 port. A NUC is not going to give you much in terms of upgradability over a gaming notebook and you can get a gaming notebook with a GTX 1060 for ~$700 nowadays.

This.

I tend to recommend against gaming laptops when users expect to move them around a lot or expect the cheap ones to have decent anything (display / trackpad / keyboard / speakers / etc), but you're unlikely to get an acceptable level of performance into a small space any cheaper.

Just try to balance cost vs. cooling vs. reliability and note that you still cannot get both auto-GPU switching between integrated and discrete along with VRR at the same time, so if you want VRR on the outputs with a discrete GPU, make sure that someone's tested that. Might have to leave the discrete GPU permanently enabled / disable the integrated GPU, but I'm doubtful that would matter for your application.
 
In spite of the risk of having rocks thrown at me, there is another option that could play games and movies: a gaming console. PS4 and Xbone are running pretty cheap nowadays.
 
In spite of the risk of having rocks thrown at me, there is another option that could play games and movies: a gaming console. PS4 and Xbone are running pretty cheap nowadays.

Sure, and for the purpose, even recommended if the games desired are available. That last part is the trick.
 
Interesting... I could use the existing bid card, would need new MB/proc/ram... I would have to be very careful with vibration, tho. Likely create a vibration-absorbing mount for it.

Another nice thing with the NUC: light enough to mount to the back of the TV & not adversely affect the swingarm.

Yeah you'd definitely want something to absorb the vibration, but it would be the most powerful, flexible, upgrade able option.
 
Build a nice mini ITX rig. You will get a LOT more performance out of it and the size isn't that much bigger with the right case.
 
Just watched this yesterday, and now y'all got me rethinking this. I guess I better head over to the SFF forum & hit up the nerds over there.

 
Amazon has a NUC for right at $600 barebones that's got the Vega integrated chipset and processor, which most reviews show it's pretty good at gaming. It'll be far better than the desktop I have now, for sure.

huh? That thing gets trounced by an rx580
 
Just watched this yesterday, and now y'all got me rethinking this. I guess I better head over to the SFF forum & hit up the nerds over there.


SFF.

All price brackets, choice of parts, upgradable, cooler running.

Edt: I just noticed this thread is a few weeks old, any updates on your decision OP?
 
Last edited:
SFF.

All price brackets, choice of parts, upgradable, cooler running.

Edt: I just noticed this thread is a few weeks old, any updates on your decision OP?
Yup, pulled the trigger on a Hades Canyon setup, jrobdog here decided to sell his 65w version, fully kitted out, for $600, and I'm quite pleased with it:
 

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