Yes I’m sure the skylake NUC will do a better job than my broadwell NUC but the question is how much better? This is the problem with being an early adopter of new tech. HEVC is fairly new and is very demanding on the CPU. In 12 months I’m sure it will be a different story as drivers and hardware matures to suit, but for now it is an issue. As 4K HDR blu ray starts to enter the market with the increased bandwidth requirements to support the visual awesomeness it carries, my little NUC is not going to cut it. To give you an idea, the playback of 4K HEVC is unwatchable… Probably putting out 4fps!

If I have learned anything from my NUC experience, it’s that there is no such thing as a free lunch. If you want serious performance you need some serious hardware. A proper mini ITX build will cost a few hundred more than a NUC but it’s modular,  upgradeable and has enough grunt for gaming as well … so I that makes it worthwhile for me. I hope you have better luck with your Skylake version though.