@martin-brennan Your NUC has a Thunderbolt 3 input, so you should be able to connect an eGPU case to it and plug a GPU into the case.

I personally have a NUC10 with a Razer Core X and an Nvidia 3000 Series GPU.

The problem with NUCs is that they will get very hot under load (95-100°C). So it's probably not a good idea to let it run for 8 hours overnight to calculate a movie on the CPU.

It might by a good idea to reduce the power consumption in the UEFI. Of course, then it will run slower. I put my NUC in an Akasa Turning FX Case (be aware, this case is only compatible with NUC10 not 8) because the fan noise was extremely loud and reduced the power consumption down to 25 watts.

@martin-brennan

Hi Martin.

Looking at the Specs page (assuming this is your model NUC) it should run, but 'well' may be definitive of expectations and overall use of file types, resolutions, applied effects etc.

Curiously according to that specs page it should have come with a 2TB Optane drive, not a 1TB drive. They are a very sort after drive since Intel stopped making them and command premium second hand prices. If the NUC had a previous owner they may have replaced it and sold the original drive for the additional profit. I honestly don't know but it seems odd.

According to this page the processor should have an inboard Intel Iris plus graphics chip. (again if I have the correct model number). which should have this specification.

I agree with @SP. It's going to get hot.

Ray.

thanks for the very helpful comments. so encoding 30-60m clips should not really be a problem for it?

@martin-brennan It depends. Which video codec and resolution are you going to use?

@martin-brennan It depends. Which video codec and resolution are you going to use?

thanks, I'm not really looking at anything beyond 1920 and mp4

@martin-brennan

Assuming I have got the correct specs for your machine and the SDD presents no problems then the only problem could be one of keeping an eye on the temperatures. It is difficult to say with any certainty but if the CPU does have that Iris Plus Graphics 655 chip then the specs for that are close to my Intel HD630 chip. In some specs it seems slightly better and it is newer so difficult to tell. Also it is paired with a newer but less cored CPU chip and I have no way of knowing how that effects results as the processor itself will also be doing a lot of work.

GPU comparison

To see how my copy of MEP 2022 faired with only using the Intel GPU I set Windows Graphics to Power Saving HD 630 and selected only the Intel GPU in the program Import / Processing / Export settings and checked it was not using my nvidia card in Task Manager. Then I set OBS studio to only use the nvidia card while recording me playing and then exporting a 4K 25 fps project with a few jpegs thrown in and some basic text.

Even with quite good cooling the maximum CPU recorded temp during export was 60℃ and chipset 50℃. Motherboard was around 37℃. The project played back OK. Export for the just under 12 minute project took just over 17½ minutes.

While that is not a definitive test as my processor is not a mobile processor and has 8 cores and I am using a separate drive for the program to run on while another drive for the project to be read from and a third drive to write to, so your results may well be slower and playback not as smooth (or not). Also you may have an advantage of having an earlier version of MEP which should not be as component hungry.

Ray.