Intel NUC: Wall Mount Monitor And NUC

We initially had a bit of a puzzle as to how to mount both a monitor and the Intel NUC on the same wall mount monitor arm.

In the end the solution proved to be quite simple.

As seen above we took the stock Intel NUC mounting plate and attached it on top of the Ergotron's mounting plate using the Erogotron supplied mounting screws. The Intel supplied screws were a bit too short to pass through both mounting plates.

The finished product looks like this:

It will be used as a training station for our client. The keyboard and mouse are wireless so they can sit or stand anywhere in the area to work on the machine.

Philip Elder
Microsoft Cluster MVP
MPECS Inc.
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen ASP Project
Find out more at
Third Tier: Enterprise Solutions for Small Business

StarTech 7.1 USB External Sound Card for Intel NUC Driver Error on Windows 8.1

We set up our first Intel NUC only to discover that the device has no built-in sound outputs beyond the HDMI interface. For folks that do not have an HDMI based monitor with built-in speakers, basically 99% of our world, this is a big hang-up for the product ... and an added expense against competitors like the Lenovo Tiny.

• StarTech 7.1 USB Audio Adapter External Sound Card with SPDIF Digital Audio (ICUSBAUDIO7D)

We plugged the device into a USB port on our NUC running Windows 8.1 and it picked up immediately. Though, we had one catch: The headphone jack was not working.

The StarTech chat mechanism on their Web site was not functioning correctly so we called in and were greeted with a friendly and very helpful technician.

In the end we had to download the driver, extract it after unblocking the ZIP file, and set its Compatibility Mode to XP Service Pack 3.

After a reboot we were able to set the default output to headphones:

We can now listen to our Dubstep and other fun bouncy stuff without disturbing the neighbours. :)

NOTE: The StarTech technician indicated a Windows 8.1 compatible driver should be available at some point soon.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer