Ebay Global Shipping & Intel Nuc (1st Gen) Review

[muratremix]

Last week I noticed on Amazon.com that first gen Intel Nuc was on sale. Model is DC3217BY and it comes with Core i3-3217u. It doesn't have gigabit ethernet and it has thunderbold port so this one was the least sold model (IMHO). However, they reduced price from $299 to $160 usd so it was a great bargain.

I tried to buy it via Amazon global shipping but its not from Amazon itself, from another seller so it didn't worked out. I calculated shipito.com but never used shipito so I hesitated. Then I found it on ebay.com from a big seller named blinq. It was 166 usd, 22 usd for shipping and 24 usd for tax + import fees. In total it cost me 213.82 usd and it arrived in 6 days!

Normally, customs duty is 0% and VAT is 7% for desktop computers, which is less than 24 usd in this case. The rest is brokerage fee (200 baht processing fee of fedex perhaps?). However, I still managed to get it faster and cheaper than Amazon + Shipito combined so it was a nice deal.

This is my first time buying stuff from Ebay Global Shipping program. I had no idea how they'll send package. They give an untrackable number, which only works on Ebay website (Starting with UPAAA) and they also have a domestic tracking number, which is fedex and can be tracked from fedex or ebay.

So seller sends package with fedex to Ebay center, ebay ships to the buyer via fedex. They don't mention fedex anywhere, but I got my package via fedex this morning and it was in China yesterday so I guessed it has to be express shipping. Here is 2 screenshots for you:

I just finished setting up Intel Nuc. I removed ram from my Zotac Zbox device and removed mini pcie wireless card from Iomega iConnect usb nas device (never used it). I also used Zotac's power cable (I'll buy new ram, power cable, msata ssd and perhaps mini pcie wireless card from fortune town later). I put Openelec usb, usb receiver of mini keyboard/remote and it worked without need to adjust any bios settings.

Internal wireless card has only one antenna port and it is 150Mbit (on 40mhz) max. However it was enough to play usual 10-12gb 1080p mkv files from my Nas upstairs. I'll try it with usb 100Mbit ethernet later, which is a cheap way to add ethernet for streaming purposes. Gigabit thunderbolt ethernets sold for 30-35 usd.

I plan to use global shipping on no-duty items in future if price is right. So far, I'm both happy with shipping/price and Intel nuc itself. Finally I'll be able to use madvr on older videos thanks to HD4000 inside Core I3 cpu!

[muratremix]

Update on Nuc

I've been using it with openelec (XBMC) on 2gb usb stick for a few hours. I've noticed it runs pretty hot. Bios was old and did not let me change settings so I updated bios via usb drive (F7 bios update). Newest bios let you choose fan settings. I choose cool mode and now device runs much cooler (still not cold enough). I checked case with IR temperature meter (chinese) and it shows 37 degrees. CPU is about 70 degrees but thats within normal running parameters.

[muratremix]

Another update:

I've been using it with 60 gb kingston msata and windows 8.1 installed. With Netflix / Hulu and XBMC on Windows, it does everything I want. I played 3D bluray iso with powerdvd (windows can mount .iso files without any external program) and it worked flawlessly.

If you buy celeron nuc model, they don't support 3D bluray playback so beware.

I found 2 same model on ebay on sale.

182.99 usd for barebone + shipping + tax = 228 usd, which is much more cheaper than in Thailand. You'll also need 100-150 baht power cable, which can be found in fortune town.

To be honest, I'm considering to buy another one. I like new nuc but this one is too cheap. With 2gb ram and usb flash drive you can make a nice xbmc box if you're not into windows apps.