Hey everyone, I've been self hosting a few things on a raspberry pi like board and wanted to upgrade to a mini PC. I got my hands on an old Intel NUC model D54250WYB but it had no memory or storage, not even an enclosure. I bought some RAM and a power supply but the SSD I was planning to use wasn't compatible (physically) and I didn't install it.

I tried powering it on but I only get a Standby LED when I plug it in. Pressing the power button doesn't do anything as far as I'm aware. There's supposed to be a second LED that turns on to show that the computer is ON. I have an Ubuntu installer USB that should work that I plugged in but nothing changes when I plug it in. Also, the board heats up when plugged in so I assume it's doing something?

I was planning on temporarily using an SD card or USB until I made sure the computer works so I don't spend money in vain.

My question is: Could it be that the missing internal storage is preventing the computer from booting? If not, could it be that something is shorted/doesn't work anymore? Has anyone had experience with this model? From what I found it was released in 2013 so it's relatively old now.

TLDR: Intel NUC without SSD storage but with only a usb won't boot. Is it the missing SSD fault?

Thanks in advance :)

Hey everyone,

So, for a bit of context I've used every smartphone I've owned until it was dead in the sense that the hardware wasn't repairable anymore. The realme6 pro I'm using at the moment is currently on life support so it's time to look for a replacement.

Here's some criteria for what it's important to me:

• I'm not a phone gamer, I don't care how well it runs Genshin Impact or PUBG, but I do use emulators like Citra.
• I don't really care about photography, any fancy camera is a bonus, it's not something I normally would consider when comparing phones.
• Wireless charging would be nice since from experience charging ports are a common point of failure. It's not necessarily a must however.
• A micro-sd and headphone jack would be nice to have, but I'm ready to sacrifice that if the phone has decent storage.
• Bloatware and weird proprietary forced, subscription/AI/ads bullshit baked into the default OS are a big no from me. I'm not as hardcore as some of the Lemmings I've met, but I do value privacy.
• Little extras such as an IR blaster, notification slider, or maybe some fun little gimmick like the glyph interface on Nothing phones is of medium importance to me. I like to tinker too, so any decent customization options is a plus.

I don't need a top of the line flagship, I'm looking for a midrange phone that's available in Canada. With that in mind, I had some ideas already:

• Nothing phone 2, this one seems fun and ticks most boxes for me. What's holding me back is the 3-4 years of updates (but that seems standard enough nowadays) and the relatively high price. If you can ease my mind and tell me I'll still be able to comfortably use this phone in 2028+ I might get this.
• One plus 12R, I like the specs and price on this one. What worries me is the bloat I've seen mentioned. Has anyone had experience with their android flavour? If so, is it feasible to remove/deactivate all useless apps?
• Pixel phones, I haven't researched these enough to decide on a model though. I might give GrapheneOS a try if I end up using a Pixel, I'm impressed by the 7 years of Android updates too. What's holding me back however, is the lack of "fun" compared to my other options, no IR blaster or distinguishing features makes it equal to my other options.

With all that said, any other recommendations are very welcome. Looking forward to reading your thoughts :)