Windows 11 on yet another PC.

I recently took down the terrestrial antenna off the roof, as it was over the skylight, and the birds were using it as a perch for their favourite toilet. So the only way I can watch TV now is streaming. Our second TV in the kitchen was not attached to a computer, and is not remotely smart, so I needed to smarten it up. I love the Intel NUC I use on our main TV,  so was looking for something similar for the kitchen TV.

Lynn helped me look, and found a local listing for Intel NUC I3 7th Gen computers, from about 2018, with 4GB ram, no SSD but with a COA for Windows 10. It looked like they were being replaced because they are incompatible with Windows 11 requirements . The buy now price was $80nz, and this seemed quite reasonable. I have 8GB ram sticks to suit, and I also have a 250GB and a 1TB SSDs, one of which is in a faulty external drive case.

Despite not being compatible with Windows 11, I had Windows 11 24H2 installed an hour after it arrived, and did some updates of the Intel Graphics package so I could use the HDMI interface for audio. I added Mozilla VPN so we could watch Australian, British and European programming, and Mozilla Firefox as a browser, because I can set it up once and then copy all settings over to other installs on other machines.

I then decided to upgrade to Windows 11 25H2 which was just a week old at the time. Very easy, other than having to an install repair of the Intel Graphics package.

Both NUCs attached to TVs were then changed to automatically sign on and to start up Firefox. I also changed the BIOS to enable the computer and TV to turn each other on and off. This works fine on the Samsung in the Kitchen, but the Panasonic in the lounge has issues talking to the NUC which causes problems booting up the computer and getting the TV to recognize it. May need a new TV.

The fan on this machine was a bit noisy, so I disassembled the machine, removed the fan and it’s heat sink, applied more thermal paste and tape, and reseated the heat sink and fan carefully. It improved gradually over a couple of hours to the point where it is as quiet as the original NUC pc.

One TV has a sound bar connected optically, and the other has an optical connection to a converter with connects to my Onkyo amp with RCA plugs. The sound from both systems is more than adequate. Both NUCs use WIFI to access our wireless Internet router and I think the new NUC plays nicer with the Wi-Fi than the old one. The NZSO is streaming live it’s Vivaldi 4 seasons concert this evening, and I am looking forward to hearing it and watching it on our update equipment!

Now we have 6 computers, two NUCs attached to TVs, two Lenovo ThinkCentre M series paperback size PCs in my office and my maker workshop in the garage, an Alienware laptop, and an all-in-one Lenovo for the use of my wife and her mother. All are running Windows 11 and should be good for another few years unless Microsoft become even bigger arses and stop me using W11 on older machines.