Intel Compute Stick CS525 Computer with Intel Core m5 vPro processor and no OS (BLKSTK2mv64CC)

Well, it's up and running. Absolutely no problem installing Win 8.1 Pro from a bootable USB drive. Because it was a generic Win 8.1 image, there were a number of drivers, etc. to install but they were all easily found on and installed from the Intel support website. You need a wired USB keyboard and wired USB mouse plugged into the 2 USB ports on the power supply for the initial Win 8.1 install. Chipset driver, WiFi networking, Bluetooth, 515 graphics drivers all working. After the initial install & driver updates, there was still 41 GB left of the internal 64GB SSD. It came one Rev down on the BIOS but it's working like a champ so I'll probably leave the BIOS alone for now. I had a problem setting up a SDXC card as a 2nd drive, but it turned out it was a defective SD card and after changing the card out that also went in clean using diskpart from a command line. The stick itself is too wide at the HDMI end to plug directly into my ViewSonic monitor but it came with a short USB dongle cable that took care of that. Wouldn't be a problem on some other monitors. The included USB C-C power cable is a big fat thing & I will replace it with a thinner, more flexible one. It does get a little warm, but you can still hold it in your hand when it's operating. If the fan is coming on I don't hear it but my hearing is getting a little weak these days. It's a peppy little dude! I had some reservations about only 4GB RAM, but I could happily use this as my daily machine. Gonna give it 5 stars on Amazon. My monitor is a 22" HD 1920x1080 & when I get a chance I will plug it into a UHD TV and test it out at the max resolution the 515 graphics chipset will do. Will run a few benchmarks soon, too. Follow up 6/27/16. After almost 3 weeks, there have been no problems with this computer. I ran some simple CPU and memory benchmarks against my Dell XPS 13 model 9333, which has a 1.7GHz Gen 4 i5. The m5 stick cpu tested out at about 88% of the 4G i5 and the m5 memory at about 112% of the 4G i5. Not bad running at 1.1 GHz against the 1.7GHz i5 and using only 4.5 watts in the process! I wanted a 2nd power supply for taking it on the road without having to unplug the factory OEM power supply, which is made by Asian Power Devices, a major supplier of power supplies for electronics. Unable to locate and buy a 2nd OEM power supply, I bought an iClever Model IC-UC01 wall wort, which has a single USB Type C output at 5V/3A ($20 on Amazon). Although Intel disavows the use of any other power supply than the OEM supply, the iClever PS is functioning perfectly, although with the smaller iClever you don't have the 2 USB 3 ports which the OEM supply has. (You still have the single USB 3 port on the stick itself, however). I am now questing for a backup battery supply with a USB Type C output at 3A or better, which will eliminate the need to plug the computer into a wall outlet altogether. Haven't yet found what I'm after. As a caution, I made a mistake I should have known not to make, which is not unique to the m5 Stick. On the road, I use only a Bluetooth mouse and Bluetooth compact keyboard. For whatever reason (duuhh!) I turned on airplane mode in Windows 8.1, which, of course, promptly turned off both WiFi and Bluetooth. Now I had no mouse, no keyboard, no way to communicate with the O/S and no way to turn Bluetooth back on again. I had to wait until I again had access to a wired USB keyboard and mouse to reactivate Bluetooth.

Bought three of them for use on robots. We run Ubuntu and ROS. Pretty happy with it despite some big issues. Pros: It is fast for it's size and weight (65g). It is almost as fast as my Core i7-4500u laptop. It is twice as fast the ODroid XU4 we previously used. Cons: If either the USB3.0 or USB Type C port is used heavily, it jams WIFI. We have a couple cameras to the USB ports. The packet loss is 40-60% when the compute stick is 10 feet from our access point. We tested with two compute sticks in several configurations. 1) USB devices plugged directly into USB3.0 port. 2) USB devices plugged into USB 3.0 port via USB 3.0 hub. 3) USB devices plugged into the power supply that comes with compute stick (power supply has a couple USB ports). In this third configuration, the USB devices were one meter away from the compute stick itself. We installed Ubuntu 14.04 and could not use the eMMC. Ended up having to put OS on flash drive. Ubuntu 16.xx works fine.

Works great. Plays 1080p video without a problem, can load office, k-lite codec pack, VPN, utorrent. I love the fact that you get 3 USB ports and a micro-SD slot. Contrary to other reviews, I did not notice mine getting really hot. Probably not good for games, but I'm not a gamer. Watching movies, mounting encrypted volumes, browsing, youtube, social media, spreadsheets and word documents ... this can all be done without a problem. Only three shortcomings that I could observe. The wifi reception is a bit flakey. It will do 5Ghz, and 2.4Ghz, but sometimes has trouble. Tested by accessing a NAS on the LAN wirelessly. Got some pretty slow throughput at times, especially with 5Ghz. RFI seems to affect wifi reception on this thing more than other devices the same size. For example, an amazon firestick connected to another HDMI port on the same TV had no problems. If you have a single wifi router serving your whole house, rather than an access point on each floor, you will notice this. The graphics adapter is pretty weak. You open an explorer window or a browser and the whole screen goes a bit dim. Also noticed some flickering. I have yet to try it on a 4k TV though. The USB ports will *not* power an external hard drive. You'll need a hard drive with it's own power supply

The Intel Compute Advertisement on Amazon leads you to believe that all you have to do is plug in your stick into any TV and go, Not the case. Basically the stick will fit in your shirt pocket, but the power brick you have to carry with it, will not. Its obvious that Amazon's advertisement department is being, in my opinion, manipulated by the Big Boys! Gomer Pile would say, "Surprise Surprise Surprise!" However it does perform as advertised with some exceptions. I have done a pretty good comparison with other Intel Nuc's and desktop PC's with some evaluation results. Intel support, in my opinion, leaves something to be desired for their drivers and firmware support which is mainly geared for Windows, and will pressure you to upgrade the Bios. That also reminds me of the younger days, watching Lost in Space and the Robot would say "Danger Will Robinson, Danger!". Intel's support leans heavily toward Windows10 but Linux support is discouraged. I was able to compare four different Operating Systems. win 10/8.1 and 2 Linux OS's. The Linux OS out performed on the internet speed test with a result of 200-230 Mbps, whereas 8.1 ran just under 200 Mbps. Win 10 was around 100 Mbp, but again this was done with my own Hardware and internet connectivity. I found no other standout differences that I could really zero in on. At this point I believe best use for this product is being permanently attached to the back of a 4K tv which it does play nicely. Regards.

Great portable PC. I bought a wireless bluetooth keyboard the one with a touch pad (image is provided). At the beginning I was confused about the single USB port in the Stick but then I saw two more on the power adapter, smart move Intel. I have the one with no operating system, then installed my own Ubuntu and it works flawlessly. So convenient especially when you at home, the Stick plugged in to your TV, you have the choice to keep it on and just switch between the channels and Stick. Mainly, I use it for online movies and TV channels, it's like casting to your TV, with a powerful PC.

This thing gets hot. It has active cooling with a fan but it runs all the time even while idle. Just the slightest amount of blockage to airways causes it to overheat and non graceful shutdown. This is a great concept but needs a revision. The power cable is USB-C and slightly moving it while attached to the compute stick causes it to lose power. A bit of a rant with USB-C connectors: The USB-C spec is actually awesome. There is a variant in the spec that has a connector with a hand screw attached to it. Much like the screws in DVI and VGA monitor cables. This variant would be a perfect fit for the compute stick, and MANY other devices out there like laptop docks. I’m baffled as to why OEMs don’t use that connector, especially in this case. It would solve so many problems!

Unreliable device, just arrived and have video issues. Retuned. Conclusion: buy a desktop instead from reliable source

It is super PC. I installed Ubuntu server 16.04 LTS from a USB and it works super for a server that don't use a lot of power. I got Plex install in it and it can play 1080p real good form Amazon Fire when you put Plex player on Amazon Fire. Can have Plex use "Use hardware acceleration when available" and it works on this super good playing a 1080 video would make the CPU go up about 100% but with hardware acceleration the CPU only goes up about 1/4% then on a 1080 video. Tested it using htop command. It's very good. Added photo of System information.