Intel Haswell Powered NUC Kit D54250WYKH Spotted With Enclosure For 2.5-inch Drives

In our review of the Intel NUC Kit D54250WYK we told you that Intel was coming up with a version that had an enclosure that was large enough to fit a 2.5-inch SATA HDD or SSD. It appears that product is still on track for a December 2013 launch and we have manged to get our hands on four images of the upcoming case. The original Intel NUC KIT D34010WYK and D54250WYK ship in an enclosure that measures 116.6mm x 112.0mm x 34.5mm. Intel will be adding Intel NUC KIT D34010WYKH and D54250WYKH to the feature the new enclosures that measure 116.6mm x 112.0mm x 49.5mm.

Intel has added 15mm to the height of the chassis, but the board itself and the 65W power adapter remains unchanged. Why make it 15mm thicker when most 2.5″ mobile drives are 7mm or 9.5mm in z-height and Ultrathin 5mm z-height drives are out there? Not only do you need the space for the drive and its mounting hardware, but you also need to fit the SATA power and data cables.

Intel needed to source the correct power cables that would work inside the chassis with the tight space and the male SATA power connector used. The close proximity of the SATA power header and the SATA data header are so close together that not many cables will work. The image below shows the Intel Haswell NUC board with a standard SATA power cable and you can see how it covers up the blue SATA header. The middle image shows a smaller connector that is found on the 10-inch cable to the right. It appears that Intel has figured out the cabling situation and will be including both SATA cables with the Intel NUC KIT D34010WYKH and D54250WYKH.

No word on pricing just yet, but it will cost more than the standard NUC kits. The Intel NUC Kit D54250WYK should be coming to market this month and Amazon already has it listed for $379.51 shipped. Intel has the SRP set at $363, so it appears they are selling for a slight premium right now.