When comparing esp32 vs Intel NUC Kit NUC7i3BNH, the Slant community recommends Intel NUC Kit NUC7i3BNH for most people. In the question“What are the best single-board computers?” Intel NUC Kit NUC7i3BNH is ranked 27th while esp32 is ranked 45th. The most important reason people chose Intel NUC Kit NUC7i3BNH is:
While the cost may seem steep compared to other SBC options, seldom are those other options sold with a case that will also house your storage drives and provide adequate cooling for the entire setup.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Many variants available
Many different variants are available depending how good you are at soldering or how small it needs to be.
Pro Very small
Can fit inside small devices.
Pro Very cheap
Without case can be below $5.
Pro Has ultra-low power mode
Pro Has bluetooth and wifi modules
Pro Comes with appropriate case and mounting hardware for storage drives
While the cost may seem steep compared to other SBC options, seldom are those other options sold with a case that will also house your storage drives and provide adequate cooling for the entire setup.
Pro SATA III port and M.2 NVMe connector with on-board RAID-0/RAID-1 controller
The ability to harness the power of a standard 2.5" SATA III drive and an M.2 NVMe drive with four PCI Express 3.0 lanes means that sequential read rates in excess of 3GB/sec if both are SSDs. Add to that hardware RAID support and it's hard to imagine a more powerful digital storage platform anywhere near this size.
Cons
Con Some variants require soldering
Not all variants include easily plugable pins. Usually only the more expensive variants include these.
Con Higher initial costs than most other options
It's clearly not a budget option for building a home NAS, but if you want performance and more importantly, scalability, then you'll reap the benefits of the extra upfront costs many times over as you upgrade the memory, add peripherals via USB-C and put that 7th Generation Core i3 processor to work.