I purchased the full NUC Kit, then removed the board and installed it in an Akasa Fanless Case (Newton AC) with a ROCK OS installation. It was a NUC6CAYH, therefore not powerful enough to use as the core; I’m using it as an endpoint for mainly HDMI Multichannel or possibly eventually for USB multichannel. My ROCK core/server is in its original Intel NUC case (NUC7i7DNHE). I enjoy modifying things, so if I ever change the ROCK core server’s case, it will probably be to this fanless one:
Courtesy The Goatee Finally, a decent passive NUC case (from HDPLEX)
Last time I checked, the NUC stand alone boards were fairly expensive (meant mainly for industrial/commercial applications), and their selection was limited. It was cheaper, in my case, to get the whole NUC Kit and use only its board.