I had one of the 4th gen NUCs and loved it. It was crazy fast for it's size, made absolutely no sound and made for a great HTPC.I wanted to upgrade and decided this was the one to go with as it would be running Plex.  Overall it is snappy and super quick, but it is louder than the older versions. I guess having the i7 chip in it is a big reason why and it needs a fan to stay cool.  It's not annoyingly loud and I would say for the most part it is pretty much unnoticeable.I love with this one you can customize the color of the LED light on the front.  The only con I can come up with is that you can't use both an m2 and Intel Optane at the same time. I wish it had a dedicated Optane port on it.The 8th gen i7 also transcodes like a beast.  This is the perfect HTPC.