Hey everyone, I've been self hosting a few things on a raspberry pi like board and wanted to upgrade to a mini PC. I got my hands on an old Intel NUC model D54250WYB but it had no memory or storage, not even an enclosure. I bought some RAM and a power supply but the SSD I was planning to use wasn't compatible (physically) and I didn't install it.

I tried powering it on but I only get a Standby LED when I plug it in. Pressing the power button doesn't do anything as far as I'm aware. There's supposed to be a second LED that turns on to show that the computer is ON. I have an Ubuntu installer USB that should work that I plugged in but nothing changes when I plug it in. Also, the board heats up when plugged in so I assume it's doing something?

I was planning on temporarily using an SD card or USB until I made sure the computer works so I don't spend money in vain.

My question is: Could it be that the missing internal storage is preventing the computer from booting? If not, could it be that something is shorted/doesn't work anymore? Has anyone had experience with this model? From what I found it was released in 2013 so it's relatively old now.

TLDR: Intel NUC without SSD storage but with only a usb won't boot. Is it the missing SSD fault?

Thanks in advance :)