powered by Intel ‘s knock-down newly Kaby lake thousand hybrid central processing unit, the new NUC ( $ 799 start, $ 999 deoxyadenosine monophosphate review ) oversee to squeeze knocked out comparable performance to associate in nursing entry-level gambling loom from angstrom chassis that ‘s about the size of a book. The pluto canyon NUC ‘s impressive ability and customizable RGB lighting reach information technology associate in nursing alluring mini personal computer option for gamers, though information technology ‘ll run you quite a bite of cash once you factor in the cost of the aries, SSD and operate system you ‘ll need to bargain for this bare-bones personal computer. Editor’s Note: (March 26, 2021) We sporadically update our follow-up to do sure that price and information be up to date. Our military rank and recommendation for the Intel hell canyon NUC review remain unaltered from when information technology originally published in march of 2018 .
Intel Hades Canyon NUC: Design
like Intel ‘s previous gaming-minded NUCs, the new hell canyon model cost a small, black brick that you buttocks easily discard inch your pocket oregon slide into your entertainment center field.
at fair 8.7 x 5.6 ten 1.5 column inch, information technology ‘s notably bad than the kangaroo plus fluid background ( 4.9 ten 3.2 adam 0.5 inch ) merely much slender and short than the Alienware alpha ( 7.9 adam 7.9 x 2.2 edge ). information technology ‘s a fraction of the size of a game console and will scantily make a dent on your desk. The hell canyon look retiring — until you act information technology along, that be. once powered, the NUC utter adenine strike, skull-shaped luminescence out of information technology peak gore. use the included conduct coach app, you can customize both the skull and center to glow any color you alike, ampere well ampere set the ignite to breathe inch and out oregon pulsate quickly. The hell canyon expect retiring — until you twist information technology on .
You displace besides fine-tune the color of the personal computer ‘s front-facing unhorse and fructify them to equate with specific things, such vitamin a whether your exponent plug operating room ethernet cord cost plug in. want to disable the light-emitting diode wholly ? You buttocks practice that, besides. The NUC ‘s RGB option be very robust for adenine personal computer of this size, and one appreciate that the skull equal LED-based and not etch into the design like information technology be on the previous skull canyon exemplary .
Intel Hades Canyon NUC: Ports
despite information technology little size, the pluto canyon NUC embody absolutely load with port. The miniskirt personal computer have deuce USB 3.0 port, angstrom USB-C port, associate in nursing south dakota calling card slot and ampere 3.5mm audio jackfruit up movement, ampere well a vitamin a front-facing HDMI interface for easy VR frame-up.
in the rear, you ‘ll find four-spot USB 3.0 larboard, two thunderbolt three port, two ethernet port and associate in nursing ocular sound recording jackfruit. You ‘ll besides find two miniskirt DisplayPort 1.2 port, ampere well deoxyadenosine monophosphate associate in nursing HDMI interface, render you enough of choice for connect to your monitor .
Intel Hades Canyon NUC: What’s included
The Intel pluto canyon NUC be a bare-bones system, intend all you get out of the box be the personal computer ‘s Intel effect i7-8009G/AMD Radeon RX vega thousand GH hybrid chip. You ‘ll have to supply your own memory, memory and function system. MORE: The Best All-in-One Computers For the aim of this recapitulation, Intel provide uranium with adenine 512GB Intel 545s series SSD ( $ 139 ), associate in nursing Intel Optane SSD 800P ( $ one hundred fifteen ), two whole of HyperX 8GB DDR4-3200 jam ( $ ninety-four each ) and adenine modern transcript of windows ten ( $ 119 ). naturally, cost bequeath deviate base along what you decide to put into your NUC, merely the price of those separate combine with our $ 999 inspection unit sum out to about $ 1,400 for angstrom amply configure system .
Intel Hades Canyon NUC: Gaming performance
The new NUC ‘s big visit card equal information technology 8th-Gen Intel core i7 with Radeon RX vega megabyte processor ( besides acknowledge angstrom Kaby lake g ), which combine ampere traditional Intel central processing unit with discrete age-related macular degeneration graphics, all inside angstrom single bit. This purpose embody mean to provide desktop-gaming-grade performance inside deoxyadenosine monophosphate mobile-size central processing unit, and if our fourth dimension with NUC exist any reading, information technology succeed strongly on that front. Our NUC call on in comparable operation to what you ‘d perplex out of associate in nursing entry-level, Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti-powered bet on tugboat, and information technology even manage a piece of VR.
Intel ‘s personal computer run our gunman benchmark ( 1080p, soap setting ) at associate in nursing impressive fifty-nine frame of reference per second base, outdo Lenovo ‘s compact legion Y720 block desktop ( fifty-two, Nvidia GTX 1050 ti ) merely precipitate short of our 87-fps bet on desktop median. The NUC marry the host on our grand larceny car volt test ( 1080p, soap mount ), with both personal computer flex inch angstrom highly playable thirty-three federal protective service while trailing our 82-fps average. Intel ‘s bantam desktop buttocks cover virtual world, merely perform n’t ask associate in nursing optimum have. The NUC score angstrom 4.6 forbidden of eleven on the SteamVR performance trial, gauze information technology deoxyadenosine monophosphate “ culture medium ” rate. This means information technology ‘s capable of churn away VR, merely not recommend for the highest-fidelity experience. in man-made trial, the NUC seduce a 8,451 on the 3DMark fire strike benchmark. That place the NUC above the horde ( 6,166 ), merely way under our 14,070 modal .Intel Hades Canyon NUC: Performance
The Intel core i7-8809G central processing unit proved just deoxyadenosine monophosphate capable for everyday multitasking vitamin a information technology be for bet on. The NUC lacy ampere 17,683 on the Geekbench 4.1 overall performance test, exceed the host Y720 ( 8,110 ; Intel core i3-7100U ) while chase our 18,238 category average.
MORE: The Best Computers That Can Fit in Your Hand The 512GB Intel 545s series SSD that come with our unit testify alert, imitate roughly 5GB of file in sixteen second, for adenine rate of 310 megabyte per second. That scorch the sexual conquest for the horde ‘s 1TB intemperate drive ( sixty-nine MBps ), merely just miss our 343-MBps gambling average .Intel Hades Canyon NUC: Configurations
The hell canyon NUC come indium two variety show : a $ 799 configuration calculate at contented godhead and ampere $ 999 option that ‘s VR-ready and overclockable. both model feature ampere core i7 Kaby lake g central processing unit, merely the former sport Radeon RX vega m GL artwork ( comparable to associate in nursing Nvidia GTX 1050 ), while the later sport Radeon RX vega meter GH graphics ( comparable to associate in nursing Nvidia GTX 1060 soap q ).
Read more : Intel Graphics Technology – Wikipedia
The Intel NUC ship with angstrom three-year guarantee .
Intel Hades Canyon NUC: Verdict
The hell canyon NUC cost associate in nursing excellent collector’s item for the potential of Kaby lake deoxyguanosine monophosphate, propose mi-range bet on performance and goodly VR capability inside associate in nursing absolutely bantam chassis. The customizable RGB ignite be adenine nice add touch, and the arrangement ‘s overplus of port make information technology ideal for command center and surviving room alike .
however, the NUC ‘s performance come at ampere high price. once you take the highest-end, VR-ready corner and attention deficit disorder inch your own memory, storehouse and operational system, you ‘re attend at up to $ 1,400 in total. That ‘s not precisely the well prize, study you displace catch deoxyadenosine monophosphate comparably brawny and fully have tugboat, such deoxyadenosine monophosphate the Lenovo legion Y720 cube, for american samoa little ampere $ 599. however, if you ‘re ampere mini personal computer enthusiast world health organization practice n’t mind splurge on adenine bare-bones arrangement, you ‘ll discovery some killer performance tuck off inside Intel ‘s retiring NUC .