Intel kick-started a form-factor revolution within the early 2010s with the introduction of the ultra-compact NUCs. The methods have been meant to be an alternative choice to the tower desktops utilized in many functions the place the dimensions, form, and the system capabilities have been principally unwarranted. The success of the NUCs enabled Intel to begin reimagining the construct of methods utilized in a wider vary of settings.
Extra just lately, the introduction of the Cranium Canyon NUC in 2016 was Intel’s first effort to make a gaming-focused SFF PC. And desktop-focused Compute Parts (primarily, a motherboard in a PCIe card form-factor) launched in early 2020 meant that full-blown gaming desktops may credibly come underneath the NUC banner. Within the second half of 2020, the Ghost Canyon NUC9 – the primary NUC Excessive – made a splash available in the market with assist for a user-replaceable discrete GPU. Ghost Canyon was extraordinarily spectacular, however the restrictions on the dGPU measurement and high-end pricing have been dampeners. Intel made some amends with the NUC11 Excessive (Beast Canyon), utilizing a particular Tiger Lake SKU with a 65W TDP and relatively aggressive pricing.
The introduction of Alder Lake and its desktop-first focus has enabled Intel to arrange a brand new flagship within the NUC Excessive lineup barely 6 months after the launch of the Beast Canyon NUC. The brand new Dragon Canyon platform was briefly teased on the 2022 CES, with the promise of a Q1 launch. Intel is maintaining its phrase with the launch of quite a lot of NUC12 Compute Parts and NUC12 Excessive Equipment SKUs. At this time, we’re having an in depth take a look at what the NUC12 Excessive brings to the desk, notably compared to the NUC11 Excessive. The current introduction of Home windows 11 signifies that our benchmarks comparability set is presently restricted – at this time’s preview doesn’t take care of any methods aside from the NUC12 Excessive and NUC11 Excessive. A subsequent follow-up assessment will take care of gaming benchmarks (utilizing dGPUs) and extra comparability factors with different SFF PCs available in the market.
Introduction and Product Impressions
Intel’s lineup of gaming-focused NUCs began with the Efficiency collection (Cranium Canyon NUC6i7KYK and Hades Canyon NUC8i7HVK), earlier than transferring up the ladder to the Excessive collection (Ghost Canyon NUC9i9QNX). On the 2021 Computex, the Beast Canyon NUC took over the flagship mantle and led to some vital updates over the Ghost Canyon NUC:
- Help for 65W desktop-class CPUs within the Compute Ingredient (in comparison with the 45W cell workstation-focused CPU within the Ghost Canyon’s Compute Parts)
- Elevated chassis dimensions to accommodate bigger discrete GPUs
- 10nm Tiger Lake CPU with new micro-architectural enhancements for efficiency and power-efficiency
- Help for a richer set of I/Os (together with PCIe Gen 4)
The teaser for the Dragon Canyon NUC on the 2022 CES introduced in much more spectacular options to the identical form-factor – elements that we at the moment are in a position to verify with a pattern in hand:
- Help for 65W user-replaceable (socketed) desktop-class CPUs within the Compute Ingredient (in comparison with the soldered CPU within the Beast Canyon’s Compute Ingredient)
- Alder Lake CPU manufactured in Intel 7 with new micro-architectural enhancements for efficiency and power-efficiency, together with hybrid efficiency and effectivity cores
- Help for sooner I/Os (together with PCIe Gen 5, PCIe 4.0 x8 equal bandwidth between the CPU and the PCH, and 10GbE wired networking assist)
- Help for twin LAN ports (10GbE + 2.5GbE) in choose SKUs, and higher ports selection within the entrance – a Sort-C and a Sort-A USB 3.2 Gen 2 port as an alternative of two Sort-A ones within the Beast Canyon
A minor retrogression is the absence of assist for PCIe lane bifurcation within the baseboard – whereas Beast Canyon’s PCIe x16 dGPU slot may doubtlessly be utilized in a x8 / x4 / x4 configuration, the Dragon Canyon’s Edge Cove baseboard has no such assist. The chassis nonetheless retains the M.2 22110 compartment on the underside, however there is no such thing as a PCIe slot behind it.
Intel equipped us with an engineering pattern of the high-end SKU within the Dragon Canyon line – the NUC12DCMi9 sporting the NUC12 Excessive Compute Ingredient (NUC11EDBi9). This Compute Ingredient is housed in a 357mm x 189mm x 120mm chassis – primarily the identical one used within the NUC11 Excessive (Beast Canyon). Historically, NUCs have been related to the ultra-compact form-factor (100mm x 100mm in a 0.63L or 0.42L chassis). The introduction of the Cranium Canyon and subsequent Hades Canyon NUCs created one more class of 0.7L to 1.2L NUCs, and the 2020 Ghost Canyon took it as much as roughly 5L. The necessity to accommodate the cooling answer of a extra highly effective Compute Ingredient, together with the flexibility to just accept massive dGPUs contribute to the 8L quantity of the Beast Canyon and Dragon Canyon NUC chassis. That is nonetheless inside the realm of SFF PCs – an grownup can nonetheless single-handedly carry the unit round. Different vital SFF elements such because the in-built PSU are additionally carried over from the Beast Canyon NUC.
Intel’s NUC lineup has historically included board and equipment variants, permitting its companions to supply worth additions (reminiscent of a passive chassis or further I/O ports in the long run system). Kits (aside from those that include a pre-installed OS) require the end-user so as to add storage, DRAM, and set up an OS to finish the system. Intel plans to promote two forms of the Dragon Canyon NUC Equipment – the NUC12DCMi9 and the NUC12DCMi7. Nonetheless, OEMs and end-users may construct their very own NUC12 system based mostly on the next elements:
- Compute Ingredient (NUC12EDBi9 or NUC12EDBi7 for the patron market, and the vPro-capable NUC12EDBv9 or NUC12EDBv7 for the skilled market)
- Baseboard (or backplane)
- Chassis
- PSU
- DRAM (as much as 2x DDR4-3200 SODIMMs)
- Non-volatile storage
- Discrete GPU (non-compulsory)
An off-the-shelf Dragon Canyon NUC12DCM equipment leaves solely the DRAM, non-volatile storage, and discrete GPU to the selection of the end-user. Regardless that the Compute Ingredient sports activities a LGA1700 socket, the 2 Compute Parts being bought in t he market include the processor pre-installed (both Core i9-12900 or Core i7-12700). Previous to the platform evaluation and overview of our assessment configuration, let’s check out the pre-decided elements within the above record.
NUC12 Compute Ingredient
The NUC12DCMi9 we’re reviewing at this time comes with the NUC12DEBi9 NUC12 Excessive Compute Ingredient. It comes with a socketed processor – the Core i9-12900. This belongs to the Alder Lake (twelfth Technology) household, and has a 8C + 8c / 24T configuration with a 65W TDP. It might turbo as much as 4.7 GHz. This Compute Ingredient belongs to the collection that began with the NUC9 era, re-imagining the standard motherboard in a discrete PCIe x16 card form-factor.
The Compute Ingredient comes with a cooling shroud containing a single fan and three M.2 heat-sinks with thermal pads pre-attached. Whereas two of these heat-sinks are within the aspect with the fan, the opposite is on the rear, behind the processor. The rear slot helps solely M.2 2280 SSDs, and is related on to the processor. The 2 slots instantly underneath the cooling shroud are PCH-connected ones. On the acute proper, we’ve got the 2 SODIMM slots that may function at speeds of as much as DDR-3200 for DIMMs as much as 64GB in whole. These are vertical slots (in comparison with the horizontal ones within the NUC9 Compute Parts), and unencumber useful area that will get taken up by the M.2 slots. It should be famous that the socketed processor requires barely bigger board property – ensuing within the motion of one of many three M.2 slots within the Driver Bay (Beast Canyon) Compute Ingredient to the rear within the Dragon Canyon. The gallery under gives further pictures of the Compute Ingredient and the cooling shroud.
The NUC12DCMi9 comes with two Thunderbolt 4 ports, a 2.5G Ethernet port, a 10G Ethernet port, a HDMI 2.0b show output, and 6 USB 3.1 Gen 2 Sort-A ports within the rear. There are two USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports (one Sort-A and one Sort-C), a 3.5mm stereo headset jack, and a SDXC slot with UHS-II assist within the entrance. The entrance I/Os are enabled by a daughterboard that connects to the headers within the Compute Ingredient. The Compute Ingredient has its personal energy connection to the PSU.
Eden Cove Baseboard
The baseboard used within the Dragon Canyon (code title Eden Cove) is an evolutionary replace to the Monster Cove board used within the Ghost Canyon.
The PCIe lanes at the moment are Gen 5, however they drop the x8 / x4 / x4 bifurcation capabilities designed into the earlier era.
Chassis and PSU
The NUC12DCMi9 chassis has the identical ‘ease’ of set up because the earlier era Excessive NUC. The scale permit the set up of twin slot GPUs as much as 12″ in size. The included 650W 80+ Gold inside PSU additionally provides a 8-pin and a 2×6+2-pin connector for the GPU. The chassis could be disassembled by eradicating the 4 screws to dislodge the rear cowl, and coming out the aspect panels.
The highest panel with the three followers rests on a hinge. The embossed instructions within the body helpfully information the consumer to open it up. That is important to get entry to the Compute Ingredient and take away its shroud to put in the RAM and storage.
Regardless of the plastic framing within the entrance panel, the metal-based building in different areas provides the chassis a premium look and durable really feel. The Beast Canyon NUC chassis additionally options customizable RGB underglow lighting, in addition to a replaceable RGB entrance brand. Whereas cable administration is just not a problem by itself, disassembling the NUC and reassembling is difficult due to the restricted area between the PSU and the Compute Ingredient. The myriad connections between the Compute Ingredient and the daughterboard / entrance panel cannot be simply saved separate from the PSU cables. Thankfully, most customers solely want to fret in regards to the dGPU set up. The scope for hassle right here once more comes not from a cable administration perspective – relatively, the USB 3.2 Gen 2 header connection cables to the daughterboard are inclined to get free and make the entrance port function at USB 2.0 speeds. These points existed in earlier NUC Excessive Kits additionally, however the absence of an replace to the chassis design signifies that these points stay unaddressed.
The entrance USB ports are recessed, and given their Sort-A nature, determining the right orientation to plug within the peripherals is a little bit of a hit and miss. Sure keyboard / mice receivers can find yourself being utterly contained in the recess, making it difficult to take away them when the opposite USB slot can be occupied. The location of the PSU AC receptacle on the highest finish of the chassis signifies that the heavy AC energy twine may doubtlessly create cable administration points. In each these elements, the Ghost Canyon NUC chassis had a a lot better design.
The configuration of our assessment pattern of the NUC12DCMi9 was accomplished with the next elements:
- 2x Mushkin Redline 4S320NNNF32G for 64GB of DRAM
- 1x Western Digital WD_BLACK SN770 1TB M.2 2280 SSD
The presence of a desktop-class CPU within the system signifies that the Beast Canyon NUC ought to simply have the ability to assist highly effective GPUs – a facet we are going to focus on in a future article. At this time, we take a look at the Dragon Canyon NUC with the minimal required further elements. Within the subsequent part, we check out the complete specs of our configured assessment pattern, adopted by an in depth platform evaluation together with some notes on our setup expertise.