Small form-factor PCs and gaming methods have emerged as shiny spots within the mature PC market over the past decade or so. Intel’s NUC form-factor introduction was the turning level within the small form-factor (SFF) market. Over a number of technology of merchandise, the NUC household has expanded to deal with totally different market segments. But even with these developments, DIY fanatics have historically given the NUCs a chilly shoulder by pointing to the dearth of flexibility and limitations akin to the lack to make use of a discrete GPU. So to to deal with the necessities of the efficiency fanatics, Intel launched the Skull Canyon NUC in 2016 and adopted it up with 2018’s Hades Canyon NUC.
Following that very same technique of creating enthusiast-tier NUCs, at CES 2020, Intel formally introduced the Ghost Canyon NUC collection of merchandise (NUC 9 Extreme Kits), that are based mostly on the Intel NUC 9 Extreme Compute Elements. Among different notable modifications, the collection provides the power for end-users so as to add a normal PCIe video card to the system system. The merchandise have been made obtainable to OEMs and ecosystem-enablers since late 2019, and they’re lastly reaching retail availability this month.
With their newest NUC lastly obtainable at retail, Intel has despatched us an engineering pattern of the top-end Ghost Canyon NUC, the NUC9i9QNX. Intel has outfitted the NUC with matching construct elements to create a premium SFF gaming / workstation system. Read on for a evaluation of the NUC9i9QNX and an evaluation of the Intel Compute Element and its related ecosystem.
Introduction and Product Impressions
The Ghost Canyon NUC9i9QNX is Intel’s present top-end NUC with a NUC 9 Extreme Compute Element (NUC9i9QNB) housed in a 238mm x 216mm x 96mm chassis. NUCs have historically been related to the ultra-compact kind issue (100mm x 100mm boards in a 0.63-litre or 0.42-litre quantity chassis). The Skull Canyon and Hades Canyon merchandise with their increased TDP processors needed to be accommodated in 0.69L and 1.2L chassis, however the Ghost Canyon NUC kits with their help for PCIe video playing cards takes it to a complete new stage with a 4.94L chassis.
Though make no mistake: whereas greatest than the smallest NUCs, that is nonetheless nicely throughout the realm of SFF PCs. In reality, the smallest SFF PC with help for PCIe video playing cards that we occur to pay attention to is the ZOTAC ZBOX MAGNUS collection, with a 5.8L chassis. The Ghost Canyon NUC chassis features a built-in energy provide whereas the ZOTAC mini-PC makes use of an exterior adapter, which if counted would add additional to its quantity. As a end result, the Ghost Canyon NUCs take the title of the smallest ever PC lineup to help user-replaceable discrete GPUs by a snug margin.
Intel’s NUC lineup has historically included board and equipment variants, permitting its companions to supply worth additions (akin to a passive chassis or extra I/O ports ultimately system). Kits (apart 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. Some kits help a 2.5″ drive of their chassis configuration, whereas others are M.2-only from a storage perspective. The Ghost Canyon collection of merchandise additionally follows the same philosophy, whereas vastly growing the flexibleness for the end-user. Towards that, a Ghost Canyon is system comprised of a number of components, which might be picked and chosen by OEMs / end-users to create a system for particular use-cases:
- The Compute Element
- Baseboard (or backplane)
- Chassis
- PSU
- DRAM (as much as 2x DDR4-2666 SODIMMs)
- Non-volatile storage (HDD or SSD)
- Discrete GPU (non-compulsory)
An off-the-shelf Ghost Canyon NUC9i9QNX equipment leaves solely the DRAM, non-volatile storage, and discrete GPU to the selection of the end-user. Prior to the platform evaluation and overview…
