Intel’s new NUC 11 Extreme

NUC 11 Extreme. © Intel.

Intel is coming out with a new NUC (Next Unit of Computing) computer just for gamers. Code-named Beast Canyon, NUC 11 Extreme is offered in three 11th gen Intel CPU options (Core i5, i7 and i9) with enough room in the 8-liter case for a graphics card up to 12 inches. This sets it apart from the NUC 11 Enthusiast (Core i7), presented earlier this year, which was much more compact and could only fit an 8-inch or smaller card. A power block with more capacity (650W, compared to 500W on last year’s NUC 9 Extreme) means that the new model can handle more energy-hungry graphics cards (up to 350W, equivalent to what an RTX 3080 Ti consumes). The machines default to 8GB of RAM, but can be configured with up to 64GB. 256GB of NVMe M.2 storage is included in the price, and there are four M.2 slots in total.

NUC 11 Extreme can be pre-ordered from Simply NUC. The Core i7 and Core i9 models start at US$ 1,400 and US$ 1,600 respectively, while the Core i5 starts at US$ 1,300. The units will ship in September, except for the Core i5 which will come out in December.

⇨ The Verge, Jon Porter, “Intel’s new NUC comes with 11th gen CPUs and space for a full-size graphics card.”

⇨ Tom’s Hardware, Zhiye Liu, “Intel lists Beast Canyon NUCs for the SFF market.”

2021-07-22