Intel "Skull Canyon" - powerful Mini PC


fusion_power

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It's basicly an "Intel NUC" on Steroids!

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I need a new PC and I don't want anything to big. ~700$ for "just" an barebone are steep, you will need additional RAM (DDR4 SO-DIMMs) and SSD (2xM.2 sockets inside) and an OS of course. But I guess you can't get more CPU/GPU Power within such a small case ( 211mm x 116mm x 28mm).
First Reviews confirm the power of the Intel Core i7-6770HQ + it's Iris Pro 580 GPU core, the most powerful iGPU so far. Very detailled review with alot of Benchmarks here:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/10343/the-intel-skull-canyon-nuc6i7kyk-minipc-review
http://nucblog.net/2016/05/skull-canyon-nuc-benchmark-results/

It would beat my old Core2Quad PC for sure. :D Maybe not quiet my humle GTX560 GFX Card but the Iris Pro 580 is beefy enough to play at least "normal" games at decent speed. Intel has a webpage where you can choose a game and it's best settings for the Skull Canyon.

Oh, and the Skull Canyon comes with Thunderbolt 3, so in theory you can plug in an external GFX Card Docking Station, if these are available (soon).

HOWEVER: I like it quiet and the Skull Canyon can get noisy under full load, which is no wonder when you put an 45W Quadcore i7 into such a tiny case. It also can get pretty hot in there of course.
I'm sure, other Companies will join that train and bring barebones or complete Mini-PC's with that CPU/GPU combo out, maybe even with better cooling solutions, there is still room for more. I could live with a slightly larger case of course if they manage to cool such an device more silently.

What do you think? Could this be an PC for you? Do you even have experience with Intel NUC's?
 
It is quite an expensive solution to go for, especially if you go for a Thunderbolt 3 graphics card dock in there. A DIY Mini-ITX box will get you more for less.
 
Why no liquid cooling?
That was also the first thing I thought. :D
I guess it would need a much larger case and adds more costs. Intel wanted to keep everything small and "cheap". The CPU alone costs ~400$ I've heared so it's already a close calculation.

It is quite an expensive solution to go for, especially if you go for a Thunderbolt 3 graphics card dock in there. A DIY Mini-ITX box will get you more for less.
I actualy plan an Mini-ITX system, however, my calculations are also around 700€ (without GFX card, using my old one) or 900+ € with an new GFX card. It would be an Skylake i5 System with water cooling. Something around these components:

Cooler Master Elite 130, Mini-ITX (RC-130-KKN1)
Cooler Master Nepton 120XL (RL-N12X-24PK-R1)
 
  • Desktops have a price advantage
Right out the window
  • And they are more powerful
Yes you can have that with
  • External GPU? revisit step 1
Its smaller
  • But why?
It is not smaller with the external GPU, so it ends up being slightly smaller with a power-envelope that has no use because its so imbalanced.

The only reason to have a NUC was because it was a functional PC with low or no noise.
For this reason, some businesses bought a few, because you can get away with that sort of performance for desktop use nowadays.

Edit: You still have to build this, so there goes that. You need capability, and have to put up with not getting anything ready-made.

Too much in too little.
 
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I have been very interested on Skull Canyon since it annoucement. In fact, I'm interested on any "tiny" x86 machine with GPU. My main concern with Skull Canyon is the fact the the GPU is not powerfull and the Thunderbolt 3 dock are quite fucking extreme expensive.
 
They may also sell complete units AFAIK so at least no build is involed. I agree that buying the expensive Skull Canyon AND the expensive external GPU-Dock (which does not come with an GPU in case of the Razer Core) is actualy a little bit pointless, especialy from the price tag. I would not do that. I can imagine if people only have a mobile Laptop (with Thunderbolt 3) and the Skull Canyon at home, it may be an idea to buy an External GPU that could serve both devices.
But again, I prefer an quiet system so unless someone offers an much more silent version of that NUC, I doubt I would buy one. The water cooled Mini-ITX system I have in mind may be the much better option. Bigger than the NUC but still compact. My current Tower does not fit in my room, so my PC stands in an separate room, that was actualy the main reason to search for a more compact System. Multimedia-Laptop would have been the 3. Option but this would be also the most expensive one if I want a decent performance level.
 
The look and size of this thing is very appealing, but I wouldn't buy it for reasons previously mentioned by others. Idk how the Skull Canyon iGPU fares against the i7-5775c, but I'd rather build a mini-ITX computer using the latter, at least until Crystalwell is used in a CPU that isn't a NUC or embedded server chip.

If you can afford it, the room you keep your rig in doesn't get too hot, and don't mind using NVIDIA cards, CompuLab's Airtop PC is quite something.
 
This makes me think of a sorta backwards ass steam machine. It is somewhat interesting, and I might be able to think of some ways it can be a decent option, even if not the ideal one, but cooling would be a major concern.
 
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