Intel has unveiled a new enthusiast NUC that is powered by an Intel processor and an Intel GPU. Officially, it is called the Intel NUC 12 Enthusiast Mini PC, but the “Serpent Canyon” code name may be easier to google. It combines an Intel Core i7-12700H with an Intel Arc A770M GPU. The processor has a base TDP of 45W (115W max turbo power), 6 performance cores and 8 efficient cores (20 threads total) with a max turbo frequency for the P-cores of 4.7GHz and 24MB of L3 cache.
The Arc A770M has 32 Xe cores and 32 Ray
Tracing units and is paired with 16GB of VRAM (GDDR6). It is the top mobile GPU
available from Intel right now. Thanks to the Intel Deep Link tech (first time
we see it on desktop), the CPU and GPU can do dynamic power sharing, even
though they are discrete pieces of hardware (they still share the same cooling
setup). The Serpent Canyon NUC comes in two forms, one of which is
pre-configured with 16GB of DDR4 RAM and 1TB PCIe 4 SSD. Or you can get the kit
version that comes without RAM, storage or OS so that you can configure it to
your liking.
You can have up to 64GB of RAM (dual
channel) and there are three M.2 NVMe slots (two PCIe 4.0, one 3.0). You can
load this up to be a proper monster (an expensive one, but powerful). Let’s
have a quick look at the connectivity. There are two Thunderbolt 4 ports, one
HDMI 2.1 (up to 4K60), two DisplayPort 2.0, six USB-A and a full-size SD card
reader. For networking there are Intel-powered 2.5Gbps Ethernet (i225-LM) and
Wi-Fi 6E (Killer AX1690i), plus Bluetooth 5.2. ll of this fits inside a compact
2.5-liter chassis, which can be used horizontally or vertically (using the
included stand).
The Intel NUC 12 Enthusiast Mini PC and
Kit will be available later this month from US$ 1,180 to US$ 1,350, depending on the
configuration. Soon fully equipped desktop systems based on this hardware will
be available through retailers and system integrators.
