Intel NUC Kit NUC6i7KYK
Reaching for the stars from the tiniest of platforms
THE NUC (Next Unit of Computing) felt like it was on the cusp of greatness when it was first introduced in 2013. Three and a bit years on, and that feeling still prevails, even though this version looks like a completely different beast from what has come before. For some, this is going to be the perfect tiny PC. Unfortunately, that niche is very tightly defined, and it’s still not the mass-market machine many of us were hoping for.
So let’s get that spoiler out of the way— this isn’t a Kick Ass device. It almost could be, but there’s a couple of things holding it back. But before we get to what they are exactly, it’s worth covering what you’ll find inside Intel’s latest barebones system, how Intel is pitching it, and who exactly should be excited by this little box of tricks.
This is a very different-looking device to the NUCs that we’ve seen before. Instead of the boxy look we have come to expect from the NUC brand, we instead get a much thinner, wider chassis. It’s a tad more shapely, too, with chamfered corners and a pleasing hexagon texture here and there. In case you hadn’t noticed, there’s also a skull on the top—something that alludes to its gaming aspirations. There is an alternative plate in the box that lacks this teenage iconography, if it’s a real turn-off. You’ll find a VESA mounting plate to hide the device out of sight, too.
This latest NUC is built around an impressive chip—the Intel Core i7-6770HQ. That’s a quad-core processor (with HyperThreading, of course), nominally operating at 2.6GHz, but capable of turboing up to 3.5GHz when pushed. It has a TDP of 45W, which is 30W more than the other sixth-gen NUCs, due to the fact it boasts something a little special on the integrated graphics front: the Intel Iris Pro Graphics 580, the company’s top-tier GPU. With 72 execution units purring along at 1,000MHz, and laying claim to 128MB of eDRAM to help keep things running smoothly, this core is capable of 1.152TFLOPS. Not bad for integrated graphics. BUILT TO ORDER It’s important to note that, like its forebears, this is a barebones system. You need to add your own memory (there are two DDR4 SO-DIMM sockets, supporting up to 32GB of 2,133MHz RAM), and your own M.2 SSDs (there are two Type M connectors as well). Plus, you need an operating system. For testing purposes, the machine we reviewed shipped with a 512GB Samsung 950 Pro NVMe SSD, and 32GB of DDR4. While these will definitely add to the cost of the machine, they also give this little system the best chance to impress.
If this all sounds quite promising, then the good news is that when it comes to more serious work, it’s a great little machine. For a device this tiny, it’s pretty incredible. The Core i7-6770HQ is a powerful chip, as can be seen by the Cinebench and X264 benchmarks. The speedy SSD makes for a fast booting machine, apps launch quickly, and the general feeling in Windows 10 is brilliant. Indeed, were it a little more affordable ($650 for the barebones unit, plus SSD, RAM, and OS soon heads over $1,000), we’d be tempted to forgive it its foibles, but as it is, we can’t quite bring ourselves to do so.
The big problem is gaming. Single digits in modern games clearly shows that even Intel’s most powerful GPU can’t handle the latest titles. You can reduce settings, but even that won’t make for a great experience—we ran RiseoftheTomb Raider at 1080p, with the settings as low as possible, and hit an average of just 16fps. Older games fared better, with the likes of BioshockInfinite managing 26fps, but you’ll have to butcher the settings to get
the likes of GTAV, Shadows of Mordor, and Metro: Last Light to run smoothly.
The traditional response at this point would be to say that this machine isn’t really aimed at the gaming market. The problem is, it definitely is. Intel is pitching this NUC at would-be gamers—with the claim that it’ll run modern games at 1080p, in fact. It also helps explain that skull motif. It’s damned by Intel’s own marketing.
There is a solution to its gaming shortcomings in the form of the Thunderbolt 3 port, which can be used to hook the unit up to an external caddy, such as the Razer Core external graphics card enclosure, but that is an extra cost on top of what is already a pricey build. With Nvidia’s mobile take on Pascal imminent, it feels as though this is a solution to a problem that won’t exist in a month’s time—this unit with a mobile GeForce GTX 1080 would just be a far better solution.
Overall, the latest NUC is an impressive device on many, many levels. But it struggles at one of the things that it was designed to master—gaming. If you like your gaming simple, though, need a powerhouse in a small form factor, and don’t mind paying over the odds, there’s a lot to love right here.
Intel NUC Kit NUC6i7KYK
DIMINUTIVE Small; surprisingly powerful; versatile; plenty of connection options.
REDUCTIVE Not for gamers; relatively pricey, considering extras required.
$650, www.intel.com