Intel has just quietly launched its Phantom Canyon NUC 11 range

Intel has devoted much of its time to this year’s virtual THESE on his new office and mobile processors, as well as to spotlight the laptops that will showcase its new hardware that will debut in the coming months. But what hasn’t attracted much attention is the range of mini PC or NUC, and NUC Kits. Intel gives these Tiger lake-refresh at a more reasonable price this time around, depending on the configuration and where you buy a unit.

The first is Intel’s model for enthusiasts, or the NUC 11 Enthusiast, which comes as a complete mini PC or kit. The complete PC includes an 11th generation Core i7-1165G7 processor with integrated Iris Xe graphics card, RTX 2060 graphics card, 16 GB DDR4-3200 memory, Intel Optane Memory H10 storage (32 GB + 512 GB) and even a cable ‘geo-specific feed option for the United States, Europe and China. Windows 10 Home is also preloaded.

There are also a variety of ports: HDMI 2.0, Mini DisplayPort 1.4, two Thunderbolt 4 ports, Intel 2.5GB Ethernet port, Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5 support, plus six USB 3.1 Gen2 ports.

The kit includes the same processor and GPU, as well as the same type and amount of ports, but memory, storage, and OS are all BYOB situation, even though it supports up to ‘to 64 GB of memory. Also note that if you are interested in this route, the card supports PCIe 3.0 NVMe M.2 SSD, not PCIe 4.0. There are also additional power cord options for UK, Australia, and India.

The NUC 11 Performance model is offered with a Core i7-1165G7, Core i5-1135G7, or Core i3-1115G4, with i7 and i5 options including Iris Xe graphics and i3 with classic UHD. None of the pre-built mini PCs come with a discrete GPU. They also all come with 8GB DDR4-3200 memory, 500GB NVMe SSD PCIe 4.0 storage (strange because the enthusiast model doesn’t have Gen4, but maybe Intel Optane memory has something to do with it. ), Windows 10 Home preloaded and the same number of ports, minus three USB ports.

The final model, the NUC 11 Pro Mini, comes with a Core i7-1165G7 or Core i5-1145G7 with Iris Xe graphics, a 500GB Gen 4 NVMe SSD (again, weird), 8GB of DDR4 memory- 3200 and Windows 10 Home preloaded. Like the Enthusiast kit, the Performance and Pro kits are memory, storage, and BYO operating system. And if you look at the support pages for the two Pro Mini PCs, Intel already has a planned shutdown date in the first half of 2024. The other NUC PCs do not.

Unfortunately, all of these models come with a soldered BGA plug, which means the processor cannot be easily removed and upgraded in the future. The processor you get is the processor you get.

But there is a kind of saving grace: the price. A fully configured passionate model of SimplyNUC starts at $ 1,350, but with 8GB of memory and only a 128GB M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD. If you start specifying the NUC 11 Enthusiast with the same components that Intel advertises, the price goes up quickly, although ‘it is always better than the NUC 9 Extreme Kit we reviewed last year.

[TechRadar]