Intel Skull Canyon NUC Review
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2017-05-06
·
1,700 words · ~8 min read
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pint-sized PCS smaller than even typical mini ITX rigs have become something of a
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trend the last few years as manufacturers like Zotac and Gigabyte
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have learned to do more with less space but today we've got a PC that's
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literally not much bigger than a pint and features high-end components and
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expandability that will make even some midtower systems blush it's Intel's new
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skull Canyon knck the latest in their line of small form factor computers but
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is this little machine decorated with a skull just an attempt at voodoo magic or
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can it really trade blows with an expensive desktop rig let's find
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out cooler Masters master case maker 5
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features their free four modular system allowing you to customize adjust and
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upgrade make it yours through the link in the video description down below so
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what surprised me the most right off the bat is how light this thing is despite
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its laundry list of Primo components by my guesstimation this thing is roughly
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about the same weight as a Chipotle burrito so it's pretty freaking portable
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that way volume wise it takes up just about the same amount of space as a
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couple of soda cans or a fifth of vodka if that's your kind of thing but please
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don't try to figure that out yourself if you're underage anyways despite how
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small and light this thing is there's no shortage of goodies under the hood you
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get a Skylake core i767 70 HQ with a 2.6
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GHz base clock and a 3.5 GHz Turbo with
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Iris Pro 580 Graphics which is Intel's current topend integrated GPU a pair of
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ddr4 so dim slots that support 32 gigs of memory two m.2 slots that support 80
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mm ssds and our fullspeed PCI Express
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capable slots dualband Wireless AC an NFC header bluetooth support do keep in
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mind this is a barebones kit however so you'll need to provide your own storage
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and RAM that's why we didn't say specs for those in particular moving to the
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outside there's a power button which is you know always useful an SDXC card
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reader a pair of USB 3.0 ports including one optimized for charging a headphone
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jack and an IR sensor you can use if you
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have a you know compatible device or whatever around the back there's a power
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connector for the included 120 W power brick an interesting combo 3.5 mm audio
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and toss link Jack so if you can get an adapter you can output Digital 5.1
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signal to a surround system and gigb Ethernet then there's two more USB 3.0
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ports a mini DisplayPort Thunderbolt 3.0 for high-speed external storage or
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an external GPU enclosure like the Razer core and HDMI 2.0 for 4K at 60 HZ
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although I wouldn't try to push those kind of frame rates while gaming on the
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igpu however it is kind of useful for a feature if you're doing other things at
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4K and want your general experience to look much smoother the exterior design
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Fe features Intel's trademark skull keeping with the skull Canyon overall
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theme but if having bones all over your electronics isn't really your bag Intel
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does thoughtfully include a top plate that's otherwise the same but Sans the
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skull the screws that hold it on are captive which is a nice touch since
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they're quite small and would be otherwise easy to lose if you're lucky
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enough to own your own 3D printer Intel also provides files on their website
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that allow you to create a custom cover for the knck will fit correctly and you
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also get vase am mounting hardware if you want to screw the knck to your
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monitor and create an our sets allinone
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Once you turn it on you can get to the more comprehensive than expected Intel
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visual BIOS which features a modern guey and lots of interesting options even
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including adjustable settings for overclocking but more on that in a
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minute but is this little guy worthy of the extreme sounding skull Canyon name
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let's turn to our benchmarking results to find out starting with the CPU bound
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7zip and Center bench R15 or the N core
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i7 6770hq didn't quite touch our full
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fat desktop 6700k but still managed some very solid scores and beat out our razor
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blade stealth 15 which contains the slightly lower performing but still very
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high-end 6700 HQ so intensive multi-threaded applications should be no
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problem for the knok but what about gaming although there's some serious
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potential here if you hook up an external graphics card via Thunderbolt
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we unfortunately didn't have a razor core at the time we tested the knck but
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that did give us a chance to see if the integrated Iris Pro 580 Graphics
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solution could tread water both Star Wars Battlefront and the notoriously
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punishing Crisis 3 ran at 31 FPS at 1080p on medium settings yeah seriously
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totally playable frame weight with decent settings on a graphics processor
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strapped into a CPU Wicked Grand Theft
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Auto 5 was also a positive experience coming in at 32 FPS at 1080p using the
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default settings on FXAA although we saw some dips into the low 20s at times the
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game is still perfectly playable rise of the Tomb Raider was a little bit of a
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different story as we had to turn it down to hit even 25 SPS at 720p but
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overall as long as you keep your expectations reasonable you can still
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enjoy modern titles in a pinch at respectable frame rates but given that
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the knck is such a small package could it manage heat adequately when putting
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such a load on the CPU and its integrated GPU well sort of the CPU
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heated up to 87° C during our 7zip
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Benchmark and 79 on our Crisis 3 Skybox test and a whopping 100 throttling it
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down right when we stress test with Ida 64 so trying to overclock probably isn't
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a good idea even though the BIOS does let you Tinker with clock speeds the
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id64 test caused the system through throttle like I mentioned but no such
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throttling was observed in our other benchmarks so you probably won't have to
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worry about it too much when gaming or putting a reasonable load on the CPU not
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like a benchmark stress test thing despite the slightly too hot for Comfort
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temperatures another positive is that even with said temperatures the top
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bezel only got to 42° C at its warmest
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spot so there won't be any painful surprises if you need to handle the knck
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during heavy use of course this kind of performance in a small Factor comes at a
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cost 650 us to be exact we went on PC
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part picker to see what a similarly configured miniitx bebone system would
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cost and we came up with an estimate of about $465 so a total difference of $185 and
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that's minus the card reader Thunderbolt support and Iris Pro Graphics so like
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not on the same level at all really but despite the knck giving you these
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add-ons you are paying a premium to get everything shrunk down into an
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attractive lightweight device but this also means you're getting mostly
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uncompromised performance in the smallest package we've seen yet even on
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the igpu and with the capability to pair the knck with an external graphics card
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to have possibly the ultimate tiny gaming setup speaking of which I'll be
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doing just that in an upcoming video so stay tuned tiny little computer tons of
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performance including a skull Canyon knck awesome Razer core
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thing I don't have a link for you cuz I haven't done it yet but it will happen
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so stay tuned ifixit.com is your
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a completely reimagined design but just as rugged and portable as before it's
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easier to use with the tools that are more easy to access access and includes
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a 64-bit driver kit which replaced their former 54-- bit driver kit the more
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durable case also features magnets and you can even use the top of the driver
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case as like a parts tray which is wonderful the price of the Protech
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toolkit is now $69.95 buy it because it's awesome or don't and still have
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free access to all of their repair resources on ifixit.com if you're
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interested head over to ifixit.com Linus and use the code Linus at checkout to
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save $5 on your next purchase of $10 or more like the video if you liked it
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whatever you want that has to do with computers I guess or whatever you want
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and anyways watch this video it's
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on I don't know whoever edits this video is going to put their favorite lineus
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we'll see see you next time