Intel's Coolest CPU EVER... Thanks to AMD!
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2018-05-06
·
1,341 words · ~6 min read
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has anyone else had enough of the
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full-size desktop game Intel released their skull canyon nook a tiny gaming
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bare-bones all the way back in 2016 it had no dedicated graphics but it still
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ignited an arms race prompting competitors like ZOTAC and MSI to try to
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pack as much horsepower as possible into
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the smallest packages possible and Intel
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finally has a follow-up the hades canyon
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nook or nu c8 i7 h VK
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AVR and triple-a game capable pc boasting an 8th
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gen Core i7 quad-core CPU and AMD Radeon
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Vega graphics in a package about the
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same size as a Harry Potter novel
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you know what else is novel origin PC
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they offer beautiful custom desktops high performance laptops and life time
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24/7 technical support they use only high quality products like samsung's 960
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/ 1.2 SSDs and you can check them out at the link below
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before we get to the new one here's a skull canyon from 2016 the formula that
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Intel followed for the design of this nook was actually great solid CPU lots
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of i/o including Thunderbolt free and it was easy to upgrade it was basically
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perfect for a compact computer except
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for the lack of dedicated graphics I mean this pretty much limited it to easy
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to run games like overwatch and
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minecraft which is a pretty tough pill
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to swallow for anyone paying six hundred and fifty dollars which is a
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considerable premium over a desktop system for a bare-bones with no RAM or
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storage but in the last two years a lot of
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things have happened including evidently hell freezing over because AMD and Intel
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came together at last to create this
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which actually now that I think about it is that where the Hades the name came
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from anywho this thing is pretty o P it's 999
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dollars for the top tier bare-bones kit
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which is pricey but it includes a hyper
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threaded quad core Core i7 88 o 9g and
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Vega mgh graphics or it's $7.99 for the
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step-down one that gives up overclocking support and point 1 gigahertz of CPU
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turbo and drops from 24 to 20 compute
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units on the GPU first thing I notice
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about it is it's really really heavy for how small it is and
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that while it is still small it is not
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nearly as compact as the old ones so it
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better bring some really impressive performance to the table all panels say
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for the top are completely covered in hexagonal perforations to allow as much
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air as possible to be fed into the dual bottom mounted fans as for IO it's
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impressive starting with USB we get a total of seven including a Type C and a
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quick charger on the front and it can connect up to six displays including the
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access to HDMI for a VR headset overall
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it's got more i/o than many desktops including not one but two Thunderbolt 3
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ports cracking it open we get a look at
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the internals now Oh check that out so you can see through it
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that's where the RGB lighting comes through for the skull on the top and
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then removing this additional screw right here we can lift up this plate to
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get a look at our options for memory and
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storage so we've got two sodium slots
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with support for up to 32 gigs of DDR4
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RAM and dual full-length oops and dual
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full-length 80 millimeter m dot 2 slots
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with support for both AHCI and NVMe
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drives as well as raid 0 and raid 1 so
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we're gonna be using an Intel octane 800
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p for our boot drive and then a regular NVMe SSD for our storage drive because
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like Yolo right
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anyway while we're in here we also get a
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look at the backside of the CPU and GPU
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so it's got this odd rectangular shape to it here and that's
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for a reason that's because of the way that the RX Vega mgh so the H here is
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for high performance connects directly to the main CPU and
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they're actually installed on the same substrate so this special engineering
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trick which is basically a PCI Express 8
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X link right between them is what makes the system so powerful compact and
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power efficient compared to other small
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form-factor desktops alright time to plug it in now and oh
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that is a beefy power brick that power brick is actually almost the size of the
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old Nook anyway fun fact the eyes the skull and
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the power button are all separate RGB zones so you can make them any color you
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want or turn them off if you prefer that sort of thing
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but that's not the most important thing you guys want to know how it performs
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and isn't this hilarious this is AMD software but just like with
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an Intel skin on it like this so bizarre
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anyway let's let's get some games fired up and talk performance here we compared
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Hades Canyon with Intel's last generation skull Canyon as well as a
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similarly priced desktop excluding costs for storage RAM and operating system and
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it's performance is actually pretty surprising compared to the last gem
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Skull Canyon Nook Hades Canyon completely blows it out of the water as
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Intel integrated graphics just isn't even in the same ballpark as the Radeon
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Vega chip that the hades canyon uses as for the gap between the new nook and our
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8700 k desktop system it's pretty
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noticeable with an average overall increase of about 35% across the
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spectrum of games and synthetic tests that we used though this isn't bad if
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you consider the Knux 50% lower TDP and it's tiny form factor but does buying
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this nook make any sense well actually
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especially in light of the pricing of decent dedicated graphics cards right
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now as a compact minimal HTPC the hades
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canyon is actually pretty awesome like if you told me three years ago that this
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was running on this I'd have been looking for the hidden wires but but
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this is real and not only is the noise not a problem from like a couch distance
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or even from this distance the performance is good enough to play
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basically any game even if it's not at
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absolute maximum settings so as long as
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you're willing to give up future upgrade ability and you'll get some kind of a
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benefit from the size maybe you go to a lot of lands for example it's actually
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not a terrible deal for all the hardware
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that's included Optimas new force be2 wireless Bluetooth
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earphones feature up to 10 hours of continuous listening battery life their
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IP x5 rated water and they're resistant it's crafted with
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polycarbonate and equipped with Kevlar reinforced cables and the wireless
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design with magnetic earpieces allows for tangle-free listening and
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portability it comes with spin fit twin blade ear tips that are made from high
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quality silicon and designed to provide optimal fit and comfort the Optimas new
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force be2 is the only model at this price range supporting AAC which ensures
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maximum audio quality and iphone connectivity as well as other Apple
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products get them now for just thirty nine bucks us for a limited time at the
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link below so thanks for watching guys if you just like this video you can hit
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that button but if you liked it hit like get subscribed maybe consider checking out where to buy the stuff we featured
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at the link in the video description also down there we'll have our merch
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store which has cool shirts like this one as well as our community forum which
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you should totally join