Intel Readies "Coffee Lake" Based Skull Canyon NUCs

btarunr · Sep 5, 2017

Intel is preparing to expand its Skull Canyon line of high-performance NUC compact desktops, with new models based on its upcoming "Coffee Lake-U" silicon. The company is preparing variants based on 28W TDP Core i3, Core i5, and Core i7 ultra-low power processors, and 300-series chipset. The Core i3 based parts offer 4-core/4-thread CPU configuration, while the Core i5 and Core i7 ones offer 4-core/8-thread configurations. One of these could even feature a large onboard graphics core cushioned by on-package eDRAM L4 cache. The three "Coffee Lake-U" based NUCs could be released in Q2-2018, which is quite a wait.

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TheinsanegamerN · Sep 5, 2017

If it is only 28 watt, why bother with a skull canyon? The whole point of that NUC was that it had a chip the standard NUCs couldnt handle. And it wasnt particularly good either.

Intel., just focus on improving your iGPUs please. You have been at 24EUs since haswell in 2013.

Vya Domus · Sep 5, 2017

I always wondered , who buys these ? Like , I get it that it's small and it's meant for office work/media consumption type scenarios. However some things make no sense , why do you need up to a 4c/8t CPU for that and why is it so expensive for something that has such limited use case scenarios ?

Exceededgoku · Sep 6, 2017

Vya Domus said:
I always wondered , who buys these ? Like , I get it that it's small and it's meant for office work/media consumption type scenarios. However some things make no sense , why do you need up to a 4c/8t CPU for that and why is it so expensive for something that has such limited use case scenarios ?

I bought it because I could, it's faster than the sporting models and can support dual m2's which is another positive.

Otherwise, GPU performance is crappy (but supports Thunderbolt for eGPU - I've got a Foundation Edition Vega - which gives good enough performance for 4K gaming (mostly).

No reason why anyone should get this unless they have to have the best and the fastest small PC. Absolutely useless otherwise.

Frick · Sep 6, 2017

I miss the Intel motherboards with that skull.

System Name	RBMK-1000
Processor	AMD Ryzen 7 5700G
Motherboard	ASUS ROG Strix B450-E Gaming
Cooling	DeepCool Gammax L240 V2
Memory	2x 8GB G.Skill Sniper X
Video Card(s)	Palit GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER GameRock
Storage	Western Digital Black NVMe 512GB
Display(s)	BenQ 1440p 60 Hz 27-inch
Case	Corsair Carbide 100R
Audio Device(s)	ASUS SupremeFX S1220A
Power Supply	Cooler Master MWE Gold 650W
Mouse	ASUS ROG Strix Impact
Keyboard	Gamdias Hermes E2
Software	Windows 11 Pro

System Name	Skunkworks 3.0
Processor	5800x3d
Motherboard	x570 unify
Cooling	Noctua NH-U12A
Memory	32GB 3600 mhz
Video Card(s)	asrock 6800xt challenger D
Storage	Sabarent rocket 4.0 2TB, MX 500 2TB
Display(s)	Asus 1440p144 27"
Case	Old arse cooler master 932
Power Supply	Corsair 1200w platinum
Mouse	squeak
Keyboard	Some old office thing
Software	Manjaro

System Name	Good enough
Processor	AMD Ryzen R9 7900 - Alphacool Eisblock XPX Aurora Edge
Motherboard	ASRock B650 Pro RS
Cooling	2x 360mm NexXxoS ST30 X-Flow, 1x 360mm NexXxoS ST30, 1x 240mm NexXxoS ST30
Memory	32GB - FURY Beast RGB 5600 Mhz
Video Card(s)	Sapphire RX 7900 XT - Alphacool Eisblock Aurora
Storage	1x Kingston KC3000 1TB 1x Kingston A2000 1TB, 1x Samsung 850 EVO 250GB , 1x Samsung 860 EVO 500GB
Display(s)	LG UltraGear 32GN650-B + 4K Samsung TV
Case	Phanteks NV7
Power Supply	GPS-750C

System Name	The Money Sink
Processor	Intel i7-5960X at 4.60Ghz
Motherboard	MSI X99A Godlike
Cooling	Custom watercooling loop, single D5 -> CPU, dual D5 -> GPU's
Memory	64GB DDR4-3000
Video Card(s)	2 x 1080Ti @ Stock for the moment (40oC LOAD)
Storage	960GB Mushkin Scorpion Deluxe and 2 x 512GB M.2 SSD RAID0
Display(s)	Dual Curved LG 34" Display
Power Supply	EVGA 1600W G2
Software	Windows 10
Benchmark Scores	ALOT

System Name	Black MC in Tokyo
Processor	Ryzen 5 7600
Motherboard	MSI X670E Gaming Plus Wifi
Cooling	Be Quiet! Pure Rock 2
Memory	2 x 16GB Corsair Vengeance @ 6000Mhz
Video Card(s)	XFX 6950XT Speedster MERC 319
Storage	Kingston KC3000 1TB \| WD Black SN750 2TB \|WD Blue 1TB x 2 \| Toshiba P300 2TB \| Seagate Expansion 8TB
Display(s)	Samsung U32J590U 4K + BenQ GL2450HT 1080p
Case	Fractal Design Define R4
Audio Device(s)	Plantronics 5220, Nektar SE61 keyboard
Power Supply	Corsair RM850x v3
Mouse	Logitech G602
Keyboard	Dell SK3205
Software	Windows 10 Pro
Benchmark Scores	Rimworld 4K ready!

Intel Readies "Coffee Lake" Based Skull Canyon NUCs

btarunr

Editor & Senior Moderator

TheinsanegamerN

Vya Domus

Exceededgoku

Frick

Fishfaced Nincompoop