Intel NUC gaming 2020 with Intel® NUC 9 Extreme kit

What is the latest update for Intel NUC gaming 2020? Is Intel® NUC 9 Extreme kit the recent barebones PC for gaming? Some of the most exciting developments in the PC gaming world have been around small form factor PCs. These compact machines are a fraction of the size of traditional gaming PC towers. Intel’s new NUC 9 Extreme Kit (aka Ghost Canyon) makes it so easy to build a pint-sized PC while keeping the components inside nice and cool. Discover more in our Intel® NUC 9 Extreme kit review.

NUCs (Intel’s abbreviation for Next Unit of Computing) are a small barebone computer kits. You provide your own storage, memory, GPU, and operating system and the NUC provides a tiny package with a CPU, motherboard, and power supply built-in. They’ve been around for nine years, and typically rely on mobile CPUs in a desktop package, but this is the first NUC kit from Intel (good for Intel NUC gaming 2020) that is compatible with a desktop graphics card and its the first to include NUC compute element—basically a card with the CPU on it. That means you can actually take out the processor and upgrade it down the line.

Intel® NUC 9 Extreme kit video review for perfect Intel NUC gaming 2020

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Intel® NUC 9 Extreme kit specs

This Intel® NUC 9 Extreme kit has superb specs to support Intel NUC gaming 2020.

What is good in Intel® NUC 9 Extreme kit for gaming 2020?

Build a true mini gaming PC (Intel NUC gaming 2020) without compromising on performance. Intel® NUC 9 Extreme kit with upgradeable Intel® NUC Compute Element provides the building blocks to give you the power to build the exact Intel® NUC you need. Choose an unlocked 9th Gen Intel® Core™ i9 processor plus Intel® Optane™ technology accelerated drives and a discrete graphics card for uncompromised performance and true AAA gameplay.

• Unlocked 9th Gen Intel® Core™ i9 processor with eight cores and 16 threads
• Also available with 9th Gen Intel® Core™ i7 or i5 processors
• Upgradeable Intel® NUC Compute Element so your kit stays strong, relevant, and powerful—now and in the future
• Dual-channel DDR4-2666+/DDR4-2666 SO-DIMM RAM, up to 32 GB memory
• Dual-channel DDR4-2400 SO-DIMM RAM, up to 64 GB memory
• PCIe* x16 slot for desktop discrete graphics support for high frame rates
• Supports Intel® Optane™ memory to accelerate launch times for games and apps
• 500W internal power supply for portable desktop performance in a small footprint

Intel® NUC 9 Extreme kit comparison

These NUCs are still very popular for Intel NUC gaming 2020 to gamers.

Intel® NUC 9 Extreme kit review

The Ghost Canyon NUC9i9QNX is Intel’s current top-end NUC with a NUC 9 Extreme Compute Element (NUC9i9QNB) housed in a 238mm x 216mm x 96mm chassis. NUCs have traditionally been associated with the ultra-compact form factor (100mm x 100mm boards in a 0.63-litre or 0.42-litre volume chassis). The Skull Canyon and Hades Canyon products with their higher TDP processors had to be accommodated in 0.69L and 1.2L chassis, but the Ghost Canyon NUC kits (good for Intel NUC gaming 2020) with their support for PCIe video cards takes it to a whole new level with a 4.94L chassis.

Though make no mistake: while biggest than the smallest NUCs, this is still well within the realm of SFF PCs. In fact, the smallest SFF PC with support for PCIe video cards that we happen to be aware of is the ZOTAC ZBOX MAGNUS series, with a 5.8L chassis. The Ghost Canyon NUC chassis includes a built-in power supply while the ZOTAC mini-PC uses an external adapter, which if counted would add further to its volume. As a result, the Ghost Canyon NUCs take the title of the smallest ever PC lineup to support user-replaceable discrete GPUs by a comfortable margin (Intel NUC gaming 2020).

Intel’s NUC lineup has traditionally included board and kit variants, allowing its partners to provide value additions (such as a passive chassis or additional I/O ports in the end system). Kits (other than the ones that come with a pre-installed OS) require the end-user to add storage, DRAM, and install an OS to complete the system. Some kits support a 2.5″ drive in their chassis configuration, while others are M.2-only from a storage perspective. The Ghost Canyon series of products (Intel NUC gaming 2020) also follows a similar philosophy, while greatly increasing the flexibility for the end-user. Towards that, a Ghost Canyon is system comprised of multiple parts, which can be picked and chosen by OEMs / end-users to create a system for specific use-cases:

• The Compute Element
• Baseboard (or backplane)
• Chassis
• PSU
• DRAM (up to 2x DDR4-2666 SODIMMs)
• Non-volatile storage (HDD or SSD)
• Discrete GPU (optional)

An off-the-shelf Ghost Canyon NUC9i9QNX kit leaves only the DRAM, non-volatile storage, and discrete GPU to the choice of the end-user. Prior to the platform analysis and overview of our review configuration, let’s take a look at the pre-decided components in the above list.

The Compute Element

The Compute Element is the board component used in the previous NUC generations. The NUC9i9QNX we are reviewing today comes with the NUC9i9QNB (NUC 9 Extreme Compute Element). The Compute Element comes with a soldered processor – the Core i9-9980HK. This belongs to the Coffee Lake Refresh-H family, and has a 8C/16T configuration with a 45W TDP. It can turbo up to 5 GHz. And, as we’ve previously covered in our look at  Intel’s Compute Element prototype, the NUC 9 Compute Element re-imagines the traditional motherboard in a discrete PCIe x16 card form-factor. It is very supportive to Intel NUC gaming 2020.

The Compute Element comes with a cooling shroud containing a single fan and two M.2 heat-sinks with thermal pads pre-attached. These align with the two M.2 slots (1x M.2 2280, and 1x M.2 22110) in the Compute Element to the left of the processor. On the right, we have the two SODIMM slots that can operate at speeds of up to DDR-2666 for DIMMs up to 16GB, while 32GB DIMMs are rated for up to DDR-2400. The gallery below provides additional photographs of the Compute Element and the cooling shroud.

The NUC9i9QNB comes with two Thunderbolt 3 ports, two gigabit Ethernet ports, a HDMI 2.0a display output, and four USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A ports in the rear. Headers include front panel audio and I/O connectors, a CEC connection, a SATA connector (FPC style with power), 2x USB 2.0 headers, and 2x USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C headers internally. The Compute Element has its own power connection to the PSU.

The Baseboard

Intel’s backplane/baseboard design for the NUC 9 Compute Elements is comprised of two PCIe x16 slots and a sole PCIe x4 slot, as well as a PCIe x4-backed M.2 22110 slot. One of the x16 slots is dedicated to the Compute Element. The other x16 slot operates in x16 mode as long as the PCIe x4 slot and the M.2 slot remain unoccupied. If either slot is occupied, then x16 slot operates in x8 mode. Essentially, the x16 attachment to the Compute Element can electrically operate as x16 or (x8 + x4 + x4). Further down in the platform analysis section, we will see that these 16 lanes come directly from the processor (and not the CM246 PCH). The baseboard has an explicit power connection to the PSU for supplying power to the PCIe slots.

The baseboard photograph reveals two ASMedia ASM1480 mux/de-mux chips to enable the splitting of the PCIe lanes. Note that these are true muxes and not PCIe switches, so physical lanes are being reallocated when additional cards are connected, and the GPU is hard limited to x8 bandwidth (~8GB/sec) in that case. And while unlikely, thanks to Intel’s bifurcation rules, it should be noted that anything that tries to split the x16 slot (e.g. a M.2 riser with multiple M.2 slots) would disable the PCIe x4 slot as well (though the M.2 slot remains usable).

On that note, for the purposes of our review sample, Intel equipped the system with a 380GB Optane SSD 905p, connected to the M.2 slot in the baseboard, as well as an ASUS Dual GeForce RTX 2070 MINI 8GB GDDR6 card in the x16 slot. Due to the baseboard architecture, the card operates in x8 mode in the supplied review configuration. This will take Intel NUC gaming 2020 to the next level.

Chassis

The NUC9i9QNX chassis has been designed with the intent of retaining the ease of installation that the NUCs are famous for. The dimensions have also been kept as small as possible while providing the ability to install a dual-slot PCIe card (up to 202mm in length and 131mm in height) in the baseboard along with the Compute Element.

The top panel of the chassis slides off after the two screws in the rear are loosened. This panel also includes two 80mm x 15mm fans below the perforated top portion. The 12V supply for the fans are delivered through a snap-on connector, as shown in the above gallery. The perforated side panels can be removed by sliding up after the removal of the top panel. On the side opposite to the Compute Element slot, the top bar on the chassis can be taken out (to aid in the installation of a PCIe card) by removing two screws.

The I/O ports in the rear panel are directly off the Compute Element. However, the front I/O ports require the routing of on-board headers in an appropriate manner. The front panel of the NUC9i9QNX has a power button and an audio jack (connected to the front panel audio header on the board), a SDXC slot, and two USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A ports. The last three are enabled by a daughterboard containing a Genesys Logic GL3227 USB 3.1 Gen 2 hub chip and a Genesys Logic GL3590 SDXC to USB bridge chip. The hub chip in the daughterboard is perhaps unavoidable due to the inability of the headers to be individually routed to distinct ports in the front panel (given the volume constraints of the small chassis).

Overall, despite the plastic framing in the front panel, the metal-based construction in other areas gives the chassis a premium look and sturdy feel. Space management in the absence of a discrete GPU or PCIe cards is simple, but things get really cramped when the chassis is stuffed to the gills (as in the case of our review configuration).

PSU

An attractive aspect of the NUC9i9QNX is the built-in 500W 80 PLUS Platinum power supply. Most SFF PCs (including similar powerful ones like the ZOTAC ZBOX MAGNUS series) use bulky external adapters, so the ability to use just a simple power cord with the system is a welcome one from the perspective of a compact installation.

Intel has used the FSP500-30AS, a new PSU from FSP in a Flex-ATX form-factor. The cables enable up to 150W to be supplied to the add-in card directly. Along with the 75W budget from the PCIe connection, the NUC9i9QNX supports cards that consume up to 225W.

Our review sample of the NUC9i9QNX came with the following components pre-installed:

• 2x Kingston HyperX KHX3200C20S4/8G for 16GB of DRAM
• 1x Intel Optane SSD 905p 380GB (SSDPEL1D380GA) M.2 22110 SSD
• 1x Kingston KC2000 1TB (SKC2000M81000G) M.2 2280 SSD
• ASUS Dual GeForce RTX 2070 MINI 8GB GDDR6

A configuration with a high-end PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe SSD relegated to being a dedicated secondary drive leaves no doubt that the system represents Intel’s vision of a maxed-out premium SFF PC build.​

In the next section, we take a look at the full specifications of our review sample, followed by a detailed platform analysis along with some notes on our setup experience.

Intel® NUC 9 Extreme kit performance review

3D Benchmarking

In the relatively light-duty Night Raid benchmark (which we normally only run on notebooks), the Intel NUC 9 Extreme and its GeForce RTX 2070 leads the pack by a wide margin. Of course, it should, considering it features the most powerful discrete GPU of the bunch.

With the 3DMark Fire Strike Extreme benchmark, we have much more performance data from some high-end gaming notebooks and small-ish form factor desktops. Here, the Intel NUC 9 Extreme approaches the highest performing systems. What is evident is that the “mobile” Core i9-9980HK used to power the Intel NUC 9 Extreme has plenty of oomph to keep a GeForce RTX 2070 fed. Only the RTX 2080-equipped systems are faster here.

The DX12-based 3DMark Time Spy benchmark tells essentially the same story as Fire Strike. Here, the Intel NUC 9 Extreme performs very well once again, but the more powerful desktop systems with GeForce RTX 2080 cards come out on top (as you would expect).

We also had some 3DMark Port Royal ray tracing benchmark data available to see how the Intel NUC 9 Extreme with is GeForce RTX 2070 compared to a few other systems. And as you can see, the system’s GPU doesn’t appear constrained by the mobile processor at all. The GeForce RTX 2070 in the NUC 9 Extreme performs as expected and trailed only the GeForce RTX 2080-powered Alienware Area 51m high-end gaming notebook.

With our synthetic testing out of the way, this is where the rubber meets the road—actual games. Though is it relatively small, the Intel NUC 9 Extreme is well-equipped for gaming with such a powerful processor and GeForce RTX-class GPU. Here’s how things shook out…

Although it performed well and landed in the upper quadrant of systems, the Intel NUC 9 Extreme with GeForce RTX 2070 performed slightly lower than expected in Shadow Of War. The system was still in the mix with others featuring GeForce RTX 2070s and 2080s, but was ultimately a few frames per second behind. Notice at the bottom of the chart you’ll find the previous-gen NUC 8 with integrated Radeon Vega graphics. Though that system is very powerful for its size, there’s simply no matching a discrete, high-end GPU for gaming.

Intel® NUC 9 Extreme kit gaming review

The finale in the rebooted Tomb Raider trilogy, “Shadow of the Tomb Raider,” is easily the best-looking of the bunch. It’s also brimming with Tobii eye-tracking hardware support, and leading edge graphics technologies. To test this game out, we again turned the visuals up to High and tested at the full-HD resolution of 1920×1080.

In the Shadow Of The Tomb Raider benchmark, once again we see the Intel NUC 9 Extreme with GeForce RTX 2070 finishing near the top of the charts. The CPU allows the RTX 2070 to fun full-tilt, and only the RTX 2080 ends up being faster.

Throughout all of our benchmarking and testing, we also monitored how much power our Intel NUC 9 Extreme test system was consuming with a power meter, versus some of the other desktop systems we used for benchmark comparisons.

Our goal was to give you an idea as to how much power each configuration used while idling at the Windows desktop and while under a heavy CPU workload. Keep in mind, this is total system power consumption being measured at the outlet and not the the individual power of the CPUs alone.

Power consumption – Intel® NUC 9 Extreme kit review

Despite its relatively strong performance, the Intel NUC 9 Extreme is a somewhat power-friendly little beast. When hammering on the CPU, at full load, the system pulls only 117 watts. While idling, the Intel NUC 9 Extreme pulls only 33 watts, with only the previous-gen NUC 8 coming in lower.

We also monitored power in a gaming scenario to see how the discrete GPU affected things. As you can see, firing up the GeForce RTX 2070 more than doubles the system’s peak power.

Intel® NUC 9 Extreme kit review – Cooling And Acoustics

Although the system is relatively small, the Intel NUC 9 Extreme we tested, which was equipped with an ASUS GeForce RTX 2070, has 6 fans inside keeping it cool — two at the top of the chassis, one on the compute module, one in the PSU, and two on the GPU. It’s typically difficult to keep high-performance, small form factor systems cool and quite, but Intel (and ASUS) appear to have done a commendable job…

After hours of benchmarking, and 20 consecutive loops of 3DMark’s Time Spy stress test, this is what CPU and GPU temperatures and fan speeds looked like. The CPU temp will peak into the 90s for short stints, but the GPU runs nice and cool — having access to outside air right though the mesh side panel helps GPU temperatures stay nice and low (Intel® NUC 9 Extreme kit review).

The Intel NUC 9 Extreme with the particular ASUS GeForce RTX 2070 we have installed is very quite under normal desktop use and doesn’t register on our sound meter, above the typical ambient noise (the GPU fans don’t even spin when the system is idling). Under a sustained load, however, when both the CPU and GPU fans are cranking, the system is clearly audible and broke the 50dB mark on our meter, when placed about a foot away from the side panel. Although that’s not quiet, and the fans are more audible when they would be in a closed mid-tower, we wouldn’t consider the Intel NUC 9 Extreme, as we had it configured, to be particularly loud. And its fan pitch wasn’t irritating (to us) either.

How to upgrade Intel® NUC 9 Extreme kit for gaming?

Upgrading the NUC 9 Extreme is unlike doing so on any other desktop. This is the first machine on the market with Intel’s Compute Element, so it’s not a matter of everything simply being plugged into the motherboard. The chassis is small, so it requires some patience, but the only tool you’ll need to get inside is a Phillips-head screwdriver. When you get in there, you see how unorthodox this design truly is. 

To open the NUC, you need to remove two screws from the rear, near the top, which lets you slide off the top. That includes two fans, which are connected by some contacts.  Once those were out, we were able to lift out the side panels. After that, there’s a crossbar, held in by another two screws, on the left side to be removed. 

Our unit had an 8-inch Asus Dual GeForce RTX 2070 Mini inside (the dual refers to two fans, not two 2070 GPUs), so that had to be removed. You unplug the power cable from the card, remove two screws that secure the GPU to the case and then lift it out of the PCIe slot on the baseboard. There are two PCIe slots on the board that sit above the power supply (one PCIe x16, one PCIe x4), though the GPU in our unit was a dual-slot card.

With the GPU out of the way, you’re at the Compute Element. If you want to update storage or the RAM, there’s no real reason to lift it out.

The door on the Element is blocked by a paper “air guide,” so you need to hold that back. The door itself is held in place by two screws that need to be removed. Then you can lift the door off, though be careful because a cable attaches to the fan, which is a part of the door. 

Inside there are two M.2 slots (one of ours was filled with a Kingston KC2000 1TB SSD). The one on the left fits M.2 modules up to 110 mm in length, while the one on the right can fit a module up to 80 mm.

On the right side of the module are two SODIMM slots. Ours came with a pair of 8GB HyperX Impact RAM (16GB in total). Interestingly enough, it was a 3200 MHz pair, but Intel shipped it running at 2666 MHz.

The kit typically comes empty, so you will need to provide the RAM and storage if you purchase this NUC.

But there’s room for another SSD beneath the Compute Element, so we took that out, too. You remove one screw securing it to the case, and then disconnect the audio, Wi-Fi antenna, USB Type-C, front panel, fans and the 8-pin power connection. The Wi-Fi is particularly easy to remove, with two pins that simply lift out of the Element. Then you can unlock the PCIe slot and lift the Element out. 

There’s a heatsink covering the third M.2 slot, which is held down by two screws (this slot can fit modules up to 110mm. When you remove that, you can add more storage. Ours came filled with a 380GB Intel Optane 905p SSD. 

At this point, the teardown is essentially complete. The case, Compute Element and GPU are all separated. The pre-installed 500W Flex ATX power supply, however, is still in the case. To get everything back together and working, we had to effectively “build” the PC, reattaching the components and cables. 

How much it will cost to build as gaming PC?

It’s truly impressive how small the Intel NUC 9 Extreme Kit is. The design, with the Compute Element and a built-in mobile processor, is radically different from what one expects from a desktop. To some it may even be, well, extreme.

While we tested the “Ghost Canyon” system with RAM, storage, Windows 10 Home and even a discrete RTX 2070 GPU made specifically for small cases like this. But when this i9-9980HK configuration goes on sale, the barebones kit without any of those things will cost around $1,639.99 (less for the i5 and i7 model). You can get a powerful desktop that’s fully set up for less than that. To turn this into a fully functional gaming PC, you need more than $1,100 in parts. And that’s using a CPU that is already a generation old.

For $60 more than the Ghost Canyon NUC, you could buy the Zotac Mek Mini with a Core i7-9700 and Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super and all of the other parts you need. However, you can’t upgrade the CPU or GPU in that PC (they’re effectively locked in the chassis), so in some ways that’s even less upgradeable. You could also build a nice little Mini-ITX machine for the price, though that will be larger than this.

If size isn’t an issue but you want a prebuilt machine, something like the HP Omen Obelisk could be had for cheaper than a fully packed NUC. When maxxed out with a Core i9-9900, 32GB of RAM, an RTX 2070 Super and  7TB of storage, it’s almost $2,500 — still cheaper than Ghost Canyon as we reviewed it. But that’s also far larger and most of its storage is traditional spinning HDDs.

If you’re a gamer or a creative type with space at a premium, this form factor is sure to excite you. If space is your primary concern and price is no object, this is for you. But you’re also betting on a new platform in the Compute Element. If Intel continues to support it, this could be an enduring new PC form factor, and one that is fairly simple to upgrade or even build.

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