Introduction

Intel's first NUC (Next Unit of Computing) was released in 2013, based off of the Sandy Bridge architecture. First seen as competition that falls somewhere between the Mac Mini and Raspberry Pi, the team at Intel has changed that completely with the launch of their latest Skull Canyon NUC based on the Skylake architecture. Featuring Intel's latest integrated GPU, the Iris 580 Pro, as well Thunderbolt 3 for eGPU products, the NUC product family can finally be taken seriously by gamers. Huge thanks to Intel and G.Skill for providing the samples to make this review possible.





When Intel released their Skull Canyon NUC, we realized that this was a golden opportunity to demonstrate just how far technology has come. We dusted off our old but complete Intel Skulltrail system with CPU, RAM, and an NVIDIA GTX 9800 GX2 video card from 2009. Sadly, Intel no longer develops motherboards, but the team that worked on Skulltrail is in fact the same team that now develops Intel's NUCs, including the latest Skull Canyon version. Instead of the usual approach to reviewing hardware, which compares the product to other products in its category, we will be directly comparing Intel's latest Skull Canyon NUC to the legendary Skulltrail motherboard to show how far technology has come. Additionally, we will be taking a look at some real-world uses for NUCs and how they can be used outside of an office setting.

Packaging & Contents

The NUC comes packaged in a sleek, high-class black box with golden print and the most important specs on the side.


Immediately upon opening the box, you are greeted with the unit itself. You get a replacement top piece just in case you do not like the skull design, power brick, and VESA adapter plate.

The NUC

On the front, you get two USB 3.0 ports, a headphone jack, IR receiver, and an SD card reader. On the back, you have power, optical audio, Gigabit Ethernet, 2x USB 3.0 ports, the mini DisplayPort, Thunderbolt 3.0, and HDMI 2.0.


There are vents on either side.


This is where you take apart the unit to install the remaining components.



This is what it looks like on your desk.