Intel Skull Canyon NUC6i7KYK Mini PC Review: Palm-Sized And Powerful
Intel's successful line of NUC (Next Unit of Computing) mini PCs have done well for the company, for various use cases where an ultra-small form factor computer might come in handy. In areas where a PC either needs to stay out of sight, blend in with its surroundings or squeeze in places where other, larger computers just couldn't go, a NUC can make a lot of sense. Tiny boxes like the Intel NUC5i5RYK can pack a fair amount of CPU horsepower in their petite, silver 4.5-inch frames, but some users still want more juice and beefier graphics for heavier gaming and content creation workloads.
Fortunately, Intel's process technology and CPU architecture marched on at its typical relentless pace and the company's new 6th generation Skylake CPU platform now offers a number of performance and feature enhancements, in addition to a CPU and much-needed GPU performance uplift, for the NUC product line.
Fortunately, Intel's process technology and CPU architecture marched on at its typical relentless pace and the company's new 6th generation Skylake CPU platform now offers a number of performance and feature enhancements, in addition to a CPU and much-needed GPU performance uplift, for the NUC product line.
Intel Skull Canyon NUC6i7KYK Mini PC
We first got a glimpse of the Intel NUC you see here, code named Skull Canyon, back at CES in January. To say this isn't your Daddy's NUC would be an understatement. Styled with a new thinner but longer, all black chassis design with digital grid markings and Intel's classic Skull branded logo, this NUC steps up and calls you out. Reminiscent of the original Skulltrail platform and Intel's countless enthusiast platforms with the mark of the skull thereafter, the Intel Skull Canyon NUC6i7KYK mini PC not only boasts a Skylake quad-core CPU that boosts to 3.5GHz, but also Intel's fastest Iris Pro Graphics 580 integrated graphics core, with 128MB of on-chip eDRAM (embedded DRAM) and the ability to boost to 1GHz.
And that's just the CPU. Like we said, not your Daddy's NUC. Let's take a closer look...
And that's just the CPU. Like we said, not your Daddy's NUC. Let's take a closer look...
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Networking
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So yes, we've got quad-core Skylake and Intel Iris Pro Graphics 580 on board, but also support for DDR4-2133MHz memory, up to two M.2 NVMe Solid State Drives, four USB 3 ports, a Thunderbolt 3 port and a built-in SD card reader. Take your average mainstream desktop PC, slice off some of its expansion slots, give it a generalized bandwidth shot in the arm and you've got the teeny-tiny little Skull Canyon NUC, ready to kick ass and take names. It's your basic Napoleon complex in a PC, but in a good way.
Intel keeps the Skull Canyon NUC6i7KYK light on literature and efficient on hardware, but for roughly $650 street price currently, the barebones setup, without M.2 storage or memory, is a bit on the pricey side. Drop in a 512GB Samsung SSD 950 Pro PCIe M.2 NVMe SSD and a 16GB (2X8GB) Kingston DDR4 SODIMM kit (we got Micron memory in ours actually), similar to the config we tested, and you're looking at roughly a $1K compact but powerful little PC. Intel also includes a 120 Watt AC power brick and a VESA mounting bracket, as you see above.
Let's dig a little deeper and open this bad boy up...
Let's dig a little deeper and open this bad boy up...
