Intel NUC 11 Extreme Kit powers a wee beastie of a gaming PC

If you want your PC to be really small but still powerful enough to game -- in other words, accommodate a full-size graphics card -- things can get tough, with 10 liters a common lower bound. Intel's NUC 11 Extreme Kit "Beast Canyon" squeezes all the gaming essentials, including an Intel Core i7 or i9 overclockable processor, room for a GPU as large as an Nvidia RTX 3080 Ti, and slots for up to 64GB RAM, into a case just a little bigger than an Xbox Series X.  

The key to the kit is Intel's Next Unit of Computing Compute Element, a self-contained motherboard module comprised of a CPU with supporting chipset, memory and NVMe slots, networking chipsets and antennas, plus a full set of connectors like you'd find on any typical motherboard. The kit itself includes the CE plus a case with a backplane that includes a slot for a GPU, power supply, front connectors, fans and RGB lighting. 

You don't have to use the NUC with Intel's kit; third parties make systems built around the NUC -- such as Razer's Tomahawk Gaming Desktop -- and you can buy the module by itself as an easy way to upgrade your CPU and connections. 

Intel expects to begin shipping sometime between Sept. and Oct., expanding into regions outside the US, China and Europe through the end of the year. There's no final pricing yet, but Intel expects the kit to run $1,150-$1,350 and $780-$980 for the Compute Element alone. You can preorder some basic configurations now from SimplyNUC.

I got a chance to test a preproduction, prebuilt version of the kit equipped with the Core i9 CE, 16GB RAM, 500GB NVMe SSD and an Asus Dual RTX 3060 graphics card.

The way Intel manages to put an i9 in such a small system with just some basic fans is by using a B-series processor. Those are middle-of-the-road 65w versions of its overclockable desktop CPUs, the same power draw as the mobile versions but in a smaller package. The standard i9-11900K goes up to 95w.

The tradeoff seems to be speed. For instance the NUC kit delivered roughly the same performance on processor tests as a Core i7-10700K. You don't get penalized for the GPU, though; I didn't get a chance to swap it, but the RTX 3060 performed almost identically across the board to one tested in a larger system. That's without Resizeable BAR enabled, though, so you might expect a slightly better showing.

You can use a much more powerful graphics card and I think the case can handle the heat output of higher-end cards, since there's ventilation on all sides and fans on top. It might be a different story if your GPU blows air toward the CE module rather than toward the outside vent, though.

The CPUs include integrated graphics (if you want to wait until graphics card supplies ease or just need a small desktop with a higher-power CPU than you get many laptops ), but while the CPU is Tiger Lake generation it uses the old Intel UHD 630 graphics architecture rather than the newer Iris Xe.  

When it comes to rolling my own PC, I fall into the "Anything's fair game except I don't want to touch the CPU or design a cooling system appropriate to everything I want to pack in" camp. I have a history of shaky hands, bent pins and little patience. A motherboard with a preinserted CPU that's small enough to fit on my desk with two monitors appeals to me a lot. 

And the fact that it has two Thunderbolt 4 connections, still a rarity in a desktop, is a big plus for me, as is the PCIe 4 bus. Skull graphic aside -- you don't have to keep the one on the front of the system -- I also really like the underlighting.

Its layout isn't bad, but it's not great. Of necessity, everything's crammed in pretty tightly with clunky power cables and it's tough to reach in far enough to press the slot release for the GPU. Intel's 8L chassis is bigger than previous models, which ran closer to 5L, so going just a little bit bigger to add some hand-wiggle room shouldn't be a stretch. Especially since to access the memory and SSD you've got to remove the GPU and open up the NUC. Fewer screws would be much appreciated as well. 

I think the layout and the resulting location of the Wi-Fi antennas, affects signal stability. It disconnected so frequently I had to switch to Ethernet just to install a few games, a problem I haven't had much since the AX200; that's a common problem with desktops , but many gaming systems ship with external antennas you can use to boost the signal. A Bluetooth-connected controller felt a tiny bit laggy, too.

The NUC 11 Extreme Kit has its place, but it's less of a full-on retail product than a proof-of-concept to inspire other manufacturers to offer sleeker NUC-based designs -- or to give twiddlers a box for fun and experimentation.