Intel NUC 12 Extreme (Dragon Canyon) Review

1. Introducing Intel NUC 12 Extreme (Dragon Canyon) 2. Testing and Performance - CPU3. Testing and Performance - Thermals4. Closing Thoughts5. View All Pages

Intel NUC Extreme has evolved from a low powered PC that relies on integrated graphics into something altogether more interesting. The NUC Compute Element lies at the heart of the system and its use of a PCI Express interface means that most of the components are packaged in a single unit that can sit alongside the graphics card.

The chassis has been designed to cool the graphics card on one side while the Compute Element draws air in from the rear and expels it through the roof. To add an extra slice of interest, System Integrators can build their own chassis for the NUC, which allows the likes of Razer to create the Tomahawk Gaming Desktop with the minimum of fuss.

With the NUC 12 Extreme Intel has upgraded to its 12th Gen Alder Lake CPU technology and has also doubled the bandwidth of the PCI Express interfaces for the graphics and storage when compared to the previous NUC 11 Extreme.

These are big changes that are to be welcomed, however the price acts as a huge disincentive to any customer that might be interested in this fascinating piece of technology. In essence the Compute Element is a complete PC that is installed on a base board inside a chassis that houses the cooling system, power supply and graphics card, and those pieces all add up.

The problem is that you can build a more powerful Mini-ITX PC for a similar price and you can buy a laptop with a similar spec that is considerably easier to use on the move. This is pretty much inevitable as Intel has employed clever design and engineering and that generally does not come cheap. To our way of thinking this leaves NUC 12 Extreme chasing a small market which is something of a shame as the performance is impressive.

You will be able to buy the Intel NUC 12 Extreme barebones for circa £1,200-£1,400.

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Pros:

• Small form factor that supports a full sized GPU.
• Good airflow and cooling.
• Dual Thunderbolt 4 ports.
• 10Gb and 2.5Gb Ethernet plus WiFi 6E.

Cons:

• You pay a high premium for the NUC form factor.
• Using DDR4 looks a bit short sighted.
• The RGB lighting is misplaced and unnecessary.

KitGuru says: The 65W Intel Core i9-12900 at the heart of Dragon Canyon delivers good performance, however the price is way too high.

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