Intel PCIe PC Ghost Canyon Review: NUC Thermals, Noise, & Tear-Down

The Intel Ghost Canyon NUC uses a "Compute Element" PCIe computer -- maybe Intel is practicing for future video cards -- and follows an ultra small form factor.
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This review of the Intel Ghost Canyon NUC and Compute Element heavily focuses on thermals, acoustics (noise levels), and splashes some gaming performance and production workloads in. For the review, we're tearing-down the Intel Ghost Canyon NUC, featuring an Intel i9-9980HK Compute Element with RTX 2070 for the discrete GPU. Heavy focus is given to system build quality and component selection, as the system attempts to achieve a smaller total system size than what's typically possible with mini-ITX motherboards and components. The previous Hades Canyon NUC used a unique combination of Intel and AMD silicon, part of the Kaby Lake G line, and also offered especially fun overclocking when combined with custom water cooling. It was completely impractical, but enjoyable as an enthusiast endeavor. The new Ghost Canyon NUC loses that silicon originality, instead leaving the GPU door open for user selection. It's sold as kits or as just the Compute Element (the CPU "card," basically), and there's potential for future unique ATX-sized builds with the mini-PC in the same enclosure.

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Value isn't particularly good on these parts for anyone used to DIY system building. This is low manufacturing volume and doesn't benefit as greatly from economies of scale, but it's also all custom-sized, proprietary form factor components that don't come cheap since they don't already exist en masse. The end result is a very specific, very niche product with high build quality, but which has some clear downsides. We talk about all of that in the review.

00:00 - Intro, Hades Canyon, & Pricing
03:53 - Noise Levels & Fan Ramp Issues
08:00 - Thermal Benchmarks In-Depth
11:35 - Tear-Down, Build Quality, Component Analysis
20:16 - Short Production Benchmarks
22:47 - Short Gaming Benchmarks
22:51 - Conclusion

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Editorial, Testing: Steve Burke
Video: Keegan Gallick, Andrew Coleman, Josh Coleman