We’re the Intel team behind the new Skull Canyon gaming NUC, AMA!

This looks nice but gamers don't see Intel integrated graphics as gaming worthy. There are other small factor mini rigs with dedicated graphics GPUs from AMD and nvidia. Thunderbolt enclosures are few and expensive. What niche is this product trying to fill?

Understand about perception with Intel Graphics and gaming. Iris Pro has come a long way in the past few years. Check out this link) for the list of tested games on Skull Canyon. Some of the games on the list include Battlefield: Hardline and Grand Theft Auto V

It's certainly come a long way!

Do you think playing Dark Souls 3 on medium graphics at 1366x768 is what gamers are seeking though? The Skull NUC is what? A $600+ machine?

I'm not bashing the NUC, just you can't get amazing graphics performance out of the form factor (at this point in time) so it seems an odd choice to market to gamers.

Gamers are huge spectrum. Completely agree that there are gamers that would never want anything but a full tower rig that is completely maxed out and for them Skull Canyon doesn't make sense. But there are also lots of folks that don't want the big tower, whether because they want it connected to their TV in the living room or because they want to take it to LAN parties or because they play indie games and they don't need that level of performance.

Exactly.
The price tag might be right for lots of people. Tell me it will run Civ VI on best settings and I order now for instance.

I have no data on Civ VI, but it runs Civ V with settings at high with no issues.

Would there ever be a skull Canyon nuc with a xeon and ecc RAM? For the size I'd love to use it as a small server

We do not currently have any plans for this, although you are not the first to ask us this.

HomeLab folks would love to have a small NUC for server experimentation of this type!

Also with a second NIC.

take a look at GoRite as they have a cable to bring out a second LAN jack with a USB LAN adapter. Designed to work with our Maple Canyon NUCs.

I'd literally pull out my wallet right now for an option with ECC, something like a 1275 v5, and 32+ GB RAM.

Just another anecdote with which to build a business case. =)

If you have 9,999 friends pulling out their wallets for ECC, I can probably get that built for you!

Why was the choice made to not include an HDMI 2.0 port in the rest of the NUC6 series?

The NUC lineup is a favorite among HTPC users, but the lack of a HDMI 2.0 port in the NUC6i3 and the NUC6i5 is a huge disappointment. Instead, users who do not need an i7 processor have to get an adapter to pass from Display Port to HDMI in order to utilize HDMI 2.0 compatibility (apparently the adapter does some work to support this). Or they are left paying more for functionality they don't really need in a HTPC by purchasing the NUC6i7.

Will future NUCs all adopt the HDMI 2.0 standard?

EDIT: Mind, I'm not mad about this; just genuinely curious if there was a technical limitation or other reason for the choice.

In the other NUC6 products, the processor does not support HDMI 2.0, so unfortunately either could the NUC. But rest assured that future NUCs will continue along with HDMI 2.0 like Skull Canyon.

Can you guys speak to how you were able to efficiently cool such a small form machine? It seems like it would be a hard thing to do, with so much tech packed into such a (relatively) tiny space and, in so far as I can see, a fairly minimal set of vents on the machine.

This has been the biggest challenge with the design and it took multiple iterations of the vents, fan design and overall placement of all the internal components. Fortunately we have some of the best engineers on the planet working here!

With the announcement of Intel laying off a lot of people and a move towards cloud computing, can we still expect advancements in iGPU tech on consumer chips, or will things be slowing down for you pals?

Also, quicksync has been gaining popularity for Twitch streaming, do you take this into account at all when working on new iGPU tech?

I'm not part of the GPU team so I can't provide a lot of specifics here. However, Intel remains committed to advancing GPU technologies in our processors and I don't see that changing with the recent announcements.

Good morning Bruce and Crew,

1. What makes the Skull Canyon NUC better for gaming, and how warm does it get?
2. What did you have for breakfast?

Let’s start with the important stuff first – I ate the same thing this morning that I eat every day for breakfast: 2 scrambled eggs, English muffin and 3 mandarin oranges. As for Skull Canyon and gaming. What make Skull Canyon so exciting is that we have managed to create a unique combination of performance, size and thermals. These three taken together mean that Skull Canyon can play most games on the market today and still be less than .7 L in size (that’s smaller than 2 cans of soda!). The unique thermal design means that the unit is very quiet even when being pushed to the limit.

But how warm does it get under load? If you're running it at 100% of capacity, what's the temp on the chip?

The temp on chip at 100% sits right below the max TDP for the chip (which is 100 degrees C)

and how warm does it get?

The temp on chip at 100% sits right below the max TDP for the chip (which is 100 degrees C)

Although relatively capable right now, the useful life of the CPU is going to vastly outlive the iGPU. If you really want to be serious about gaming this is something that needs to be addressed. The obvious way to get around this is external graphics.

An enclosure where you can stick an NVIDIA or AMD card inside strikes me as a very un-Intel like solution. I know how you guys like to stay in house. Your GPU architecture is now pretty good on a perf/die space basis.

So is Intel ever planning or considering a discrete GPU? You have the architecture, why not adapt it to an add-in board?

Completely agree about the benefit for external graphics in certain cases. And Skull Canyon, with Thunderbolt 3, was designed with that capability in mind for those that need it. As for Intel and discrete GPUs - not my area of Intel so I don't have visibility there.

Hello team, I just have 2 questions:

1- How do you expect Intel Iris graphics to evolve in the next few years? Are they now able to replace GPUs in low budget illustration/editing oriented builds?

2- How has been the "make an efficient but cool" PC been like? I guess fitting so much parts in a small case must have required some previous studies

All of the luck, I might get one of these for my dad if they finally convince me

Iris graphics today does perform as well or better than entry level add in graphics cards. Obviously moving forward we anticipate that both the internal and external graphics will continue to advance in capabilities and performance. To your second question, it's been awesome! Been working on this team since the inception of the concept that turned in the NUC products. Tons of challenges around size and particularly thermals - but we have a fantastic engineering team that is always been able to find the path forward

So I have to be honest with you- this entire thing seems like it was put to market without any honest research of the gaming niche you need to appeal to, to make it successful.

What market research was conducted which indicated you were fulfilling (or improving) a need unmet by the current options available to PC gamers?

I've been a PC gamer for a very long time, and I literally see zero reason to change my habits. I build PCs with upgradability and versatility in mind. There's always a "sweet spot" in every new generation of available PC hardware which doesn't necessitate splurging on the fastest to get something that will amply run modern games for 4-5 years with minimal upgrading.

Why would anyone like me move from that type of cost effectiveness, to whatever this is?

I completely understand that you wouldn't transition. Intel loves gamers who go out and build their full towers with all the power and speed available. The goal with a product like this is to open up gaming to new markets, to new customers by offering something different - in this case a new form factor. So maybe someone wants to add a gaming PC to their home but they didn't want a tower sitting by the TV, this might be an option for them. Maybe someone wants both a desktop PC (say for video editing) but also enjoys the occasional LAN party, this might be the right option for them. The point is I would be surprised if a bunch of current gamers who are happy with their rigs would change.

I'm a little conflicted, as I really like the idea of the product and would love to have one, but at the current price it just doesn't make sense. At $650 for the NUC you could get a PS4 and Xbox One for the same price, and you'd still need RAM, SSD, and OS. Obviously the NUC is going to be more flexible in what it can do, but it seems like an odd price point to aim at with a mini system aimed at the gaming crowd. Do you see this as being a desktop replacement, or more of a living room entertainment device that can also be used for general computing? Was $650 for the barebones system the target from the outset, or was that just where you ended up once putting in the features and performance level you wanted?

We see the product as either gaming (where size matters - connected to a TV or portable for LAN parties), prosumers and workstation applications. The pricing is right around where we were targeting during the planning stages for the product (the goal was to ensure that someone could build a full unit for $999)

Will the NUC6i7KYK support the GTX 1080?

It can support external graphics through the Thunderbolt 3 connection and a graphics box like the recently announced Razer Core.

Hey, Thats a really cool PC! I always found that Intel has had great linux support. Is that something you guys actively work on, i.e. write linux drivers or make sure linux supports your chipsets well or is that mostly done by the community?

Also, can you do non-graphic computing on the IRIS PROs like OpenCL etc.? As a not-really-gaming anymore kinda guy, having a small general purpose high power computing thing with a skull on it woud be very cool.

Thank you for the AMA, you guys seem very open and honest with your answers and it seems the community is interested in your awesome thermal design for this powerdevice.

The Linux support is a combination of active work from Intel to write the necessary drivers and the community on-going work to ensure that Intel products are fully supported. As to you as a not-really-gamer anymore, Skull Canyon could still be an awesome choice. The product is great for non-graphic computing as well - we talk about it being used by prosumers and creative professionals in addition to gamers.

What do you think of the recent round of layoffs, and what it means for Intel's direct-marketed products like NUC? (Especially in light of Intel stopping making desktop motherboards.)

https://www.reddit.com/r/Portland/comments/4ixmob/intel_will_lay_off_12000_american_workers_after/

the recent layoffs are obviously challenging for the company right now and not everything is clear. However, Intel remains committed to innovation through technology and products like the Intel NUC continue to help drive that innovation both for Intel and the industry. I was part of the desktop motherboard team when that decision was made and I do not feel that we are in a similar position at this time with the Intel NUC.

Hi guys. Thanks so much for this innovative computer! I can't wait to get one. I am particularly excited about the potential of Thunderbolt 3 and external GPUs while maintaining a small form factor. I think this will be the future of PC gaming and perhaps desktop computers in general. Would you agree? And if so, can you share any of the future plans Intel may have in the area of NUC and external GPUs?

Glad you see the possibilities here as well! I can't divulge too much unpublished roadmap information, but I can tell you that you will be seeing more Thunderbolt 3 on Intel NUCs in the future.

1. Can you share the 580 performance on a benchmark?
2. Will the stock GPU run Killer Instinct?

Check out this link) for the list of games that we have tested to date with Skull Canyon. Take a look and check back as we continue testing more games.

And the requested benchmarks? The link you provided does not show any benchmark information for the games.

I don't have any benchmarks today that I can share publicly (Intel's rules on benchmark sharing are pretty stringent). Note that we just sent out a bunch of Skull Canyon to leading tech publications for reviews. You should begin seeing benchmark data from them in the next week or so.

Hi there! Thank you for your time and as a Sysadmin I love the NUCs and their minimal desk presence since I mount everything to the back of monitors.

Who's your favorite Destiny's Child member and why is it Beyonce?

LOL! (Don't know how you knew it)

Intel, an you confirm that the Skull Canyon can be "powered on" (not from sleep, from full power off) using IR? I want to use my Harmony remote to power on the device and not have to leave it in sleep mode all the time. Thanks!

And btw I should have mine here from Newegg tomorrow ;)

Yes - it can be powered on from power off using the IR. Enjoy your Skull Canyon!

First, I want to thank you guys for creating such a great portable PC. I was wandering what are the unique features of Skull Canyon that sets it apart from Mac minis that Apple has been building almost for decades? Both of them can run Windows, have plenty of ports, have very small size.

One is the performance level of the graphics - Skull Canyon has Iris Pro graphics, the latest Mac Minis either HD or Iris graphics. The other is that the Mac Mini is still a proprietary device while Skull Canyon lets you customize the device exactly as you want it.

1.) Does this run a proprietary OS or is it open?

2.) I have heard zero about this, till today, why is that?

3.) How much?

4.) As someone who has been building their own systems for years, is this something I would actually be interested in?

Also, just wanted to mention, sorry but the video sux, lots of "flash", no content.

1) it can run any OS that works with an Intel processor (and you can dual boot if that is your interest). Nothing proprietary.

2) guess we need a new marketing team!

3) check Newegg and Amazon. They are selling for around $659

4) I build PCs too and I want one of these. Makes a good steam box, looks great plugged in to your TV and it's customizable - choose the memory, storage, and OS of choice and you are good to go

Why do you use that skull logo? Don't you think it looks somewhat silly?

The skull has been a logo that we have been using for our enthusiast/gaming product for many years - first with motherboards and then with SSDs and now with the NUC. We do recognize that some won't like it or won't want to use so we do include a second lid in the box that is user replaceable that doesn't include the skull.

Any plans to put the Iris Pro in less expensive SKUs? Seems like if consumers are going to spend a lot of money, they're going to opt-in for discrete graphics cards from Nvidia or AMD.

I say this as a big Intel fan and fan of small computing devices. I have a very niche need for Iris Pro in small HTPC but others seem to be willing to build at least an mATX case. I was going to buy a Broadwell i5-5675C with the Iris Pro for Streamcom case, but it's so expensive, especially since Intel under-produced them.

Also... any chance of an Iris or Iris Pro Computer Stick? even if it's a little fatter than the usual ones...

We do have Iris graphics (not Iris Pro however) in a couple of other NUCs with i5 and i7 processors. As for on Compute Sticks, we don't have plans today to do that. The thermal envelope just doesn't allow for that much power in that tiny of a device.

So I was looking at the NUC for a new build, but I see a number of the 6th gen/Skylake ones getting bad reviews for having problems recognising RAM or having the memory controller fail. I also heard there was a hardware revision out. How do you know which of the ones you are getting, or would I be better off with a 5th gen unit?

Also, does the new Skull Trail model you guys are talking about today use the same memory controller?

Yes, the 6th gen NUCs have been receiving some negative reviews, and rightfully so. Fortunately, we have resolved the issue with a BIOS update and all of the products being built now have the fix in place and as long as you update the BIOS on a unit that you might purchase, you will be fine. Skull Canyon does not have this same issue.

What new tech are you most excited about?

In the computing world, it is VR. Can't wait to see what the world does as the VR ecosystem builds out and we are all creating VR content with our phones. Should be very exciting!

How has your MBA helped you (or not) in your career at Intel?

very valuable as it is how I got started at Intel transitioning here after I finished my degree. The main thing that the MBA helps with is a way of thinking - being able to approach problems holistically, taking into account all the factors that are important to a business and effectively working with others to get work done. I don't remember the specifics of finance or accounting that i learned, but these things impact me everyday in my job.

Can you describe the ways in which Visual BIOS improves the experience of Skull Canyon gaming?

Hey Chris - nice to hear from you! As you well know, Visual BIOS provides an incredibly easy and functional interface for managing BIOS settings. It is still a great feature of all our NUC products.

I get that this supports external GPU boxes with thunderbolt 3 but why didn't you guys just design a built in pic-e slot and space for a dedicated gpu? Or have an alternate shell or something.

There are lots of systems in the market today that can provide a standard PCIe slot. Our goal with Skull Canyon was to do something unique - an incredibly small (less than .7 L) and quiet device that can still play most games in the market today.

This is a crazy machine, it has a ton of power but at the same time is a bit light weight for creative or gaming workloads. What type of workloads or places do you see this machine working well for?

Mine is pre-ordered and will be running data tools with output to a projector

Glad you have one pre-ordered! Hope you get it soon. Several scenarios that we are thinking about - gaming, prosumer and workstation spaces. But we are confident that there will be lots of creative uses for it once folks like you get their hands on it.

What is the future of this new NUC form factor? Will there be multiple models sharing the same chassis as Skull Canyon?

We do intend to continue with these high performing NUCs (assuming you guys all buy one, of course!) with future generations. We will have to wait to see whether they look the same as Skull Canyon or we do something else even cooler!

I've always be skeptical of integrated GPUS, however they do seem to be coming into their own at the moment. And the fact it can run Crysis is pretty neat - I'd also be interested to hear how it runs more recent games like Battlefield 4, Battlefront, Tomb Raider, and Just Cause 3.

My question then, is how upgradeable is this going to be? In a year or two's time can we upgrade the CPU with the latest and greatest CPU/GPU, or are we out of luck and it's locked down tighter than an Apple?

Lots of recent games run great on Skull Canyon. We have a web page) of all the latest tested games. Over 80 already on the list and we'll keep adding as time goes on. Unfortunately to get the device as small as this, the CPU is soldered down to the motherboard, so without some very high tech equipment, there is no way to remove it and change out the CPU.

You mentioned that the Skull Canyon is capable of handling most games on the market today. In what resolution do you mean? FHD, 2K, 4K?

With the Thunderbolt 3 port being able to offload graphics processing to an external card, do you see Intel in particular manufacturing compatible cases for the Skull Canyon?

Also, what's for lunch?

Check out this page) - it lists all the games that we have tested along with recommended settings for the best experience. Lunch today will most likely be a salad and a banana

Is there going to be a cheaper (i.e. with an i3/i5/Pentium) model?

The Intel NUC product family includes Atom, Celeron, i3 and i5 models. Check out this page for all of our products

1. Are you going to support 3rd party cases?
2. Is there any way to plug a classic HD?
3. Will you launche a Skull Canyon into a classic NUC case?

Right now, we are only offering Skull Canyon as a full solution so no 3rd party cases at the moment. this is driven by the need to manage the cooling solution very precisely. Spinning drives would only be possible externally Skull Canyon just can't fit in a classic NUC case, so no.

Hey guys,

Currently for me, and many others, building a high end PC in a slightly larger hull is no intellectual challenge. Although it is often a monetary challenge. Why should I consider this product when I can build something just as good and I have no need for reducing volume? It's a gaming rig, I'm not faced with the challenge of fitting a dozen of these in a closet. Surely the R&D is going to ultimately come out of the customers pocket. Why pay more for something I don't need that may not have the same modular function of a device I could build myself? Is there really a big enough market to justify this product?

Kind of a rant, but I've been seeing several of these product types pop up lately and to me they come off as an attempt to turn PCs into an over hyped console.

Completely understand - if size makes no difference to you (you don't care where the product sits, how it looks, how easy it is to move around, etc) then I completely agree. As with the entire NUC product line, they value that they bring is being able to do more in a smaller space.

Hey there Team!

Huge fan of Intel from India.

You guys blew my mind with the Skull Canyon NUC. Didn't think this would even be possible.

Great work you guys.

I'm sorry if it deviates from the topic but when releasing a product like this Do you consider the emerging markets like India and SE Asia in general?

Because it's usually ignored by most of the gaming industry and products are priced insanely high.

What goes on when pricing or selecting the region you want to release in?

And The most important one,Why the skull? Any back story?

we do think about the emerging markets as we develop our products. Skull Canyon is being released worldwide and should be available in India within the next couple of weeks. As for the skull - we have been using the Skull to represent our highest end, gaming devices - whether motherboards, SSDs or NUCs - for many years. So when we developed Skull Canyon it made sense. With that said, we know the skull is not as accepted in some cultures and we do ship another lid in the box that anyone can swap out that does not include the skull on it.

Less than gtx 750 ti power and no RAM to speak of. Maybe it plays crysis, but nobody plays crysis.

Gamers won't want this, casuals will prefer a decent laptop... who is this really being made for?

being made for a range of uses, including prosumers and workstation uses in addition to gaming. For gamers, check out this link) for all the games that have been tested to date that work great on Skull Canyon

What advantages does this give to us (what I believe to be the majority) people that dont care about small form factor?

You went so small that its smaller than most laptops and consoles. People who play high end games tend to have real size rigs and are okay with that.

Why push the limit in size when there really isnt much need to. Most people I know would choose top of the line performance over such a compact medium any day. Why not choose something in the middle? Yeah, I can play Crysis, but we want Battlefield One going 60+ FPS at 4k resolution. Maybe I just dont understand the product.

If there is no benefit to the user around size (don't care about how it looks, where you can put it/hide it, how easy it is to take somewhere) then Skull Canyon probably doesn't make sense. Don't know how Battlefield One will play until it is out, but Battlefield: Hardline does run well on Skull Canyon today.

Here is my dream - I want to explore the country in an Airstream, shooting photos and videos of this great land and its people. At the end of the day I want to get back to the Airstream and download and edit my photos and 4k footage with Adobe Creative Cloud with a system that takes up very little space - 24" wide gamut display mounted on the wall, Thunderbolt 3 RAID tucked into a corner, and a Skull Canyon NUC maxed out on 32GB RAM and 2 ultra fast 512GB M.2 PCIE SSDs.

So my question is this - can the Skull Canyon NUC specced above edit a 4k video stream in Adobe Premier? Can you give me my dream?

Dream away my friend! The Skull Canyon can do that and more!

It seems to me that for the price to purchase an external gpu in order to make this box perform its purpose: gaming, a laptop of similar price would far exceed the function and ability to game that this nuc does.

Who is this product for?

Product is for a range of folks, including prosumers, creative professionals as well as gamers that value portability and/or physical size over ultimate performance. For folks that are happy gaming on their 17" screen, the laptop makes a lot of sense. If you want to game on your big screen with your friends, a sleek small design like Skull Canyon might be a better solution.

Will the i7 unit display 4K@60hz to two displays simultaneously (via DP and HDMI ports)?

Yes - we can actually display out to up to three displays at 4K

Hey Intel,

I was really happy to see you guys push for smaller socketable form factors with mini STX last year. Any news on when we'll see more progress on that with board developers/case manufacturers?

Also Kaby Lake, think we'll see some GT4e desktop SKUs or has Intel shied away from those after Broadwell?

Mini STX remains a focus for Intel and I know that there will be some announcements at the upcoming IDF from board developers about their plans for the form factor, so stay tuned!

Where do you see room for improvement in CPUs in general or better yet what do you think the next big break through in the technology will be?

I could tell you but then I would have to kill you ;) Ok, actually I don't know about any of the big technology breakthroughs that the CPU and manufacturing teams are working on. We'll both be surprised together!

Completely strange question, but I can't find the answer anywhere...

I bought from a junkyard a Intel SC5250-E chassis to attempt to make a overclocked Haswell build.

It has a front fan slot near the "PCI guide area" that has in the horizontal direction 113mm of distance between holes, but in the vertical direction 96mm

What fan was supposed to go there? Or what device? I can't find anything that fits it!

Sorry, don't know. You might want to check with the folks in the /r/hardware subreddit

So I'm an idiot and I still don't get what the nuc is. Can you explain like I'm an idiot?

in the simplest terms, a NUC is a Mini PC. It is a product line, developed by Intel to push the boundaries of what is possible with performance in a tiny space. Skull Canyon is our latest and most powerful offering to date.

(1) what sort of performance scaling have you seen with RAM speeds? Any maximum RAM speed you have tested successfully? (2) due to power usage, do you expect any performance impacts when using 32GB vs. 16GB due to enclosure TDP limits? Thanks!

We have gotten all the way to 3000MHz on the ram successfully. Performance increases are relatively small as you move up in speed. There should not be any performance impacts moving up in the amount of memory

Can we expect more improvements on the compute stick front? I like the idea of one that's good enough for general computing and while the 3738 is pretty cool considering it's size and power consumption I find it's really not quite up to the task, both due to raw performance and the generally poorly performing I/O it gets paired with. Will I see anything on the shelves soon™ that I could in good conscience recommend to someone who wants a basic facebook, youtube and office machine on a stick?

We continue to improve the compute stick line. We just launched the newest compute stick with Core m3 and Core m5 processors, 4 GB of memory and 64 GB of storage. These are definitely steps up from what we have produced so far. For a basic computer like you mention, these would be more than adequate.

This thing seems pretty neat, however do you think not including your own external GPU cage might end up hurting its sales? What would you like to add to this concept later on down the line?

There are folks in the industry creating the external GPU cage (Razer recently announced theirs) so that shouldn't be a problem. We would love to find a way to put a Xeon processor in this box for a great server.

Why did you decide to go with a 6770HQ, and not a 6970HQ?

Also, what do you think about my next PC?, I'm going from a 4720HQ to a 5820K.

Good looking rig! Make sure you invest in an SSD though. The processor decision was a tradeoff of price / performance / thermals. in such a small design we make these tradeoffs for literally every component we select