Intel's Impressive Pre-Built Mini-PC: Review & Tear-Down of Phantom Canyon NUC
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- Опубликовано: 4 авг 2024
- Intel’s newest ultra-small form factor gaming PC is out, and we’re benchmarking the Intel Phantom Canyon NUC11PHKi7C pre-built PC for thermals, power, build quality, and gaming performance.
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Watch our review of Intel’s previous Ghost Canyon NUC PCIe PC: • Intel PCIe PC Ghost Ca...
Intel’s NUC line has been one of the company’s best endeavors over the years. The previous NUCs included Ghost Canyon (and the Compute Element), and before that, Hades Canyon. Both of these were unique in their own ways: Ghost Canyon had a socketable PC that could install in a PCIe slot, while Hades Canyon features an amalgamation of Intel and AMD to form a mobile computing powerhouse. Phantom Canyon us the new one, or more accurately named the NUC11PHKi7C for this kit, and runs an Intel CPU with an NVIDIA RTX 2060. Our benchmarks of this small form factor HTPC include gaming tests, thermals, power testing, IGP testing, and a couple production benchmarks for Premiere and code compile. We also did a full tear-down of the Phantom Canyon NUC, looking at the build quality and design.
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TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - Intel's Best Work
02:05 - Unique NUC Pre-Builts
04:08 - Phantom Canyon NUC Tear-Down & Disassembly
13:42 - CPU Thermals & Fan Curve Settings
15:26 - NUC CPU + GPU Thermals
16:10 - Vertical vs. Horizontal Thermals
16:54 - NUC11PHKi7C Power Consumption
18:15 - Game Benchmarks for Phantom Canyon
19:47 - IGP Testing
21:36 - Chromium Code Compile
22:24 - Adobe Premiere Benchmarks
23:31 - Final Hardware Thoughts
27:42 - Conclusion
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Host, Test Lead, Writing: Steve Burke
Testing, Writing: Patrick Lathan
Script Peer Review: Patrick Stone
Video: Andrew Coleman, Keegan Gallick 
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Watch our review of Intel’s previous Ghost Canyon NUC PCIe PC: ruclips.net/video/CCoLJeUbZTc/видео.html
Okay will do
If 1060 history has taught us anything, its that the 2060 will become the most popular card in the world..... if Nvidia id not dilute the market with 3 different 16 series cards... now worst cards will be.
*@**3:45** When Apple solder RAM and other components - it is BAD - when Intel solder RAM and other components - it is GOOD - prebuild - how much intel PAID you for this?!*
@@AppleReviews 6:08 its clearly using removable laptop ram... and upgradable m.2...
Someone have an idea which company make the huge "table set" given by GamerNexus ?
'We called it Hades River' how could you possibly miss the opportunity to call it Styx
EXACTLY!
Navigating the Styx in Hades Canyon. I'm pretty sure this PC is actually a death metal album.
...because they were fully aware coming up with that name that it's called Styx. But wanted to allude to Intel's name. They know that there's a river flowing through Hades, for fuck's sake.
Just because Intel's device is called "Hades Canyon," so we wanted to keep "Hades" in the name.
The Rocket Lake one could be called Fish Styx, and they could stencil Kanye West's face onto the case.
Does the unit work? Yes. Is it marketed weird as hell? Yes. Cringe skull? [X] Tryhard naming conventions? [X]. Feels like these would blow up with a marketing makeover. Also NUC doesn't really convey what the product does. It's basically a Mac Mini for Windows, and a good product, IMO.
No way! These products are expensive and difficult to ascertain their best use-cases, but, Intel Marketing isn't made up of engineers nor scientists, is my guess. Breaking away from Desktop or Laptop form factor isn't an over-night effort. I say more plz.
@Dr. Hibbs I get it, expensive is relative. That was hardly my main point though!
for the price of the NUC, you can get a laptop, which is what a NUC is without the screen but all the prices.
@@tsijr915 yes we know this. i think you missed the fact that this NUC is ALSO a means of acquiring a 2060 GPU for cheaper if you manage to buy the barebones kit of this NUC. It's 1200 on all the sites I could find it. Too bad it's almost totally out of stock everywhere.
@Dr. Hibbs Nonsense. The expectation is that people aren't stupid enough to spend scalper prices. No point complaining about GPU prices if you PAY the individuals raising prices and buying up all the stock, yes? Those products are out of stock until the MSRP is officially raised.
Who knew that a day would come, where the NUC would be considered an affordable and pretty good option.
Me!
They again, pretty much all pre-builts are at or below the price you would pay for the included GPU alone.
The year of our lord 2021, year 2 of the coronavirus era
@@samabrams5297 yes the pandemic era will never end until the sheeple herd have all been vaxterminated or made into a trans-sheeple slaves!
@@wowitsshit9734 was that English?
"and others are working on...Rocket Lake" LOL
So much shade
Shots fired
Rocket lake is not a bad cpu lineup. Most of the criticism comes from the value proposition and the pricing of the 11900K. But as cpus, Rocketlake cpus are perfectly decent. The 11900K, when not power limited, is overall the fastest octacore cpu in the market. Overpriced? Sure. But then again there is also the 11700K which is $400 and is almost as good as the 11900K. Steve reviewing it with power limits and early BIOS didn’t do that chip any favours. Also he didn’t bother to overclock the 11700K or when he tried, he tried to do so the old-fashioned way and didn’t use per core overclocking. Had he done that, he would be able to redefine the turbo boost table to at least that that of the 11900K.
@@alexmarin7897 "The 11900K, when not power limited, is overall the fastest octacore cpu in the market"
That is a very generous statement, especially considering how high the power consumption is when the power limiting is disabled. From what I recall of reviews, the 11900k holds its own (not wins overall) during the τ period, so I'm not so sure it would do all that well. And, arguing about overclocking per core is meaningless to the community unless most chips may be shown to achieve such overclocks, which I doubt. One reviewer had his 11900k thermal throttling with a 240mm AiO; silicon quality variability happens..
"the female snap disconnected with the stud ... still socketed together" A better love story than Romeo and Juliet!
Naming aside, this is actually a pretty good product. Wish more people knew that you don't need a full/mid-tower desktop anymore to get a mid-range performance PC.
I'm sure a lot of people are realizing this today, not by choice though
It would be a good product if it wasn't running your NVME storage at 60C. That is HOT for a storage drive particularly long term. I'd wager it will be the first thing to fail in these units and I'd also wager that it won't take a couple years.
The way things are going, we are buying a GPU and the CPU is thrown in for cheap / free.
Sure, the performance is suitable but the form factor comes at a price. These things are great in limited space environments but a lot of people would rather save money or have more flexibility with a desktop or achieve portability with a laptop.
4 cores running at 3.5 GHz + mobile rtx 2060 at 1.3k dollars, a good product? Okay.
Since it's a backlight through a screen, could you theoretically laser cut a custome screen? GN NUC soon?
Great point. You could definitely do that!
The NUC series used to be moddable with open 3D files and reserved connections inside the PC (i think usually 2xUSB 3.0 and power Sata reserved for custom tops).
The new NUCs probably still are customizable...
edit: i have a canyon hades and the top is slightly curved, so 3D printing probably is the only way to get a closed top again
@@alexmayer8877 holy crap. That'd be dope! Love to play with shit like that. Gotta make a note to get a NUC at some point lol. I've always liked the form factor and idea.
@@alexmayer8877 How do you find the Hades btw? Was thinking of getting on on eBay. My main concern is noise as I was intending to leave it on 24/7 - is the fan quiet when not gaming? Also can it play 4K H265 files no problem? Thanks
I have access to a laser cutter at work and we frequently cut materials that would work for this. I really want to get one of these as a portable LAN machine for once the world opens up again. Maybe I'll show up with a custom logo on there.
Intel should honestly pay you for this. You did a better job communication than their entire marketing team.
With one exception: NUCs are not home theater PCs. Anybody who spends a few hundred dollars (much less over a thousand) on an HTPC wants a Blu-Ray drive - After all, most TVs now come with Netflix and other streaming services integrated. It pisses me off so much, because a NUC wouldn't have to be much taller to use a slimline laptop ODD and at worst, a little over twice as tall to use a full 5.25" ODD. It's entirely within the realm of possibility, but only a few companies produce mini PCs/mini PC kits that support an ODD.
@@angolin9352 well i need a nuc like pc on my tv. Tv interface is slow, locked down and full of crap. I use linux + kodi, yes a less performant pc would be better for that, but the nuc leaves me the option of light gaming , productivity, and multitasking on my TV!
@@angolin9352 as for the blu-ray i have a lenovo SFF i5-6xxx , put in BR. NEVER use it. Plastic boxes just arent convenient in 2021.
I may use it to rip my BR.
of course he got paid by intel are you serious? 🤣
@@alextupu4716 nah he says it when its sponsored. There is no reason to lie.
That Hades Canyon NUC was really damn cool, most notably due to the SOC that had an Intel CPU w/ and AMD iGPU with HBM. Unfortunately, I believe they ended graphics driver support some time ago. IIRC it was only supported for around 2 years.
You're right, yeah. It didn't get very long term support. Very unfortunate, because it was such a cool box!
they work fine with current drivers from AMD. Intel just stopped repacking the drivers with their own branding
Well, i guess you could say that Intel banished Hades Canyon to the Tartarus, since they ended graphics driver support.
So AMD are continuing support for an Intel product that Intel no longer supports! What a crazy world!
@@jonathanellis6097 Strictly speaking AMD is supporting a graphics chip they made. Intel is just acting like any other OEM and not providing re-packs the second they sold the last unit.
Outstanding job fellows!
I was so jealous when your screwdriver first hit it, but your thoroughness took care of that.
You got to love it when they don't completely hamstring their engineers.
I think the 2 vacant memory slots are for a 2070 SKU that wasn’t released. There’s someone over at the Intel Nuc subreddit who got their hands on a 2070 model and posted benchmarks for it.
that would be cool, as you can buy 2 more equivalent memory modules and a gtx 2070 gpu, solder it on the PCB and switch the vBios for the 2070 vBios. Good performance upgrade if your 2060 nuc needs a reballing service :D
@@engenhokas69 But they added thermal pads anyway :D even thou there is no memory modules. Maybe you desolder and change for 2070 ...so it's upgrade ready
@@arva1kes you need to update the bios, and find a working one for your pcb
link pls
The credits were sick! Nice presentation! Glad the whole team gets a nod!
This Intel skull logo is pretty cool IMO. It dates way back as well, I own a couple of 775 and 1366 Intel motherboards with this logo on them, although never mentioned in the name.
Glad you're testing more widely, especially these compact devices and also the iGPUs.
yooooooo I knew I wasn't the only one who appreciates NUCs for what they were intended to be. awesome video. the evolution of hades to ghost to phantom is nifty. i definitely want to add a phantom and a compute element to my collection.
NUC team: We are playing offense, not defense!
Rocket Lake team: dErP
awesome channel - love it. off topic: Was Jay salty when you beat him in the LTT tech support shootout?
now do a segment on cooling mods, like putting this thing in a different case, full size tower cooler somehow, really cool
I love your teardowns. Looking always forward to more of them! 👍
Killing it!!! Thank you for the steady flow of content.
Hahahahahah "Intel has some engineers that work on things that perform really well, and some that work on rocket lake - GN"
18:16 Great way of quickly illustrating the games you test with
Great review and a great Nuc. Please also review the next gen version of this product, Nuc 12 Enthusiast Serpent Canyon.
I've bought a few intel NUC's over the years. Super handy when you just need a random computer somewhere. I finally retired my living room pc and put a NUC behind the tv, and it works great. These are great little systems.
Always been a fan of the NUC line. I have one of the smaller non-gaming ones set up as a media server on a coffe lake CPU (8259U, I think?), and it does really well even when transcoding.
Nice review as always, thank you!
And congrats on 300M views!
Your video are so informative but its a pity that you are not getting the attention you deserve . I think making the videos little bit smaller while maintaining the information would give the boost to the channel 😀
I noticed in your summary you marked having access to a HDMI compatible display or carrying around extra peripherals (like a monitor) would be necessary to use this device at hotels and on the go at trade shows, etc.
Did you consider every using a laptop-type dock for the NUC like something like the Nexdock or similar laptop-shell devices? (where there's no CPU in the device, it's just basically a laptop monitor with integrated keyboards and trackpad.)
I got older version of nuc installed at work and it made everything so much more clean and easy. Even the janitor compliments it because it is simpler for him to clean the desks.
Is there a way to use the dGPU through the thunderbolt port? I haven't found one yet.
4:49 - "Fairly black" was fairly rainy :D (btw thanks for great vid !)
Is undervolting available still on these? That really helped on my old dell xps 15 with the 8750h.
You should cut/print a GN logo into/onto your own mask for that light up thing, if it's satisfactory as a portable editing rig.
something I noticed, those fans will also have air coming in through the back of the fan on the other side of the actual "intake" which will also draw air over those heat pipes above the silicon
You can get a tool from Hirose for those UFL connectors, reduces the force on the pcb pads
I don't own or build nothing like this but I've watched like 5 teardowns and feel like I've learned TONS. keep it up
I have been using this one since 2021 and it runs great, powering my 4K 34" monitor just fine for daily use, work, as well as some light gaming (Diablo 3, and low setting D4).
I just replaced the thermal paste with the Honeywell PTM 7950 and the temperature seems to be better:
Ambient Temp: 23C
CPU: 35-37C idle, 60-65 full load (coding)
GPU: 35-40C idle, 50-55C full load (Diablo 3).
You should build in the skyreach 4 mini, I know it's not your typical product but it would be cool and could serve you as a portable editing rig!
Wonder if the case can be modded with a small LCD screen of temps and other things. Would look cool and functional.
Steve, if you had to choose between this nuc or a custom ITX build using the new Meshlicious case for your mobile editing rig, which one would you go for? Do you think the meshlicious case is as mobile?
the part about great cooling control options comes from the same great bios options as hades canyon that i have one too!
Imo air is coming in from top and bottom of blowers and the side inlet venting is a key part of the cooling design making sure there's some airflow in the case over the non-heat piped parts
Can you possibly do a review on the Coloful CVN x570 motherboard?
I am having a difficult time finding info about it....
I bought the skull canyon version as a mobile shop streaming platform. It works flawlessly even with dual screen and running several programs. I haven't looked at it's performance metrics yet but it hasn't bogged down at all.
That moment when your portable editing station is more powerful than your home computer. @steve when are you going to upgrade from the ancient amd home rig
he's to busy working to play games and when he gets time off he probably rides his bike lol.
Compliments on the conversion from a ribbon cable to a regular (and long) cable for the RGB logo thing!
Great Review. Thank You
I had to watch that skull graphic removal 5 times to figure out why the back light changed color when you lifted it up and then let it back down. It just magically changed from black to all white. The I saw the silkscreen image sitting over on your bench in the corner of the screen. Kind of wild editing there.
I wonder how the Rocket Lake engineers felt when developing that product and how their engineering peers who worked on more exciting new architectures looked upon them in the cafeteria. :D
Imagine one of these with a 8 core Ryzen and a slim Blu-Ray drive, would make an awesome HTPC and retro console.
10:00 I almost fainted from that board handling.
I finally got the new autographed mod mat in! It only took DHL 9 days but it's here! Now to find a good table to adorn with it.
Question:
What would be best recommended storage and memory options for the phantom canyon as a gaming rig ?
“ Unlimited budget !! “ I Would like to to squeeze every drop of performance out of this unit as possible without it lighting on fire.
Also would the intel optane option help or hinder regarding gaming performance here ?
PS : Without water cooling 😚
Thanks and regards 🙏
More SFF stuff please! Love it.
Thanks
I hear you talk about not having a good hole to metal ratio on these items, but have you guys looked into what that actual ratio is. Typically in a DC the perf doors on the front of a cabinet are 65% open air if you are go to more than that you do get more air but at diminishing returns and loss of structural integrity.
My mod mat just showed up
It's beautiful~
I always loved these Nucs because they are powerful enough for VR, so they make awesome VR PC's you can have in your living room or lug to friends houses.
While in the bios, can you tell me what the standard VRAM is on this unit?
I love the look/size of these, aside from the skull. Would be a cool little HTPC gaming rig. I'm currently running an NFC S4 Mini (classic) for this purpose, with an i5 something another and a GTX 1060. This thing is smaller and more powerful, nice. Not really upgradable in a meaningful way, and really expensive though. [I realize I could update the S4 Mini rig, pending available stock at normal pricing, but this thing still has the size advantage.]
With regards to using it as a portable editing tool, have you considered simply rolling the cost of a monitor into your travel expenses? Bring the NUC + other peripherals with you and just buy a cheap monitor when you get there? I'm skeptical that this would be much better than an oversized laptop, but it is something to consider.
Thanks for this. What cheaper similar size form factor PC or Mac mini alternatives would you recommend for someone who wants to set up a media centre/server in their home for streaming and for watching their own video libraries?
If you don't care much about gaming, Intel NUC 11 Performance is already more than good enough. Even NUC 10 Performance is still more than fine for such job.
any way of seeing the gpu boost behaviour?
would like to know how limited is it on power
Can think of a use for the IGP and thunderbolt, windows VM using linux. Have linux output via the IGP and thunderbolt, assign the 2060 to the windows vm.
Everytime I use my nuc (when I am at home) I use an EGPU, can we get some EGPU numbers on this model Steve?
this!
Are you still in the process of reviewing the Phanteks P360A?
Incredible to see where these little computers have gone in the last 10 years, I remember eebox filling a similar niche with 2 gb of ram and a 256 gb HDD being all you can fit into it.
I would love this to be re-released with current graphics cards. I’m looking for a small prebuilt right now.
Pair this with the interland portable screen craftcomputing just looked at and this turns into very powerfully mobile rig.
Is it possible to have this running within an area that is cooled with an AC or a fan to overcome the shortcomings of the cooling design?
I've always wanted a Canyon NUC, as a mobile gaming station. Sadly the cost has always outweighed my need for it as someone who already has a PC and a low-midrange laptop.
Ceramic is used on headers for insulation, how is it working on an nvme drive as a heat spreader? Seems like it would make it run hotter.
I still have the older Skull Canyon NUC hooked up to "dumb" tv in lounge room.
That's how I watch youtube when not on main pc, NUC's a great little pc albiet not cheap.
Super neat. Love that its user serviceable.
A Display Link hub would potentially work well to solve the IGP vs DGP process leveraging and hotel TV connectivity. Another item to carry but much better than a display.
rocket lake - sick burn, gj
Hi Steve, I want to let you know the current situation of NZXT H1 case owner. Most of us is still waiting for the new riser to be available. Maybe you can help contacting NZXT to help us getting the riser soon?
Having been inside more than my share of cell phones, those antenna snaps really are fragile when they get smaller than what's on the typical mini-PCIe card. Plastic pry tool to lift straight up from the cable side, and re-seat with care straight back down. Pay attention to not pry off any nearby SMDs, and no twisting or using fingernails as tweezers!
Thats an excellent design and teardown for the average user. Love seeing stuff like this that MOST people can repair on a modular level.
It's really cool to see stuff that actually is a good product innovation with a small form factor and user serviceable parts. I almost wish that a certain big fruity company would take notes.
I do like the appeal of this particular NUC as I don't have to worry too much about all those DIY PC stuff, but I'm still thinking on whether to get this or a slightly more expensive similarly-spec PC rig.
Anyone have recommendations on a NUC for VR? Wanting to have a NUC in my living room to connect to the TV for Media Consumption with the family and also thought, since its the largest room, hooking up a VR to it. Is there a decently priced one out there or would it be best for me to get a standard NUC and then connect on of those Thunderbolt GPU things to the NUC and VR like that?
@4:49 say it, dont spray it, dude XD
For something you could also use for a enterprise PC the skull logo is an odd design choice.
I can see this as an excellent lounge room PC, hooked up to the TV, something I sort of need but not at this price.
It's cheap for a PC, but I already bought a full system this year.
One thing I find surprising is the finstack and cooling fans. The stack itself being aluminium, a copper stack that size isn't that much more, especially for volume orders. The other thing is what looked like large shrouds on the fans that look like wasted space between the fan and finstack.
Cool product- How well would it work at 1440p 70Hz? Civilization VI, Total War, WoW Classic TBC - THanks!
I see you using new Modmat... Is the old Modmat for sale? With all the stains and added autographs, it could be nice piece.
We occasionally sell the set mats for charity auctions. Keep an eye out!
Are there comparably higher end AMD SFF pre-builts. I know there are some AMD SFF PCs, but I'm curious how the lineups compare.
2:40 "(...) and others...working on Rocket Lake"
Big Oof.
Seems like this paired with a NAS of some sort would make a really awesome PLEX server. Small enough to fit up in the attic or whatever
I totally don't need one, but I'll probably get one of these at some point. They're just too cool. Would make a good Plex server, I imagine, esp if it mounts a NAS storage volume to serve the content (NUC handling server and transcoding duty means you can get a cheaper NAS).
Definitely an interesting product, as is usually the case with intel's home-built stuff it's reasonably well engineered. Have to agree though that they could improve the venting for the fan intakes, I think there's also room to improve the heatsink design somewhat.
A note on the GPU memory stuff: TU104 and TU106 share the same BGA for their substrate, so in theory this PCB should be able to take up to a 2080 (super). Would of course help if there was some better cooling for this, and may be nice as well to have 8 core tiger lake... Would be a kick ass mini PC though in such a config, even if a 2080 super is very power limited it should be more efficient than a 2060 and perform somewhat better within the same power envelope.
i like the way you think. i would definitely kick a puppy to get my hands on such a system, 8c/16t with a 2080S in this form factor. crazy.
Can’t you bring a really thin and light laptop with you when you travel and use a Remote Desktop app to access the nuc?
They need to come out with the Curly Joe version. The NyUC
Curly Canyon NyUC
Nuc nuc nuc
Those delta fans are double inlet, they pull air from the top and bottom bringing extra air in around the edges.
Hey Steve, would love to see Intel NUCs face off against Lenovo's Tiny and Nano line of SFF stuff, they even got some with Ryzen
Awesome video... And other engineers are working on.. rocket lake .. lmao!
how do you know if your CMOS battery is dead/dyeing?
What would It be in a trouble shooting sit?
Is there a tell tale sign when the battery dies?
You can take it out and measure it with a meter or if a cmos checksum error comes up opon startup of computer.
I wonder if they will use that logo for Xe HPG
I'm picturing an RGB skull on a the titanium while shroud of a blower card. I feel like I should draw that up just to see what it would look like.
There is another use case for the IGP: Power-limited applications.
For example if you're insane and decided to power this thing off a battery, or are using an inverter that can't output 200W.
Many small inverters for cars are only 150w, and the "RTX OFF" mode's power envelope fits into the power profile of one of these affordable models.
hey how do i get the most juice out of this product? do u think i could run nicehash on it while im not using it?