Intel's Skull Canyon NUC is Official: $650, Shipping In May
by Ganesh T S on March 16, 2016 10:00 PM EST
Back in January, Intel had provided us with information about the Skull Canyon NUC based on a Skylake H-Series CPU(with Iris Pro Graphics). Today, at GDC 2016, Intel made the specifications official. Pricing and availability information was also provided.
The key aspect that was not revealed before was the dimensions. The Skull Canyon NUC (NUC6i7KYK) will come in at 216mm x 116mm x 23mm, with the volume coming in at just 0.69L. For comparison, the Skylake NUC6i5SYK (non-2.5" drive version) comes in at 115mm x 111mm x 32mm (0.41L), while NUC6i5SYH (2.5" drive bay-enabled) one is 115mm x 111mm x 48mm (0.61L). The rest of the specifications are outlined in the table below:
| Intel NUC6i7KYK (Skull Canyon) Specifications | |
| Processor | Intel Core i7-6770HQ Skylake, 4C/8T, 2.6 GHz (Turbo to 3.5 GHz), 14nm, 6MB L2, 45W TDP |
| Memory | 2x DDR4 SO-DIMM (2133+ MHz) |
| Graphics | Intel Iris Pro Graphics 580 (Skylake-H GT4+4e with 128MB eDRAM) |
| Disk Drive(s) | Dual M.2 (SATA3 / PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe / AHCI SSDs) |
| Networking | Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 8260 (2x2 802.11ac - 867 Mbps + Bluetooth 4.2) Intel I-219V Gigabit Ethernet |
| Audio | 3.5mm Audio Jack (Headphone / Microphone) Capable of 5.1/7.1 digital output with HD audio bitstreaming (HDMI) |
| Miscellaneous I/O Ports | 1x Thunderbolt 3 / USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C 4x USB 3.0 (incl. one charging port) 1x SDXC (UHS-I) 1x HDMI 2.0, 1x mini-DP 1.2 Consumer Infrared Sensor |
| Operating System | Barebones |
| Pricing | $650 (Barebones) $999 (Typical build with 16GB DDR4, 256GB SSD and Windows 10) |
| Fact Sheet | Intel NUC6i7KYK GDC Fact Sheet (PDF) |
Note that the HDMI 2.0 output is enabled by an external LSPcon (not Alpine Ridge). So, we will definitely have 4Kp60 output with HDCP 2.2 support over the HDMI port, making it suitable as a future-proof HTPC platform. From a gaming perspective, the availability of Thunderbolt 3 enables users to add an external graphics dock like the recently announced Razer Core eGFX module. Note that any external GPU will be able to talk to the CPU only over a PCIe 3.0 x4 link (which should be plenty in almost all cases).
The Skull Canyon NUC will be available to pre-order on Newegg next month, with shipping in May 2016.
Source: Intel
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darkich - Friday, March 18, 2016 - link
Oh wow. How about you read tje specs sheet again?216mm x 116mm x 23mm.
It is narrower than the iPad mini, and about as long.
darkich - Friday, March 18, 2016 - link
..and only 2.5 times thicker than the iPad mini.Your comparison with the Alpha is ridiculous
damianrobertjones - Thursday, March 17, 2016 - link
The design... It's not the same as the other current NUC models so doesn't seem right.cm2187 - Thursday, March 17, 2016 - link
It does look ugly. But the world looks different through the eyes of a teenager... We're not the core market anymore....I'll happily use that to do virtualisation. Small form factor, lots of RAM, lots of cores.
BrokenCrayons - Thursday, March 17, 2016 - link
I have mixed feelings about this NUC. On one hand, it's nice to see Intel's Iris Pro in the wild. Then again, Iris Pro really needs to be a lot more commonly available in desktop and laptop CPUs because current Intel graphics, while good, aren't very well balanced. There's a lot of CPU power and not a lot of iGPU so lots of people are resorting to hot and complex designs that include an otherwise unnecessary AMD or NV GPU.I also find the skull branding is quite possibly the most childish and low-brow stupidity ever to crawl out of Intel's marketing department. Sure, it might appeal to a teens to twenty something male, but that leaves the rest of us who would prefer a more professional, upscale look out in the cold and there are a lot more of us that have a lot more disposable income who would like something with Iris Pro targeted at us.
cm2187 - Thursday, March 17, 2016 - link
In fact it looks like a decent workstation replacement. It can drive several screens and seem powerful enough. I am keen to see some austere accountant with a skull-designed mini pc on its desk.sugarbear7 - Thursday, March 17, 2016 - link
Agreed on the iGPUs for desktop CPUs!As for the cover, they come with a plain matte black cover in the box. **Phew!**
hubick - Thursday, March 17, 2016 - link
"we do actually ship two lids with each Skull Canyon - with and without the skull" - http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/03/intels-high...BrokenCrayons - Friday, March 18, 2016 - link
hubick & sugarbear7 -- Thank you both for the information about the alternative, non-teenage boy case panel. Skull motifs should remain the exclusive domain of the Coalition from the Rifts RPG and never wander into real life where adults are living.=^..^=
zepi - Thursday, March 17, 2016 - link
Intel spec is wrong on size, probably a typo.216mm x 116mm x 23mm,
0.216m x 0.116m x 0.023m * 1000liters/m^3 = 0.576liters
Either they've typoed it as 0.69liters instead of 0.58liters or they've used incorrect measures for calculating the volume.
Not that it really matters.