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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Le Geek - Friday, March 18, 2016 - link
You are assuming that the case is a perfect cuboid which it isn't.Femton - Monday, March 28, 2016 - link
Size should be 211x116x28mm which is 0.68L.http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/nuc/nuc-kit...
watzupken - Thursday, March 17, 2016 - link
I think the specs look great, though I dislike the design. I am not sure why they fancy having that skull on their electronic items, i.e. SSD, I think I've seen this on motherboard, and now this...fanofanand - Thursday, March 17, 2016 - link
I guess I am the only mid to late 30's guy here that has always liked the Skull Trail line. Is it a tiny bit juvenile? Sure, but come on, if you are a gamer in your 30's and 40's (or older) and you are pretending to be concerned with maturity.....stop lying to yourself. This is still a little more than I would want to pay, but I have been impatiently waiting for a product very much like this to hit the shelves.vladx - Thursday, March 17, 2016 - link
I'm 28 and I like it the skull as well though I'd preffer a more polished version, this one is quite bland.nerd1 - Thursday, March 17, 2016 - link
Razer Core price is announced.... it's whopping $499.So you need to pay $999 for the Skull Canyon NUC + $499 for Razer Core external GPU BOX + $500 for GTX 980 GPU. $2000 for mobile i7 and GTX 980. Suddenly gaming laptops seem affordable!
sugarbear7 - Thursday, March 17, 2016 - link
Now waiting to hear how quiet the system is. Despite the price, if it's super quiet... sold.Texag2010 - Thursday, March 17, 2016 - link
So this doesn't have a VESA mount? No way to screw this in the back of a monitor? That is a major plus point on the regular NUCs that this seems to be missing :/bcpatter - Thursday, March 17, 2016 - link
Disclaimer: I work for Intel on the team that developed this productThis product does include a VESA mount with the unit.
Texag2010 - Thursday, March 17, 2016 - link
Thanks for that update! Glad it didn't get omitted!