The Intel NUC12 Extreme Dragon Canyon Preview: Desktop Alder Lake Impresses in SFF Avatar
by Ganesh T S on February 24, 2022 10:45 AM EST- Posted in
- Systems
- Intel
- NUC
- NUC12
- Dragon Canyon
Miscellaneous Aspects and Concluding Remarks
Desktop PCs are often used for media playback and double up as HTPCs in certain cases. While the fan noise / bulk prevent the NUC Extreme line from being used as dedicated HTPCs, the video decoding capabilities are very important - particularly if the end user finds it acceptable to add a discrete GPU for post-processing.
The Intel UHD Graphics 770 exposes hardware decoding capabilities for almost all commonly used codecs - MPEG2, VC1, WMV9, H264, HEVC, VP9, and AV1. For HEVC, the GPU also supports decode of 4:2:2 and 4:4:4 10-bit and 12-bit streams.
Moving on to the power consumption aspect, we ran the AIDA64 System Stability Test with various stress components, as well as the artificial power virus test involving Prime95 and Furmark for determining load power. The maximum sustained power consumption at the wall was recorded.
| At-Wall Power Consumption (Lower is Better) |
||
| Intel NUC12DCMi9 (Dragon Canyon) |
Intel NUC11BTMi9 (Beast Canyon) |
|
| Load (Max. / Sustained) | 336W / 127W | 167W / 120W |
| Idle | 36W | 28W |
The sustained power consumption is largely in the same ballpark for both NUCs. However, the instantaneous spikes are quite high for the Dragon Canyon, particularly when fresh workload segments start.
Looking Forward...
The Dragon Canyon NUC brings socketed desktop processors to the NUC lineup for the first time. It also brings native 10Gb Ethernet to the lineup. Alder Lake brings hybrid processors with performance and efficiency cores, and that delivers significant benefits. While these improvements are impressive from the viewpoint of a SFF machine, the power consumption puts a slight dampener.
In terms of internals, the Dragon Canyon's updates are also tempered by over-reliance on the PCH for almost all of the I/Os of the PC. In comparison, the Beast Canyon NUC had a better spread with the Thunderbolt 4 ports directly off the CPU. Given that the Alder Lake platform supports USB 3.2 Gen 2x2, a couple of the 20Gbps ports would have also been welcome on the Compute Element.
On the baseboard side, we would like to see support for PCIe lane bifurcation making a comeback. The chassis itself has not essentially changed - just the alteration of a Type-A port in the front to Type-C. This means that many of the drawbacks that existed in Beast Canyon (such as the user-unfriendly nature of the recessed ports) continue to exist in the Dragon Canyon.
Intel has put in significant effort to pack the capabilities of the Dragon Canyon NUC in a 8L platform. However, a bit of relaxation on the volume front would have been welcome - particularly from the viewpoint of making the installation of the Compute Element into the chassis easier. Hopefully, these issues will get fixed in a future iteration of the NUC Extreme.
This article provided a preview of the capabilities of the Dragon Canyon NUC. In an upcoming piece, we will look into the gaming chops of the machine with a discrete GPU installed.
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thestryker - Thursday, February 24, 2022 - link
So you basically want a bigger case? That's the only way you'd get what you're looking for cooling wise because you have to account for the baseboard and power supply. I believe the DAN Case A4 is the only ITX case on the market smaller than the Intel NUC 11/12 Extreme (I'd assume there are probably knockoffs of this case which might be as well). As for the cooling there's a shroud which goes over the Element to draw air in from the back of the case for CPU cooling and the three fans at the top pull air out. There's nothing "random" about how they designed the cooling nor is it "off the shelf".For CPU heavy workloads I definitely wish they'd have a better cooling solution as they seem limited by their choice to utilize the compute element. I think the only way to solve this would be by doing a completely custom board setup, but I also highly doubt this would be financially viable.
Operandi - Thursday, February 24, 2022 - link
A larger case isn't need, just use the space more intelligently. The compute board is using a super compact heatsink with a blower fan (notebook cooling components), the case itself just has fans exhausting the hot air like any regular case. Its a lazy repackaging of components that already exist into a new form fact that offers zero benefits over what you can already accomplish with ITX.Repackage all of it so you are using all that active cooling to push the air through a passive heatsink, easily accomplished given how little power this uses. The rest of the case size and cooling would be dictated by how much space, cooling, and power is required for the GPU.
thestryker - Thursday, February 24, 2022 - link
You can't use top to bottom while using the compute element, and the PSU is located at the front of the case so you can't use front to back either. So you'd have to increase the width or height to be able to move the PSU out of the way for a front to back airflow which would make the case larger than it is now.Operandi - Thursday, February 24, 2022 - link
Only if you look at it in the narrow confines of how its setup now. Even with the compute element there are enormous ways you could achieve a top to bottom layout. PSU can go anywhere and be any form factor and completely external for lower power variants. Frankly I don't get why there are power cables at all side from for the GPU, power for the compute should be carried via the baseboard.thestryker - Thursday, February 24, 2022 - link
Name *one* way you could still utilize the compute element with the baseboard that also has an externally accessible M.2 slot with a top/bottom airflow setup. Now you want them to have a proprietary 650W gold PSU made forjust the enthusiast class NUC? There are *no* low power variants of the *enthusiast* NUC as they have a ton of regular NUCs to fit that bill. The compute element adheres to PCIe so they should redesign that just for this unit to fit the extra power consumption?
It doesn't seem that you actually understand how any of the components for these units work and just don't like the setup.
QChronoD - Friday, February 25, 2022 - link
If they are going to go through the trouble of making a custom baseboard for the compute module to plug into, it wouldn't have been that much more difficult to have the connectors positioned for the ATX and GPU power outputs on the PSU. Also likely could have flipped the compute board so that it was back to back with the GPU and then have a larger fan directly drawing air in from the outside of the case.thestryker - Friday, February 25, 2022 - link
Flipping the compute element has been the most suggested thing ever since Ghost Canyon, and Intel has never addressed this as far as I know. In the case of the enthusiast NUCs this would be the easiest and most obvious change, but it hasn't happened. I can't think of a logical reason not to do it, but it must have something to do with the other applications they're used in at the enterprise level.Operandi - Monday, February 28, 2022 - link
Name one? You want me to verbally draw you a mental image? Look at what systems like the NZXT H1 are able to do with top/down layout using ITX. The limiting factor is going to be where the ports exit the system because of the compute element but thats just another problem with how this is designed.Is the PSU supplying anything other than 12v? I doubt it, and if it is it shouldn't be. And yeah design a custom one its not hard and Intel is a huge company. Its all proprietary anyway and we already know this is going to be insanely expensive anyway so they have no excuse.
What exactly is the point of them using PCI-e for the compute element again? Just so they don't have to design and manufacture a purpose built connector for their entirely proprietary form factor? It certainly adds zero functionality to the system.
Dug - Friday, March 11, 2022 - link
nzxt h1 is one of the worst cooling cases around, that is what you call garbage. The aio would not be able to handle this chip. Air in from sides and out one 92mm fan is not a good design.The cooling in nuc is actually very good for what it is. The shroud separates the hot air from the gpu from the cpu, which is usually the problem in itx cases. Even those that use pci-e riser to put graphics card on the other side, no one actually isolates the compartments, which ends up over heating some other component like an ssd on the back of the motherboard. But the extension itself is troublesome and has shown to be more hassle than it's worth.
Dug - Friday, March 11, 2022 - link
I agree with a custom power supply. Look at what Apple did in the iMac pro. 8 to 18-core xeon, 5k display, Radeon Pro Vega 56, speakers, TB, etc, all from a super slim power supply built into the monitor. All one cable, no power brick. The archaic model of giant atx power supplies with thick cables going everywhere needs to go away.