At CES 2021 platform, Intel announced its series of NUCs based on the Tiger Lake SoCs. The NUC11 Performance lineup was covered earlier. This piece looks at another exciting NUC11 offering in the enthusiast category. The NUC11 Enthusiast dubbed as the Phantom Canyon brings the Tiger Lake-U Core i7-1165G7 and adds an NVIDIA RTX 2060 to create a compact system suitable for gaming, streaming, and content creation.
The machine is nothing to scold at and has reportedly only two SKUs. According to sources, the NUC11PHKi7C is the basic version, while the NUC11PHKi7CAA comes with 2x 8GB DDR4-3200 SODIMMs and an Intel Optane Memory H10 (32GB + 512GB) NVMe drive. The NUC11PHKi7CAA also comes with Windows 10 Home pre-installed.
The blue also provides a host of I/O options with the new NUC11 Enthusiast.
- 2 Thunderbolt 4 ports (one in the front and one in the rear)
- the display output from the Intel Iris Xe Graphics G7 in the TGL-U processor
- Two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports
- One SDXC UHS-II slot
- An audio jack
- A quad-microphone array at the front panel.
- an audio output jack (supporting TOSLINK) on the rear.
- A single 2.5 Gbps LAN port
- Four USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports
- Display outputs (HDMI 2.0b and mini-DP 1.4a) from the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060.
| CPU | Intel Core i7-1165G7 Tiger Lake-U, 4C/8T 2.8 – 4.7 GHz 28W TDP | Intel Core i7-8809G Kaby Lake, 4C/8T 3.1 – 4.2 GHz 100W Package TDP | Intel Core i7-6770HQ Skylake, 4C/8T 2.6 – 3.5 GHz 45W TDP |
| GPU | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 6GB GDDR6 (N18E-G1-B Notebook Class 115W) @ 1.285 GHz (Discrete) Intel® Iris® Xe Graphics (96EU) @ 1.3 GHz (Integrated / On-Die) | Radeon RX Vega M GH 4GB HBM2 @ 1.19 GHz (Discrete / On-Package) Intel® HD Graphics 630 @ 1.1 GHz (Integrated / On-Die) | Intel® Iris Pro Graphics 580 @ 1.05 GHz (Integrated / On-Die) 128MB SDRAM |
| Memory | 2x DDR4-3200 SODIMMs 1.2V, 64GB max. | 2x DDR4-2400+ SODIMMs 1.2V, 32GB max. | 2x DDR4-2133 SODIMMs 1.2V, 32GB max. |
| Motherboard | 5.5″ x 8″ UCFF | 4″ x 5″ UCFF | |
| Storage | 1x M.2 22×80/110 (key M) PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe/AHCI SSD 1x M.2 2280 (key M) SATA3 or PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe/AHCI SSD | 2x M.2 22×42/80 (key M) SATA3 or PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe/AHCI SSD | |
| I/O Ports | 2x Thunderbolt 4 Fast-Charging (front + rear) 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A (front) 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A Fast-Charging (front) 4x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A (rear) 1x SDXC UHS-II Card Slot (front) CIR (front) 1x SATA III Power + Data Internal Header 2x USB 2.0 Internal Header | 2x Thunderbolt 3 (rear) 4x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A (rear) 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A (front) 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C (front) 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A Fast-Charging (front) 1x SDXC UHS-I Card Slot (front) CIR (front) 1x SATA III Power + Data Internal Header 2x USB 2.0 Internal Header | 1x Thunderbolt 3 (rear) 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A (rear) 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A (front) 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A Fast-Charging (front) 1x SDXC UHS-I Card Slot (front) CIR (front) 1x SATA III Power + Data Internal Header 2x USB 2.0 Internal Header |
| Networking | Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201 (2×2 802.11ax Wi-Fi + Bluetooth 5.1 module) 1 × 2.5 GbE port (Intel I225-LM) | Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 8265 (2×2 802.11ac Wi-Fi + Bluetooth 4.2 module) 2 × GbE ports (Intel I219-LM + Intel I210-AT) | Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 8260 (2×2 802.11ac Wi-Fi + Bluetooth 4.2 module) 1 × GbE ports (Intel I219-LM) |
| Display Outputs | 2x DP 1.4a (via Thunderbolt 4 Type-C ports, iGPU Display Pipe) 1x mini-DP 1.4a (rear, dGPU, up to 8Kp60, MST) 1x HDMI 2.0b (rear, dGPU, up to 4Kp60) | 1x HDMI 2.0a (front, dGPU) 1x HDMI 2.0a (rear, dGPU) 2x mini-DP 1.3 (rear, dGPU) 2x DP 1.3 (via Thunderbolt 3 Type-C ports, dGPU) | 1x mini-DP 1.2 (rear, iGPU) 1x HDMI 2.0a (rear, iGPU) 1x DP 1.3 (via Thunderbolt 3 Type-C ports, iGPU) |
| Audio | 7.1 digital (over HDMI and DisplayPort) L+R+mic (front) L+R+TOSLINK (rear) | ||
| Audio Codec | Realtek ALC700 | Realtek ALC233 | |
| Enclosure | Metal and plastic Kensington lock with base security | ||
| Power Supply | 230W (19V @ 12.1A) Adapter | 120W (19V @ 6.32A) Adapter | |
| Dimensions | 221mm x 142mm x 42mm / 1.3L | 221mm x 142mm x 39mm / 1.2L | 216mm x 116mm x 23mm / 0.69L |
| Miscellaneous Features | Replaceable lid with customizable RGB LED illumination Status LEDs in the front panel The quad beam-forming microphone array VESA mounting plate 3-year warranty | Replaceable lid Status LEDs in the front panel VESA mounting plate 3-year warranty |
