Inside the Intel Lab That Put a Legit Gaming Desktop in the Palm of Your Hand

Megalith

Megalith

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Digital Trends spoke with the team responsible for designing the Hades Canyon NUC, which is one of the smallest desktop PCs on the market capable of substantial gaming thanks to its integrated AMD Radeon Vega graphics. Aside from graphics performance, one of the main challenges was how to keep the unit cool, which the team managed with a new, vapor-chamber cooling design.

Hades Canyon’s potential as a small game machine is enticing. It could finally offer gamers a simple, small, all-in-one solution, which can be attached to either a monitor or a TV. It’s nuts to think of: At 1.2 liters, the Hades Canyon NUC is roughly a quarter the size of a PS4 Pro, but nearly matches that console in raw power.
 
A quarter the size at 5 times the price when equipped. I'd settle for a desktop that was the size of a PS4 Pro with actual expansion capabilities.

At it's current price, it's too niche of a market.
 
kirbyrj said:
A quarter the size at 5 times the price when equipped. I'd settle for a desktop that was the size of a PS4 Pro with actual expansion capabilities.

At it's current price, it's too niche of a market.
Click to expand...

give me a 7700, motherboard, psu, case, an RX570 for 799 please.
it may not be for you but it isn't a bad deal.
 
$2000 for something that can't play new games at 1080p enjoy!

Anandtech just put up a review and no one would buy this as a gaming device.
 
I wonder if AMD will ever make their own version of the nuc ... ?
 
The video acts like swapping the parts will have good options. Except you don't. They're rather inconsequential options at this point, and little reason to go with certain options.

-Oh I can get an SSD instead of an HDD? Such selection!
-Oh I can get faster RAM when most applications don't even notice? Such selection!
-Oh I can replace my WIFI maybe once every 4-6 years when a new 802.11 standard comes out? Such selection!
-Nothing else
 
ThreeDee said:
I wonder if AMD will ever make their own version of the nuc ... ?
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I doubt they have the resources available to develop something so niche when they already have a lot of work to do expanding marketshare with their V1000 series.
http://www.seco.com/prods/usa/category/come-b75-ct6.html
https://www.congatec.com/us/congate...th-amd-ryzenTM-embedded-v1000-processors.html

The Smach Z is probably going to be the make or break product for this product generation though. If it pulls off a miracle and sells quite well AMD may see :greedy: especially after 7nm embedded chips are ready. It's also possible they would be hesitant anyway because it might be perceived as direct competition to the products they develop for Sony and Microsoft's consoles.
 
oldmanbal said:
$2000 for something that can't play new games at 1080p enjoy!

Anandtech just put up a review and no one would buy this as a gaming device.
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TechRadar has their own review and it was capable of playing games at 1080p Even Anandtech has their reviews having it play games at 1080p. Against desktop graphics, it was inbetween the GTX 960 and GTX 980. While against mobile, it was about the same as a GTX 970m.

Also it's $1000. Depending on what internals you decide to get for it, it can easily hit $2k, but go super cheap and you can be in at $1300-$1400 with memory, SSD, and Windows.

I'd say many will buy this, but more won't. It's a niche market, one that Intel has been catering to for years. Obviously someone is buying these things, otherwise, they wouldn't keep coming out with them. I'd be inclined to get one, but I'd want to be able to get it at $1000 with mem, ssd, and Windows.
 
Ah, the price premium of a small form factor. For the same price as a PC with 4x the power, you can get a PC at 1/4 the size!
 
krotch said:
TechRadar has their own review and it was capable of playing games at 1080p Even Anandtech has their reviews having it play games at 1080p. Against desktop graphics, it was inbetween the GTX 960 and GTX 980. While against mobile, it was about the same as a GTX 970m.

Also it's $1000. Depending on what internals you decide to get for it, it can easily hit $2k, but go super cheap and you can be in at $1300-$1400 with memory, SSD, and Windows.

I'd say many will buy this, but more won't. It's a niche market, one that Intel has been catering to for years. Obviously someone is buying these things, otherwise, they wouldn't keep coming out with them. I'd be inclined to get one, but I'd want to be able to get it at $1000 with mem, ssd, and Windows.
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The samples intel Sent to TechRadar and Anandtech were both between $1600-$1700 models. Anandtech, being a better, more reputable site, lists this honestly in their review, whereas TechRadar doesn't. TechRadar makes it appear that the device they are reviewing costs either $799 or $999 based on how the article is written. I wouldn't ever use TechRadar as a trusted review site after reading their poor representation of the product. Thank you for saving me future headaches.

So for over $1600 you can play some games at the lowest settings at 1080p, comfortably, unless you want to max out the settings, then you'll be stuck under 60 fps:

From TechRadar:
Total War: Warhammer II (1080p, Ultra): 28 fps; (1080p, Low): 60 fps
ME: Shadow of War (1080p, Ultra): 37 fps; (1080p, Low): 89 fps

However it seemed to fair better in the Ananad review, getting closer to 60fps avg at 1080 on a variety of not so old games. (nothing current / new was tested)

Just keep that $1600 price tag in mind if you are going to pair the word gaming with this device. TS Ganesh's comparison was to a 970m (read: mobile) card, which isn't bad at all, but you can get a hell of a lot more performance in a $1600 laptop that comes with a nice display as well.
 
oldmanbal said:
The samples intel Sent to TechRadar and Anandtech were both between $1600-$1700 models. Anandtech, being a better, more reputable site, lists this honestly in their review, whereas TechRadar doesn't. TechRadar makes it appear that the device they are reviewing costs either $799 or $999 based on how the article is written. I wouldn't ever use TechRadar as a trusted review site after reading their poor representation of the product. Thank you for saving me future headaches.

So for over $1600 you can play some games at the lowest settings at 1080p, comfortably, unless you want to max out the settings, then you'll be stuck under 60 fps:

From TechRadar:
Total War: Warhammer II (1080p, Ultra): 28 fps; (1080p, Low): 60 fps
ME: Shadow of War (1080p, Ultra): 37 fps; (1080p, Low): 89 fps

However it seemed to fair better in the Ananad review, getting closer to 60fps avg at 1080 on a variety of not so old games. (nothing current / new was tested)

Just keep that $1600 price tag in mind if you are going to pair the word gaming with this device. TS Ganesh's comparison was to a 970m (read: mobile) card, which isn't bad at all, but you can get a hell of a lot more performance in a $1600 laptop that comes with a nice display as well.
Click to expand...

The device does only cost $799 or $999. Granted, at those prices they don't run, as they still need memory, an SSD, and an OS. I also don't see how TechRadar makes it appear that they only cost $799 or $999, when they specifically state:
That said, this barebones unit doesn’t come with storage, memory or an operating system, so you’ll have to get those pieces on your own.
Click to expand...

Also Anandtech has things in their review sample that you can go cheaper with. They had a 118 GB Optane SSD and a 512 GB SSD in there. Take out the Optane and you can drop $200 off the price right there. I think you can get this thing up and running for as little as $1300-$1400.

Would I buy it? No, but there are ppl out there that would. Me, I just have a Surface Book 2 with GTX 1050 or my mobile needs. The Hades Canyon NUC has more power, but well...I can't use that thing inside an airport or inside a plane. I have a desktop for home use.

Now, if this thing was in the $1000 range with 8 GB memory and a 256 GB SSD, I'd get it. I'd keep it at my sister's place when I travel back to the states.
 
Yea, with the necessary components needed, not by any means "cheap."

Also, according to AT review, since they connected everything to Vega, you lose out on the actually good video decoding from Intel.

In summary, awesome small size, not THAT cheap, meh to OK 1080p gaming perfomance, and definitely not able to do HTPC duties. Sounds like a pass to me.
 
krotch said:
I think you can get this thing up and running for as little as $1300-$1400.

Would I buy it? No, but there are ppl out there that would. Me, I just have a Surface Book 2 with GTX 1050 or my mobile needs. The Hades Canyon NUC has more power, but well...I can't use that thing inside an airport or inside a plane. I have a desktop for home use.

Now, if this thing was in the $1000 range with 8 GB memory and a 256 GB SSD, I'd get it. I'd keep it at my sister's place when I travel back to the states.
Click to expand...

This is exactly where I feel most consumers are going to fall in line with regarding the new NUC. It's not going to be a product that drives people to buy it, but there will be isolated cases where it fits a certain need. This is still a commercial business product, and will stay that way until its next iteration. Would I love to have one at home to tool around with or give to my son for tinkering? Absolutely, however we already fill that itch with a $35 pi fortunately.

If Intel can continue to nurture their partnership with AMD for the graphics, and deliver stronger 1080p numbers in next gen games near that $1000 mark, the subsequent iteration could be a real winner. But I'm just a gamer, and not the only market they are looking for so the likelihood of this happening at an affordable pricepoint isn't very good.
 
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