At the CES 2020, the new Intel NUC 9 Extreme Kit concept was announced for the first time and today they have been officially presented and we will soon have them for sale. Its design responds to the new modular concept NUC Compute Element, a rather peculiar solution that seeks an audience willing to invest in a very compact platform.
The design of these mini PCs presents a cartridge where we have the CPU, accommodation for the RAM, two slots for NVMe disks, USB connection ports and Ethernet, Wifi and Bluetooth network connections. Next to this cartridge connected to a small lower motherboard we have another PCIe connector for a discrete GPU that adds to the set to make it Gaming.
Processor and storage
The new Intel NUC 9 Extreme Kit features four NUC9i5QNX versions with Intel Core i5-9300H processor with four cores and eight threads up to 4.1GHz, NUC9i7QNX with Intel Core i7-9750H processor with six cores and twelve threads up to 4.5GHz, finally the NUC9i9QNX more powerful model with Intel Core i9-9980HK processor with eight cores and sixteen threads up to 5GHz. Inside this mini compact PC we have a 500W power supply and two 80mm extraction fans.
All processors mount an integrated Intel UHD Graphics 630 GPU that allows us to run games at the basic level, but the grace of this mini PC is to mount a discrete NVidia or AMD GPU to get the most out of it. Inside the cartridge where we have the CPU and the ports we can mount two SODIMM DDR4 modules of RAM up to 64GB 2400/2666 MHz and two NVMe 2280 disks compatible with Intel Optane technology.
Connectivity and other specifications
Not counting the dedicated GPU to be mounted, we have a standard HMDI 2.0a output available with video support of up to 4K@60fps HDR. As for connectors, its two Thunderbolt 3 ports with Type-C connector, two Intel Gigabit Ethernet ports and the powerful Wi-Fi 6 AX200 and Bluetooth 5 wireless adapter stand out. The size of this small box is 238x216x96mm, something to keep in mind because it limits the dedicated GPU that we can mount in length.
Price and availability
- These new Intel NUC 9 Extreme Kit will be available in stores like Amazon.com or Newegg.com shortly but we don’t know the price.
