MAY 2020 PCWorld 812.0a, and a 3.5mm speaker/TOSLINK combo
jack on the Compute Element.
Two additional USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10Gbps)
Type-A ports, a 3.5mm stereo headset jack,
and an SDXC slot with UHS-II support are
available on the front of the chassis, while
tucked inside are headers for internal front
panel audio, CEC, 2x USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C,
2x USB 2.0, and SATA 3.
PERFORMANCE
The blend of mini-PC sizing and DIY-build
customization makes Ghost Canyon
fascinating, but also a little more complicated
to evaluate. You have so much freedom to
tailor it to your needs, far more than any Intel
NUC before it.
Given our time constraints and home lab
setup, we couldn’t dive deep into all major
use cases. Instead, we looked at performance
more broadly, using a variety of CPU and
gaming benchmarks to find the
NUC9i9QNX’s boundaries. Then we stacked
it against both laptop and desktop systems,
because when we asked ourselves which
group served as competition, the answer
was...yes.General performance
With Skull Canyon and Hades Canyon, we
started with the most interesting part of the
tale—gaming performance. Their integrated
graphics pushed limits in ways not seen before.
This time, we begin with tests that focus on
the CPU and its output. Because any graphics
card you drop into a NUC 9 Extreme will be a
known quantity, exploring its performance
revolves more around common concerns, i.e.,
enough airflow to deliver
expected framerates.
The Compute Element,
on the other hand, has a
compact layout that could
potentially throttle CPU
performance. How does
our NUC9i9QNX’s Core
i9-9980HK fare against
both spacious laptops with
the same class of mobile
chips, and desktop
processors with more
horsepower and room to
throw off heat?Inside the Compute Element. The M.2 slots are on the left, while the
SODIMM slots are on the right.