The Intel NUC 11 Extreme just began shipping, with a modular design and support for bringing your support for bringing your own discrete graphics card. But details are already starting to leak about Intel’s next-gen NUC systems.

According to a leaked slide published to Chinese social media site Weibo, the Intel NUC 12 Enthusiast will be a compact desktop computer with a 12th-gen Intel processor based on Alder Lake architecture, and unspecified discrete graphics.

It’s unclear if that discrete GPU will be an NVIDIA it AMD part, or if it will be made by Intel. The company’s integrated graphics have gotten a lot more powerful in recent years, and Intel has started making it’s own discrete GPUs as well, although they’re a little less impressive when compared with the competition so far. But that could change with the upcoming Intel DG2 graphics, which is one possibility for the NUC 12 Enthusiast.

According to the leaked slide, the computer will be available with Intel Core i5 and Core i7 processor options, and GPU options with 8GB, 12GB, or 16GB of GDDR6 memory.

Other features include:

  • Support for up to 64GB of dual-channel DDR4-3200 memory
  • 2 x M.2 2280 PCIe x4 Gen 4 NVMe slots
  • 1 x M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3 slot for NVMe or SATA storage
  • HDMI 2.1
  • DisplayPort 2.0
  • Mini DisplayPort 2.0
  • 2.5 Gbps Ethernet
  • 2 x Thunderbolt 4 ports
  • 6 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports
  • 2 x USB 2.0 internal headers
  • 3.5mm front stereo headset jack
  • 3.5mm rear stereo speaker/TOSLINK combo jack
  • 4 x microphones with beam-forming and Alexa support
  • IR port for a remote control
  • WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5
  • 230W/330W power supply
  • RGB backlit top logo with user replaceable mask

The computer should be able to support at least three displays, and possibly more thanks to the two Thunderbolt 4 ports. And it comes with a vertical stand, so the system can be laid down horizontally or stood up vertically.

There’s no word on the price or release date, but since 12th-gen Intel Alder Lake chips aren’t expected to ship until later this year, and Intel’s “Ghost Canyon” NUC for gamers is just starting to hit the streets, I’d say it’s likely that the NUC 12 Enthusiast won’t be available until late 2021 or early 2022 at the soonest. 

via HXL and Weibo

Support Liliputing

Liliputing's primary sources of revenue are advertising and affiliate links (if you click the "Shop" button at the top of the page and buy something on Amazon, for example, we'll get a small commission).

But there are several ways you can support the site directly even if you're using an ad blocker* and hate online shopping.

Contribute to our Patreon campaign

or...

Contribute via PayPal

* If you are using an ad blocker like uBlock Origin and seeing a pop-up message at the bottom of the screen, we have a guide that may help you disable it.

Subscribe to Liliputing via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 9,545 other subscribers

10 replies on “Intel NUC 12 Enthusiast mini PC will have Alder Lake CPU and discrete graphics”

  1. More vapourware, sadly.

    Nuc11 is effectively a non product due to supply issues in most of the world with 6+ month lead times. Even getting nuc10 if you wanted one is good luck.

    Why “release” more products when they cannot supply what already exists?

    Ive been a big fan of the nuc for many years but it’s clear that intel don’t think it’s a serious product anymore.

  2. I doubt Intel will be able to supply these in any quantity. They can’t even supply regular Tiger Lake NUCs now, let alone Beast Canyon. Intel has become a ridiculous joke on this front lately.

    For those waiting on backorder for units, I suggest you look at Europe. Supply is much better over there. I just imported 2 Gigabyte Brix 1156G7 mini PCs from the UK. Even with shipping and Paypal’s crappy exchange rate (use your credit card’s conversion for a much better rate) I still paid less than many US vendors were selling them for and I got it in less than a week. Even got US power plugs with it. There was no customs tax either.

    1. Got any specific recommendations for mini PC’s I can order from Europe? I’m specifically looking for one with a dedicated GPU comparable to that of the Phantom Canyon NUC and in a similar form factor. There’s like no stock anywhere in the US for anything right now.

  3. Sooooo should I cancel my order for the Phantom Canyon NUC and wait for this instead? My order is currently back ordered till October at the earliest. Sounds like if I just wait a bit longer this new NUC would be more worth it. Or should I just keep waiting for the Phantom Canyon NUC?

  4. 230 or even 330 W power supply options for mid/high-end GPUs seem inadequate..

    1. The power draw of “mobile” versions of higher end GPUs is well within that range. The mobile 3080 is rated at 115w, leaving more than enough power for the rest of the PC.

  5. They can barely send enough stock of Phantom Canyon to retailers and they’re already about to release a successor? Usually these UCFF gaming NUCs skip a few generations between releases, so it’s weird seeing Intel drop a new one so soon after the previous one. And I’m not counting the SFF gaming NUCs like Ghost and Beast Canyons.
    Though thinking about it, maybe nVIDIA is discontinuing the mobile 2060 soon, so Intel is forced to release a new product in the UCFF category to have something to sell.

    1. It’s a leaked slide of an upcoming product, it probably won’t get announced until CES in January ; but even then, there’s a 3-6 month delay between product announcement and shipping with Intel (closer to 6 than 3).

      1. I think Arthran is referring to the fact that Intel has been awful lately at actually stocking these high end products. They’ll announce a new product, people will never find them in stock anywhere, and then they start showcasing a new model before anyone had a chance to buy the previous one.

        Same thing goes for their cheaper lineup with Celeron and Pentium chips. The J5005-powered model took me 6 months to find, it was perpetually out of stock everywhere.

      2. True, though at least according to Intel Ark they tend to announce or release their gaming UCFF NUCs at the beginning of the year, so I figured it’d be the same for this.

Comments are closed.