As expected, Intel has officially launched a new line of compact desktop computers powered by 28 watt 8th-gen Intel “Coffee Lake” processors with Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655.
The new “Bean Canyon” NUC computers aren’t available for purchase yet, but you can read all about them in a 74 page document posted to the Intel website.
Or you can just scroll down for more details about what to expect from the new computers.
At a glance, the new systems look very similar to Intel’s last few generations of NUC systems. But under the hood they feature Coffee Lake-U chips, which should bring a pretty serious performance boost. They also feature an improved wireless card which should bring support for Bluetooth 5 and faster WiFi (with theoretical top speeds of 1.73 Gbps.
Intel will offer a number of configurations including short and tall models: both have an M.2 2280/2242 slot for a solid state drive, but only the tall models have a 2.5 inch drive bay.
The tall models measure 4.5″ x 4.4″ x 2″ and the short versions are 4.5″ x 4.4″ x 1.2″.
All Bean Canyon NUC systems feature:
- 1 Thunderbolt 3/USB Type-C port (with DisplayPort 1.2 support via an adapter)
- 4 USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A ports
- HDMI 2.0
- Gigabit Ethernet
- microSDXC card reader
- Infrared receiver
- 3.5mm audio jack
- 7.1 channel (over HDMI or DisplayPort)
- Intel Wireless-AC 9560 wireless card
Intel says you can connect up to three displays, (or two displays if you want to use dual 4K displays with 60 Hz refresh rates).
Only the memory and storage are upgradeable. The wireless card and processor are connected to the motherboard. But you can provide up to 32GB of DDR4-2400 memory and as much storage as you want. Each system has two 260-pin SODIMM slots for RAM.
In fact, Intel will offer Bean Canyon NUC system as barebones kits that allow you to bring your own memory, storage and operating system… or as full-fledged computers that ship complete with Windows 10, RAM, a hard drive, and an Intel Optane solid state drive plus.
Here’s a run-down of the versions Intel plans to sell:
| Intel Bean Canyon NUC lineup | ||||||
| Product name | CPU | Cores/Threads | Base/Turbo speed | Config | ||
| NUC8i3BEK | Intel Core i3-8109U | 2/4 | 3.0 GHz /3.6 GHz | Barebones kit (short) | ||
| NUC8i3BEH | Intel Core i3-8109U | 2/4 | 3.0 GHz /3.6 GHz | Barebones kit (tall) | ||
| NUC8i3BEHXF | Intel Core i3-8109U | 2/4 | 3.0 GHz /3.6 GHz | 16GB Optane module + 1TB HDD + 4GB RAM + Win10 Home | ||
| NUC8i5BEK | Intel Core i5-8259U | 4/8 | 2.3 GHz / 3.8 GHz | Barebones kit (short) | ||
| NUC8i5BEH | Intel Core i5-8259U | 4/8 | 2.3 GHz / 3.8 GHz | Barebones kit (tall) | ||
| NUC8i5BEHXF | Intel Core i5-8259U | 4/8 | 2.3 GHz / 3.8 GHz | 16GB Optane module + 1TB HDD + 4GB RAM + Win10 Home | ||
| NUC8i7BEH | Intel Core i7-8559U | 4/8 | 2.7 GHz / 4.5 GHz | Barebones kit (tall) | ||
| NUC8i7BEHXG | Intel Core i7-8559U | 4/8 | 2.7 GHz / 4.5 GHz | 32GB Optane module + 2TB HDD + 8GB RAM + Win10 Home | ||
The company will also offer board-only versions of the Core i3, Core i5, and Core i7 NUC systems for folks and companies that want to design their own chassis. Those are called the NUC8i3BEB, NUC8i5BEB, and NUC8i7BEB, respectively.
Note that while the standard NUC case includes a fan, we can probably expect to see some third-party cases that use passive cooling for a fanless (and silent) design.
via FanlessTech
I really like the NUC. I have one about 2 yrs old now mounted to the back of a 27 inch monitor for a nice all-in-one look.
The NUC8i5BEH model looks very interesting. Glad to see they did not build a microphone into the unit. I look forward to reading reviews. Tell them to send you one Brad!
Huh, the Thunderbolt 3 port is new isn’t it? Neat! Now the question is pricing and whether the NUCs can be powered over that port.