Intel’s NUC Extreme line of computers tend to be compact, high-performance systems with the latest Intel mobile chips and support for discrete graphics. But this year’s NUC 12 Extreme is something a little different – it will have an LGA1700 socket with support for 12th-gen Intel Alder Lake desktop processors.
Code-named Dragon Canyon, the new Intel NUC 12 Extreme should be available in the first quarter of 2022.
Like many companies, Intel scaled back plans to attend this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in person, so instead of showing off the Dragon Canyon NUC in person, the company shared some details at the end of a CES 2022 Demo video.
Among other things, we can see that the system will feature:
- Support for 65W Intel Core i7 or Core i9 socketed processors
- Vapor Chamber & fan cooling
- 3 x PXIe Gen 4 slots for M.2 2280 SSDs
- 2 x DDR4-3200 SODIMM slots for up to 64GB of RAM
- Thunderbolt 4
- 10 Gbe Ethernet
- USB 3.2 Gen 2
- HDMI
- Front panel with customizable LED lighting
There’s also a a slot in the baseboard for an optional discrete graphics card. According to a report from last fall from Inpact Hardware, it’s expected to be a PCIe 5.0 x16 slot.
We first learned that Intel was likely planning to use a socketed CPU for this year’s NUC Extreme via a leaked photo posted earlier this month, but now Intel has confirmed that the leak was accurate.
Intel may be developing an NUC Extreme Edition mini PC with an LGA1700 socket for a desktop-class 12th-gen Intel Core “Alder Lake” processor. It would also mean that users could replace the CPU. https://t.co/B0T9MeEaER
— Liliputing (@liliputingnews) January 3, 2022
Since the CPU is socketed, users will likely be able to upgrade or replace the processor, but the marketing materials suggest that Intel expects most users to opt for a Core i7-12700 or Core i9-12900 processor. Both are 65-watt processors, with the former featuring 12 CPU cores, 20 threads, and top speeds up to 4.9 GHz, while the latter is a 16-core, 24-thread processor capable of hitting frequencies as high as 5.1 GHz.