so here I am with another video that was supposed to be done at CES but that
really didn't happen because Demetri Mike and I wanted to spend a little bit
more time processing the information regarding the new Intel NUC 9 extreme or
in other words what they're calling it the ghost Canyon honestly a lot of the
information is positive and there are lot of cool things happening with the
NUC 9 but it also kind of left our heads scratching out for a bit with regards to
what the heck Intel was even thinking with a design pricing and strategy but
most importantly who is this thing even targeted towards so we've spent quite a
while thinking about it so let's get into it right after a quick message from
our sponsor we've all been there looking at our RAM thinking what a weakling well
no longer introducing tough frame by Thermaltake the toughest RAM around with
a discrete built-in logo and premium heat spreaders design the toughest
addressable LED system with super brightness compatibility with all the
usual motherboard software even raise a chroma and voice control through Amazon
Alexa available in the toughest capacities of 16 gigabytes per kit with
speeds between 3040 400 megahertz considered the tough frame RGB link
below alright so let's start this at the top and explain a bit about the new Nook
ecosystem starting off with a quick list of components every nook regardless of
whether it fits from Intel or one of their partners will come with a nook
compute element card a daughter board and a power supply all of which is
installed into a compatible chassis those will be combined into either bare
bones or pre-built systems would that mean said the cornerstone of all of this
is the nook compute element this is basically a combination of motherboard
with a CPU where the processor is soldered in place so no you can't buy
them separately the entire thing interfaces with the rest of the system
via PCI hn3 x16 slot and is powered by a single 8 pin EPS connector it also has
all the necessary i/o connectors on the back including HDMI 2.0 and Thunderball
3 inside there's an integrated Wi-Fi 6 card to soda memory slots and a pair of
n2 nvme connectors but here's the first issue the Nook usually stands for next
of computing which showcases Intel's upcoming processors and their newest
features but this almost feels like last gen tech because instead of using comet
Lake Intel is using the old ninth generation coffee Lake mobile CPUs and
I'm thinking they're doing this to reduce temperatures and lower power
consumption but it's a really odd move basically they'll be compute element
boards with an 8 core 16 thread unlocked eye 9 9 and a thk that can be
overclocked through Intel's XTU there's also gonna be another model with the i7
9750H like what's found on my waser blade 15 and an i5 9300H these aren't
slow CPUs but they drastically underperform the more capable AMD and
Intel CPUs that can be installed into an ITX system these days the element itself
can't be used alone and that's where the ghost Canyon or NUC 9 extreme comes in
two things Intel actually plans on selling this as
a complete barebone system through retailers or selling it directly to
companies it comes with the skull branded 5 leader case one of the compute
elements pre-installed and a 500 watt SFX power supply this is a bare-bones
system that just needs storage and operating system and soda memory to make
it a fully functioning PC and getting access to those items is pretty easy you
just need to remove some screws pop the top open and everything's right there
intel says pricing still hasn't been settled but just the other day the
compute elements were listed on intel site so for just a 9380 element we're
looking at around six hundred fifty-two dollars and the 9750H will go for eight
hundred and thirteen dollars but what about that unlocked 99 a thk well
that'll be one thousand two hundred and forty two George Washington's Oh God
until you and your ridiculous pricing strategy you see according to Intel site
the 980 hk's recommended price is 583 dollars so it's pretty mind-boggling to
think that they'd sell the nook element card for a little over $1200 given that
perfectly good motherboard stone costs more than $200 and what about the Nook 9
extreme bare-bones kit completed with a chassis but without a GPU memory and
storage well check out these prices guys he literally are as much as an
gaming pc GPU and all that stuff and also remember retailers usually price
these a lot higher moving on to the interior and we can see all of the
components that I talked about earlier and how they interact with one another
there's one compute element and it's mounted on a small PCB which has two PCI
x16 slots and an m2 drive one of those PCI slots is used for an optional
discrete graphics card while the other one is used for the element on the Intel
branded nook that GPU can be a dual slot and up to eight inches long another
interesting thing is that the daughter board has a custom ten pin connector
that brings auxiliary power to the element board discrete graphics card and
the daughter board supposedly they'll be adapters support a standard ATX 24-pin
connector into a compatible 10 pin other than making this nook available as a
bare-bones kid Intel will be selling the element board or the element card and
the daughter board to companies who are willing to create an ultra compact small
form factor system we've already looked at the razor tomahawk which seemed
pretty interesting and coolermaster also has something called the NC 100 hidden
away in their suite even iBUYPOWER is getting into the game with the revolt
gt3 let's look at that Coolermaster case for a second since it represents a
different strategy for the nook ecosystem Intel might end up selling the
element cards directly through retailers while other companies would sell cases
with the dark card and a power supply pre-installed supposedly the NC 100 with
those components would cost around $200 and you'd be responsible for buying
everything else that would give people a lot more flexibility to outfit their
systems with different components but there's a bunch of problems there as
well and left thinking soft with that daughterboard
you see this thing looks like it's designer didn't talk to the dude
engineering the elements cooling solution or neither realized what kind
of spacing was needed for discrete graphics cards because you know airflow
is a thing and right now every element system we've seen has the GPU choking
out the CPU like a Bose it money Intel check Kula master
certainly and the razor tomahawk it's it's clearly evident guys another
problem is sighs I'll give Intel some credit here for the Nook nine super
small footprint at just 5 liters it's tiny but moving on to systems we saw
from Coolermaster and razor and guess what in order to make room for larger
GPUs they're right back to using a chassis that's in the seven to ten liter
range and honestly there are some kickass SFF ITX cases in that size so
other than the simple modular approach to the compute element there's really
nothing here that you can't already do with much less expensive components so
who is this thing actually for well it's certainly not for everyone watching this
video and if you look at the DIY gaming community it almost feels like Intel's
trying to physically limit your upgrade path to a modular system around a very
expensive element card not only that but you're buying into an ecosystem that is
using a very old mobile 19 CPU that doesn't even support PCI Express Gen 4
what about productivity while the combination of intel's quick sync and
discrete graphics card is awesome in some programs the lack of pci gen 4 SSD
compatibility and no USB 3.2 2x2 could make it a hard sell because it's 2020
guys but I do think that the Nook 9 or whatever Intel's partners call it might
end up being appealing for some companies who are looking for compact
efficient workstation PC that can be a simple drop-in upgrade sometime down the
line you see IT centers could love this because they just have to simply upgrade
a module instead of buying an entire system gaming cafes could also see this
becoming a great option because it's a very efficient way to cut down
electricity costs most of all when I look at the compute elements I worry
about what Intel has planned for the PC market as a whole
modularity is certainly interesting but with the motherboard CPU and soon the
GPU all in Intel's control it could lead to a very closed ecosystem and that's
really concerning guys because it'll drive costs up it's all just a poor
value in my opinion because if you think about it when you add things like memory
storage and the operating system imagine what you can actually build for that
price I've even heard some people say that this might be the future of small
form-factor pcs but I really hope that isn't true I can see the Nook element
eventually being an interesting option for businesses but right now it might be
a very hard sell for many gamers I'd love to be proven wrong but we'll just
have to wait and see when this thing eventually launches in March but until
then I'll talk to you guys in the next one