Hey everyone, Alaina here. So I’ve had time with Beast Canyon,
and I’m not actually going to get too deep into the benchmarks. For all the numbers
and more nuance around them, hop on over to PCWorld.com to look at my written review.
What I will say is, in a nutshell, for this 11900 KB version of Beast Canyon,
you’re looking at CPU performance about on par with the Core i9 11980HK,
its sibling in Intel’s 11th-gen mobile CPU lineup.
In our Cinebench R20 and Handbrake encoding tests, the scores are within roughly 4% of each other.
As for gaming benchmarks...well, let me summarize it as this. Beast Canyon comes in at about what
I’d expect for a top of the line Core i9 mobile CPU paired with a desktop RTX 3060.
Basically, it falls somewhere between gaming laptops and larger gaming PCs with similar specs.
I imagine this isn’t a surprise to anyone, and honestly, that’s the rub.
Going back in time, when Intel debuted its first gaming NUC,
it was incredibly unique. You could not replicate Skull Canyon as a DIY builder,
and as mini-PC, it packed a punch. Hades Canyon built on that with its AMD-powered GPU
inside that Kaby Lake-G part. And then even last year, Ghost Canyon showed up as a 5
liter system that carried on that spirit of a dead-simple, ultra-compact powerful gaming PC.
At 8 liters, Beast Canyon really starts to compete head-to-head with DIY small-form factor PCs,
Not just on power, but the build experience as well.
And as you saw earlier in this video, it’s not nearly as straightforward in layout as Ghost
Canyon. Ghost Canyon can be disassembled without needing explicit instructions.
And yes, when I say needing explicit instructions,
I may have tried to apply my experience with Ghost Canyon and standard PC cases
to opening up Beast Canyon and accidentally pulled off the top piece when I wasn’t really
supposed to. I highly recommend watching Intel’s official teardown video if you buy this kit.
Now, with Beast Canyon being a little more complex to get into, the scale begins to tip a bit toward
a DIY build as a better choice for most people wanting something this size. Add in consideration
of its custom, ostensibly non-replaceable power supply, and it tilts more in that direction.
Perhaps not enough to push away interested buyers into DIY territory, since this NUC does do away
with some installation headaches, like dealing with cable management. But when you factor in
price, that’s when DIY--even with its building headaches--starts to look very, very good.
Intel says the Core i9 version of Beast Canyon, which we have here, is $1,350.
That’s for the kit, purely for the kit. So you're only getting the Compute Element,
the case, the power supply, and all the cabling set up for that price.
You still have to buy your own storage, your own RAM, and a GPU.
So our review unit, it rings up at almost $2,000, if you were to get the graphics card at list price.
A similar-ish DIY system with a full socketed desktop CPU, built into a 7.25 liter Dan A4 case? $1,500.
And that's with a $250 case!
Intel’s trying to appeal to gamers and content creators who want no comprimises,
but you’ll get a lot more bang for your buck elsewhere.
Still, I would never say Beast Canyon shouldn’t exist.
People who use PCs span a very wide territory, and for those who want something this compact
and theoretically easily upgradable, they can just buy a fully built out system from places like
Simply NUC and then deal with the swap of the GPU and/or Compute Element later down the road.
But I would question someone much more closely if they expressed an interest in Beast Canyon,
unlike with its predecessors. This NUC will best fit someone who prioritizes a small footprint
and ease of upgradability over everything. And honestly? They’ve got some money to burn, too.
So that does it for this video. If you found it helpful,
hit that like button and also subscribe to the channel for more PC hardware coverage.
Thanks so much for watching and I'll catch you in the next one.