Intel's Skull Canyon NUC is Official: $650, Shipping In May
by Ganesh T S on March 16, 2016 10:00 PM EST
Back in January, Intel had provided us with information about the Skull Canyon NUC based on a Skylake H-Series CPU(with Iris Pro Graphics). Today, at GDC 2016, Intel made the specifications official. Pricing and availability information was also provided.
The key aspect that was not revealed before was the dimensions. The Skull Canyon NUC (NUC6i7KYK) will come in at 216mm x 116mm x 23mm, with the volume coming in at just 0.69L. For comparison, the Skylake NUC6i5SYK (non-2.5" drive version) comes in at 115mm x 111mm x 32mm (0.41L), while NUC6i5SYH (2.5" drive bay-enabled) one is 115mm x 111mm x 48mm (0.61L). The rest of the specifications are outlined in the table below:
| Intel NUC6i7KYK (Skull Canyon) Specifications | |
| Processor | Intel Core i7-6770HQ Skylake, 4C/8T, 2.6 GHz (Turbo to 3.5 GHz), 14nm, 6MB L2, 45W TDP |
| Memory | 2x DDR4 SO-DIMM (2133+ MHz) |
| Graphics | Intel Iris Pro Graphics 580 (Skylake-H GT4+4e with 128MB eDRAM) |
| Disk Drive(s) | Dual M.2 (SATA3 / PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe / AHCI SSDs) |
| Networking | Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 8260 (2x2 802.11ac - 867 Mbps + Bluetooth 4.2) Intel I-219V Gigabit Ethernet |
| Audio | 3.5mm Audio Jack (Headphone / Microphone) Capable of 5.1/7.1 digital output with HD audio bitstreaming (HDMI) |
| Miscellaneous I/O Ports | 1x Thunderbolt 3 / USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C 4x USB 3.0 (incl. one charging port) 1x SDXC (UHS-I) 1x HDMI 2.0, 1x mini-DP 1.2 Consumer Infrared Sensor |
| Operating System | Barebones |
| Pricing | $650 (Barebones) $999 (Typical build with 16GB DDR4, 256GB SSD and Windows 10) |
| Fact Sheet | Intel NUC6i7KYK GDC Fact Sheet (PDF) |
Note that the HDMI 2.0 output is enabled by an external LSPcon (not Alpine Ridge). So, we will definitely have 4Kp60 output with HDCP 2.2 support over the HDMI port, making it suitable as a future-proof HTPC platform. From a gaming perspective, the availability of Thunderbolt 3 enables users to add an external graphics dock like the recently announced Razer Core eGFX module. Note that any external GPU will be able to talk to the CPU only over a PCIe 3.0 x4 link (which should be plenty in almost all cases).
The Skull Canyon NUC will be available to pre-order on Newegg next month, with shipping in May 2016.
Source: Intel
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ImSpartacus - Wednesday, March 16, 2016 - link
Dual m.2 is nice. I'm glad Intel went all in on solid state storage.lordmocha - Thursday, March 17, 2016 - link
Yeah it's good to see. Now we just need an Intel 750 to come out in M.2 form-factor.sugarbear7 - Thursday, March 17, 2016 - link
I wish there was at at least 1 regular SATA3 port with space for a 2.5" SSD like the H versions of the regular NUC. Even if there was one less m.2 port.An m.2 PCIe for OS/programs and a 1TB+ SSD for storage is the best combo IMO.
jospoortvliet - Thursday, March 17, 2016 - link
That is what a nas or private cloud storage like ownCloud are for :-)Lord 666 - Thursday, March 17, 2016 - link
No, that's what a m.2 PCIe for OS/programs and a 1TB+ SSD for storage are for. The 1tb drive comes to play with vm's that cannot be cloud stored or shouldn't be cloud stored. Even via a nas doesn't make sense.jasonelmore - Wednesday, March 16, 2016 - link
I wonder how well this will do at 45w in this chassis. I doubt it will stay in turbo very long. Wish it had 8MB cache. Can't wait to see this paired with a external GPU Chassis, and running a DX12 title that supports multi-adapter so we can use the iris pro's gpu with whatever we are running in the chassis.It is very good looking, good job intel
peterfares - Wednesday, March 16, 2016 - link
What exactly would be the point of pairing this with an external GPU? If it's a fixed system just get one that's big enough to fit both the CPU and the GPU in one box.bcpatter - Wednesday, March 16, 2016 - link
Disclaimer: I work for Intel on the team that developed this product.Great question peterfares - we see at least 2 potential uses for this. 1) for someone looking to get started with gaming can buy this system and if they later decide they want/need additional graphics performance they have the opportunity to do so. 2) use this at home with the external GPU but still have the ease of use to take just the NUC with you to a LAN party for the ultimate portable gaming system.
Mondozai - Wednesday, March 16, 2016 - link
SC is the most innovation we've had in the PC space in years, but that isn't a very high bar to cross, but still. The portability is awesome.extide - Thursday, March 17, 2016 - link
What about DX12; dGPU + this, for some great extra compute/gfx ? (Come on, this is what everyone is drooling about right now)