Intel NUCs for gaming aren’t new, but it will be in 2022 when they launch with all-blue company hardware. In other words, the reason we expect to see the NUC 12 Enthusiast is that it combines an Intel Core 12, Alder Lake-S architecture with the ARC Alchemist, their first true gaming GPUs.
One of the downsides of AIO desktop systems, whether or not they have a built-in display, is that they use laptop hardware. However, Intel with its next generation of the so-called Next Unit of Computing, but in its variants intended for gaming, we are going to see a pretty big change.
Finally an LGA take on NUC 12 Enthusiast
Intel NUCs have an industrial design that is very reminiscent of a video game console, because like these, they integrate all of the system hardware mounted on the same PCB and do not accept expansion cards. However, they are generally much more versatile than a console by having the ability to configure things like RAM and storage. All this through the use of portable hardware.
However and as can be seen in the image accompanying this section, which corresponds to the bare plate and, therefore, without NUC 12 Enthusiast box, inside we can see an Intel Core 12 of unknown nature mounted and a desktop under the LGA 1700 socket. That is, we can install a desktop processor and even replace it with a better one as it is not soldered to the board like those futuras raptor lake. This contrasts with the current model, which uses one of the Tiger Lake family as the CPU which is soldered in as it does not use any type of socket but a BGA case which is directly soldered to the board.
Limited in processor options
The fact that the NUC 12 Enthusiast uses a desktop processor surprises us, we know that Intel is going to implement an ARC Alchemist inside, but we believed in using the Alder Lake for laptops with a TPD of 55 W that had been seen on the roadmap of laptop processors. However, this does not mean that we can mount any processor, because it is said that we will be limited by a 330 W power supply, which limits the processors we can install.
This will limit our options to Intel 35W and 65W TDP processors, so we may not be able to install a i9-12900K in these systems. Therefore, the ability to place any desktop processor with an LGA1700 socket is limited by the nature of this type of equipment.
Other details of the new Intel gaming NUC
In the leaked photo, we can not only get information about the type of processor supported, but also two SO-DIMM memory slots for DDR4 memory up to 64 GB in dual channel. In addition to NVMe SSD support for PCIe Gen 3 and Gen 4.
It is not possible to see the rest of the hardware, however, let’s not forget that the specifications of the NUC Enthusiast 12 were leaked last August and if we stick to it we will have several configurations at the level of the dedicated graphics card. One with 8 GB, another with 12 GB and the most powerful with 16 GB. If we add to this that the processor will not be welded, then we have a large number of different configurations.
So in terms of graphics capacity, they should come with ARC Alchemist GPUs equivalent in power to an RTX 3060, RTX 3060 Ti, and RTX 3070 desktop PC. Of course, we don’t know if the versions of the gaming graphics cards will run at a higher clock rate than their gaming laptop counterparts.
