If you're short of space or just don't want a monster gaming rig dominating your room, small form factor computers can help. Maybe. Not all members of this growing family can handle modern PC games, but Intel says its latest NUC mini-PCs can do just that, with an 8th Generation Core processor and AMD graphics making it possible to run 1080p games such as League of Legends, Team Fortress 2 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
"Intel NUCs are mini PCs that offer high-performance capabilities in a space-saving design and are perfectly suited for home theater, home office, entry-level gaming or as a replacement for desktops when space is a concern," said Intel's John Deatherage.
The NUC (Next Unit of Computing) mini-PC has palm-friendly dimensions and is ready to hide behind a big screen gaming monitor to give you more room on your desk for peripherals.
Inside the 117 x 112 x 52 mm (4.6 x 4.4 x 2 in) box, Intel has squeezed in an 8th gen Core i3-8121U processor, discrete graphics in the shape of a Radeon 540 GPU, 1 TB of HDD storage and 4 or 8 GB of LPDDR4 RAM. There are two HDMI outputs and four USB 3.1 ports, two USB 2.0 connections via internal headers, while wireless is served up by Bluetooth 5 and 802.11ac Wi-Fi.
Barebones kits have also been announced that are built around Coffee Lake-U Core i7, i5 and i3 processors with Intel Iris graphics, and cater for storage, memory and OS customization.
The new NUCs will go on sale from next month. No word on pricing for the mini-PC as yet, but the kits start at US$299.
Source: Intel
