Intel NUC 11 Extreme Review: Big things really do come in small packages

I’m not exactly sure why, but it seems as though I attract a number of esoteric products into the office for review, such as the Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders. But while that was just a smartphone, today we have something a lot more close to my heart—a gaming PC. And not just any gaming PC either: an Intel NUC 11 Extreme Kit, aka the ‘Beast Canyon’.

In case you haven’t heard of Intel’s lineup of Next Unit of Computing (NUC) PCs before, it’s basically their line of small form factor (SFF) computers. Originally, they were envisioned as these tiny cubes, like a Mac Mini for Windows PCs. While you can still get these like the NUC 11 Pro, at the top of the product stack you find powerhouses like the the NUC 11 Extreme.

The Intel NUC 11 Extreme proves that size doesn’t matter

Technically though, it’s not exactly the ready-to-go small PC that NUC fans and users may be more familiar with. The NUC 11 Extreme only comes as a DIY kit, which is just the case, power supply, fans and the CPU module (which we’ll get to in a bit more detail later). This means that you will need to get your own graphics card, SSD, operating system and memory yourself.

With that out of the way, the review unit that was sent to us by Intel comes with an Intel Core i9-11900KB, 16GB of RAM, and a 500GB SSD. They’ve also provided an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti graphics card so that we’ll have a complete system of course, but because your user experience will vary differently based on your configuration of the NUC 11 Extreme—perhaps you fitted a GT 1030 instead of an RTX 3060 Ti for instance—I only tested out the CPU’s performance, as the Intel Core i9-11900KB is the real star of the show here.

To put those numbers into context, the Core i9-11900KB scored 10,577 in the Time Spy test on 3DMark, which smoked the 6,675 my now comparatively lowly AMD Ryzen 5 3600 in my home desktop did. The AMD Ryzen 7 5800H on our previously reviewed Acer Nitro 5 meanwhile did a 6,924 on the same test, while the MSI Creator Z16’s Core i7-11800H got a 7,998. In fact, you’re looking at single core Cinebench R23 scores similar to an AMD Ryzen 9 5950X, though it is significantly behind in terms of multi core performance.

You might be wondering why I compared it to a few laptop chips though if it’s a “desktop” PC, and that’s simply because it’s actually a Tiger Lake processor that’s been adapted for a desktop use case by Intel, in this case for their NUC 11 Extreme. That’s also why it’s called the Core i9-11900KB, with the B suffix referring to ball grid array, the soldered socket platform that these CPUs have. In comparison, a typical desktop CPU from Intel uses the land grid array socket, where the pins are on the motherboard. In essence, you can think of it like a laptop processor on steroids.

And even though it’s very closely related to the likes of the Core i7-1165G7, it is still much more powerful, with single core benchmarks showing it ahead of other Tiger Lake CPUs like the aforementioned Core i7-1165G7. And yet, despite its 8 cores and 16 threads capable of a 3.3GHz base clock and 4.9GHz boost clock, it practically sips power at just 65W compared to the 125W TDP of it’s actual desktop counterpart, the Core i9-11900K.

But it’s also not just all about performance. The Intel NUC 11 Extreme is stacked with expandability options, with two SODIMM slots for up to 64GB of DDR4-3200 RAM, a PCIe x16 Gen 4 slot for your graphics card, four(!!) M.2 slots with two of them being PCIe x4 Gen 4 and two PCIe x4 Gen 3, two Thunderbolt 4 ports, a HDMI 2.0 port for the integrated graphics to output, WiFi 6E, a 2.5G Ethernet port, Bluetooth 5.2 and eight USB-A 3.1 slots as well as a full-sized SD card on the slot. That’s honestly some ridiculous levels of I/O, and even better than some of the standard off the shelf desktop motherboards I’ve seen out there.

The actual CPU itself though is a little strange. Instead of your regular CPU, with the NUC 11 Extreme you get what’s called a ‘Compute Element’. It’s kind of like a PCIe card gone wild, where you’ll find the actual Core i9-11900KB chip, the slots for the SODIMM RAM, three of the M.2 slots and a small heatsink on it. This Compute Element then gets plugged into a daughterboard of sorts, which links it up to the PCIe x16 slot for the graphics card as well as the fourth M.2 slot on the bottom of the desktop. The idea of the Compute Element is also that down the line, one could potentially swap it out for a new Compute Element from Intel too, allowing for easy CPU upgrades, though whether it’s easier than a typical CPU swap on a real desktop is debatable.

As for cooling, the Intel NUC 11 Extreme comes with three 92mm fans on the top of the case, while the Compute Unit has its own fan on it. It runs hotter than your average desktop CPU that’s for sure, but you got to remember that this is technically a mobile processor, which runs warmer by nature. I mostly saw it idling at between 50-60°C, sometimes rising to 70°C or so during normal work tasks with Google Chrome, Adobe Photoshop and a host of background programs open.

Once I threw some benchmarks or games at it though, it immediately spikes and throttles itself a bit, hitting 90°C with occasional spikes of up to 100°C too. I also noted a rise and fall and rise of temperature under load, perhaps indicating a weird fan curve. Entering the BIOS and choosing the ‘cool’ fan preset seemed to fix this, with CPU temperature never going over 95°C, though the three fans were now noticeably louder when under load.

It’s a masterclass in SFF PC design and engineering

Let me be the first to point out that this looks incredible. Forget the big watercooled rigs with RGB fluids, or the tempered glass cases with lighting all over; the Intel NUC 11 Extreme is a sleek little machine that still has all the gamer aesthetic you’d want and need thanks to the NUC Skull RGB on the front that is also customisable. There’s even RGB underglow lighting as well, complete with a dedicated button if you want to turn off the lights.

But in the world of SFF PCs, the only real number that matters is the volume of the case. The Cooler Master MasterBox NR200 for example has often been called the best entry-level SFF PC case around, but that takes up around 18 litres of space. Meanwhile, the classic Fractal Node 202 from years ago is still a very respectable option today, with its console-like 10.2 litre chassis that splits the GPU from the rest of the computer. And of course, perhaps one of the most famous SFF PC cases out there is the Louqe Ghost S1, with the latest MkIII model a mere 8.2 litres. And somehow, the Intel NUC 11 Extreme manages to go even smaller, with an 8 litre case that also comes with that incredible CPU inside.

The extent to which the NUC 11 Extreme has been meticulously engineered continues as you open up the case and peer into the silicon housed underneath. If you’ve been paying attention you’ll know that this isn’t your average gaming PC. It’s extremely easy to pop open the hood, as you simply need to unscrew the back panel, which then unlocks the side and top panels, while the actual top part of the case holding the three fans can be folded back for access to the Compute Element, graphics card and power supply.

Once the GPU is popped out, the Compute Element becomes a lot more obvious. It has the NUC Skull printed on it, and also has a shroud attached to it so that the fan can get fresh air. I was then able to simply unscrew the shell of the Compute Element to expose the M.2 slots, SODIMM slots and massive copper heatsink. It kinda looks like there’s a smidge more material here to dissipate heat compared to your average gaming laptop, which is good because like I said earlier, this thing is a Tiger Lake chip on ‘roids.

GPU compatibility though is a little bit constricting. You can only fit dual-slot cards up to 12-inches long, meaning that the current generation of big chungus GPUs may be a tight fit if you plan to get yourself an Intel NUC 11 Extreme Kit. That new RTX 3070 by Asus and Noctua for instance is a 4-slot, 12.2-inch card meaning it won’t fit, but you’ll be safe with Founders Edition RTX 3070. The included FSP 650W power supply is also a nice touch, seeing as these are normally scarcer and more expensive than your regular ATX power supplies, but again, you’ll need to take that into account when choosing a GPU. Overall, the design and layout of the case and its internals are very user-friendly, and taking things apart and putting ’em back together was challenging yet fun.

The Intel NUC 11 Extreme is incredible. It’s also incredibly expensive.

Herein lies the biggest problem with the Intel NUC 11 Extreme: the price. In case you forgot, the Intel NUC 11 Extreme Kits come with just the case, fans, PSU and the Compute Element. There are also two versions available, with either the overclockable Core i9-11900KB that we have here or the locked Core i7-11700B. The Core i7 model kit goes for USD1,150 (~RM4,802.74) while the Core i9 kit retails for a whopping USD1,350 (~RM5,638). Local availability though is officially “to be confirmed”, but we did find these kits on sale on Shopee for RM5,999 and RM6,669 via a local PC and Hackintosh builder store.

To put that into context, I built my entire gaming PC that can handle most new triple-A games for less than the base model of the Intel NUC 11 Extreme (granted this was before the global silicon shortage). And once you factor in the fact that you’ll also need to get RAM modules, an SSD and a graphics card in the middle of the worst GPU shortage we’ve ever seen, the final cost you can expect to pay will balloon to astronomical figures. Of course, these small form factor PCs do tend to cost more anyway. The other 8L chassis we mentioned earlier, the Louqe Ghost S1 MkIII, retails at USD295 for the case alone, with a friend of mine paying over RM1,300 to get one shipped here from China.

However, if you’re looking for a more affordable entry into the world of SFF PCs, there are definitely cheaper options too. The aforementioned 10.2L Fractal Node 202 can normally be found on Shopee for around RM379, while the 18L Cooler Master NR200 can also be bought for RM279. I personally had my eye on the Tecware Fusion for some time now, which is a little bigger at 22L but supports M-ATX motherboards too. You’ll be able to find it on Shopee for below RM200. That being said though, these are still just the cases, so you will need to get the rest of the parts as well. It’s perhaps worth mentioning that ITX boards and SFX power supplies are typically more expensive than their ATX cousins too.

Moving back to the Intel NUC 11 Extreme, in its defense, I will admit that it’s a phenomenal piece of PC gaming hardware. And I’m sure that there’s someone out there who’s willing to splurge on it. But the price means that this is probably too expensive for my tastes. Besides, there’s also the weird upgrade path you may need to take; because you can’t simply swap out your CPU, you’ll instead need to buy a whole new Compute Element if you want to upgrade your computer down the line. Of course though, this has and still is a very niche product, for a very small demographic of PC users.

Even small form factor PCs in general are still considered a niche section of the PC gaming community at large, which is why as I mentioned earlier parts are typically more expensive, with more factors to consider when buying or building one. In fact in that regard, the NUC 11 Extreme makes it very simple to just buy a kit and proceed from there, skipping past the hunt for a case, processor, motherboard and power supply. However, I sincerely hope that in the near future we’ll be seeing Compute Elements from both Intel and AMD, allowing for these SFF PCs to flourish while keeping power consumption low. If this is a sign of how small and powerful gaming PCs of the future can be, then I can’t wait to see it.

Photography by Sofie Danial with the Sony A7III.