Alder Lake in UCFF Avatar

The early 2010s noticed the PC market caught in the doldrums, with the nettop craze having died down, and smartphones / tablets more and more taking up day-to-day computing use-cases. While the normal enterprise PCs and workstation market was steady, the moribund client market wanted a shot in the arm. Intel launched the Next Unit of Computing – a 4″ x 4″ motherboard – in 2012 and began advertising mini-PCs based mostly on the boards with their very own branding. Low-power processors grew to become highly effective sufficient to ship the processing energy of cumbersome desktops in the palm of 1’s hand. The NUC shortly caught the market’s fancy, triggering clones such because the GIGABYTE BRIX and ASRock Beebox from Intel’s companions. Over the final decade, this ultra-compact form-factor (UCFF) and different SFF machines, together with programs focusing on the gaming market have emerged as shiny spots. The NUC household has since expanded to focus on all of these market segments.

2022 was a milestone in the decade-long journey for the unique 4″x4″ form-factor. Intel launched their first UCFF product household with hybrid processors. The NUC 12 Pro – codenamed Wall Street Canyon – was made out there in a wide range of flavors. In order to carry out the evolution of the UCFF ecosystem over the past ten years, Intel sampled us three totally different Wall Street Canyon NUCs focusing on totally different market segments.

The NUC12WSKi7 targets mainstream enterprise customers and residential shoppers, whereas the vPro-enabled NUC12WSKv7 is geared in the direction of IT departments for enterprise and enterprise deployments. The Wall Street Canyon household additionally contains naked boards such because the NUC12WSBi70Z (a Lite model of the board contained in the NUC12WSKi7) that may be taken by OEMs and customised for particular purposes. Our pattern set included the Bleu Jour Meta 12 – a rugged fanless mini-PC based mostly on the NUC12WSBi70Z and optimized for industrial use-cases. The evaluate beneath takes an in depth have a look at the efficiency profile and have set of the three NUCs.

Introduction and Product Impressions

Intel’s Alder Lake processors introduced the period of heterogeneous computing with hybrid processors to the mainstream market. The combination of efficiency and effectivity cores was first marketed for desktop platforms earlier than making the transfer to the low-power market in early 2022. Fabricated in Intel 7, the processor household introduced a multi-tasking focus to computing, offering hints to the OS on the place totally different duties have to be run and translating to a greater person expertise. The Alder Lake-P collection is meant to ship all that inside a 28W energy envelop. The first UCFF programs based mostly on Alder Lake-P processors have been really from ASRock Industrial – The NUC BOX-1200 collection was launched inside a few weeks of the launch of Alder Lake-P. While being the primary to market with the brand new platform, our review of the NUC BOX-1260P discovered that the corporate had not spent a lot time on optimizing the BIOS for optimum energy consumption and efficiency. Our impressions of Alder Lake-P from that system was not favorable from a efficiency per watt perspective. The ultimate verdict on that might undoubtedly be determined based mostly on Intel’s personal Alder Lake-P providing – the Wall Street Canyon NUCs (NUC 12 Pro).

In order to have fun the ten-year lengthy journey of the mainstream UCFF NUC form-factor, Intel sampled us three totally different Wall Street Canyon NUCs:

• Intel NUC12WSKi7, based mostly on the Core i7-1260P
• Intel NUC12WSKv7, based mostly on the Core i7-1270P (with a barely totally different case design, apparently supposed for future mainstream NUCs)
• Bleu Jour Meta 12, an as-yet unreleased rugged fanless NUC based mostly on the NUC12WSBi70Z – a Lite model of the board in the NUC12WSKi7, with out the Thunderbolt 4 / USB4 Type-C ports

One of the first efficiency drivers over the previous few generations of the Intel NUCs has been fine-grained energy management. At the high-end, in specific, Intel has began setting the PL1 limits past the rated TDP. As late because the Comet Lake-based Frost Canyon NUC (the NUC10i7FN), the PL1 restrict was set to 28W. Coming to the Tiger Lake household, the Tiger Canyon NUC that we evaluated – the NUC11TNBi5 additionally had its PL1 set to 28W. However, the Panther Canyon NUC (NUC11PAQi7) upped the ante and configured the PL1 to 40W by default. While we did not publish a standalone evaluate of the Panther Canyon NUC, readers can discover all of the benchmark numbers for that system in this evaluate. The Alder Lake NUCs construct upon the Tiger Lake ones by protecting the default PL1 and PL2 values in the BIOS to 40W / 64W. As we will see additional down in this evaluate, this poses a problem for fanless system distributors, whereas additionally exacerbating the fan noise subject in the usual kits.

The NUC12WSKi7 pattern got here with a Kingston KC2500 PCIe 3.0 x4 500GB NVMe SSD and 2x Crucial CT16G4SFRA32A 16GB DDR4-3200 SODIMMs pre-installed. We carried out our analysis of the three programs in sequence, permitting the reuse of the identical RAM and SSD for all three programs. While the general packaging of the programs was geared in the direction of unboxing movies, the contents of every field mirrored the elements in the retail packaging – VESA or industrial mounts, as relevant, a 120W (20V @ 6A) energy adapter, a geo-specific energy twine, screws for mount set up and M.2 SSD set up, in addition to an assortment of fast begin guides and regulatory info pamphlets.

The NUC12WSKi7 continues with the identical ultra-compact form-factor design seen in the earlier NUCs. Doing away with the two.5″ drive help permits the system to have a top of simply 37mm. The entrance ports are all Type-A, with the 2 Thunderbolt 4 Type-C ports each relegated to the rear. Surprisingly, the rear I/O features a USB 2.0 Type-A port too. The SDXC slot seen in earlier era NUCs is just not seen right here, however that’s made up for by the presence of two Thunderbolt 4 ports.

NUC12WSKi7 – Chassis Design and I/O

The retail model of the NUC12WSKv7 is externally an identical to the NUC12WSKi7 proven above. However, our evaluate pattern set opted to place it in a redesigned casing.

NUC12WSKv7 – An Updated Chassis Color Scheme

The new case design above is a preview of the plans for future 4×4 NUC fashions. The perforated case backside will be eliminated with out the help of any instruments to get entry to the underside of the system (for the set up of the RAM and SSD).

NUC12WSKv7 – 4×4 Designer Version Preview

The third NUC mannequin is the Bleu Jour Meta 12. The Meta collection of fanless programs from Bleu Jour is geared in the direction of industrial purposes. The Meta 12 makes use of the Lite board – the NUC12WSBi70Z – which does away with the Type-C ports. A key distinction is the presence of a DC energy enter connector in addition to the common energy adapter connection.

Bleu Jour Meta 12 (NUC12WSBi70Z) Fanless Rugged Industrial PC

The gallery beneath presents further images of the internals of the above three programs.

The full specs of the traditional and vPro evaluate samples are supplied in the desk beneath. The Bleu Jour Meta 12 is actually the identical as that of the NUC12WSKi7, apart from the absence of the 2 Thunderbolt 4 Type-C ports.

Systems Specifications (as examined)
	Intel NUC12WSKi7 (Wall Street Canyon)	Intel NUC12WSKv7 (Wall Street Canyon vPro)
Processor	Intel Core i7-1260P Alder Lake 4P + 8e / 16T, as much as 4.7 GHz (P) / 3.4 GHz (e) Intel 7, 18MB L2, 28W (PL1 = 40W, PL2 = 64W)	Intel Core i7-1270P Alder Lake 4P + 8e / 16T, as much as 4.8 GHz (P) / 3.5 GHz (e) Intel 7, 18MB L2, 28W (PL1 = 40W, PL2 = 64W)
Memory	Crucial CT16G4SFRA32A.C16FR DDR4-3200 SODIMM 22-22-22-52 @ 3200 MHz 2×16 GB	Crucial CT16G4SFRA32A.C16FR DDR4-3200 SODIMM 22-22-22-52 @ 3200 MHz 2×16 GB
Graphics	Intel Iris Xe Graphics (96EU @ 1.40 GHz)	Intel Iris Xe Graphics (96EU @ 1.40 GHz)
Disk Drive(s)	Kingston KC2500 SKC2500M8500G (500 GB; M.2 2280 PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe;) (Kioxia BiCS4 96L 3D TLC; Silicon Motion SMI 2262EN Controller)	Kingston KC2500 SKC2500M8500G (500 GB; M.2 2280 PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe;) (Kioxia BiCS4 96L 3D TLC; Silicon Motion SMI 2262EN Controller)
Networking	1x 2.5 GbE RJ-45 (Intel I225-V) Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX211 (2×2 802.11ax – 2.4 Gbps)	1x 2.5 GbE RJ-45 (Intel I225-LM) Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX211 (2×2 802.11ax – 2.4 Gbps)
Audio	Digital Audio with Bitstreaming Support over HDMI Ports 3.5mm stereo headset jack (Realtek audio codec)	Digital Audio with Bitstreaming Support over HDMI Ports 3.5mm stereo headset jack (Realtek audio codec)
Video	2x HDMI 2.0b 2x Display Port 1.4a with HBR3 over Thunderbolt 4	2x HDMI 2.0b 2x Display Port 1.4a with HBR3 over Thunderbolt 4
Miscellaneous I/O Ports	2x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A (Front) 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A (Rear) 1x USB 2.0 Type-A (Rear) 2x Thunderbolt 4 (Rear) (Type-C)	2x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A (Front) 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A (Rear) 1x USB 2.0 Type-A (Rear) 2x Thunderbolt 4 (Rear) (Type-C)
Operating System	Windows 11 Enterprise (22000.1455)	Windows 11 Enterprise (22000.1516)
Pricing	(Street Pricing on January 25th, 2023) US $660 (barebones) $843 (as configured, no OS)	(Street Pricing on January 25th, 2023) US $827 (barebones) $1010 (as configured, no OS)
Full Specifications	Intel NUC12WSKi7 Specifications	Intel NUC12WSKv7 Specifications

In the subsequent part, we check out the BIOS choices together with an evaluation of the motherboard platform. Following that, we’ve numerous sections specializing in varied efficiency features earlier than concluding with an evaluation of the worth proposition of the programs.