Wanting to own an Intel NUC mini PC, this desire was finally fulfilled with the launch of the 11th generation Intel NUC Panther Canyon.
In fact, I have been following the NUC since the previous generation, but at that time I couldn’t convince myself about the utility of such a small machine and whether the NUC could give me a compelling reason to buy one.
It wasn’t until early September last year that Intel officially launched the 11th generation Intel Core processor (code-named “Tiger Lake”) featuring Intel Iris® Xe graphics. This processor comes with many new technologies, such as the new Willow Cove CPU microarchitecture and the new SuperFin process technology, which significantly improves the operating frequency compared to the previous generation.
Another major change is the inclusion of Intel Iris Xe graphics, which not only meets the needs of various office applications but can also smoothly run mainstream 1080p games including Borderlands 3, Far Cry: New Dawn, Hitman 2, with performance improved by up to 2 times compared to the previous generation during gaming.
Of course, there are also many new features such as PCIe 4.0, Wi-Fi 6 (Gig+), and Thunderbolt 4, which are significantly ahead of the current mainstream configurations. Moreover, the reason I wanted to get the NUC is that it is much smaller than both laptops and desktop computers, which means it can save a lot of space and makes it easier to connect to a large display. Let’s take a closer look.
Appearance & Interfaces
This NUC is the Intel Panther Canyon, model NUC11PABi7, with dimensions of 117 x 112 x 56mm and a weight of only 643g, making it very lightweight and not occupying much space on the desktop, even allowing it to be “hidden” away.
The left side of the front panel has a subtly visible circular area, which is a hidden hard disk indicator light to show the hard drive read/write status. In the middle, there is one Thunderbolt™ 3 port, one USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A port, and one 3.5mm headphone/microphone jack, with the power button on the far right that lights up in blue after powering on.
The top of the host also features a wireless charging area with a maximum power of 15W, which can charge your phone or small devices, making it quite convenient. It should be noted that this wireless charging function is not available on the other NUC11PAH/PAK models.
The weight of the NUC host is 643g, which is very portable by itself, but it cannot work without the power supply.
So with the addition of this 120W adapter, the total weight reaches 1086g, which is acceptable since it is still lighter than many thin and light laptops, but the power supply looks too bulky and doesn’t match the mini host at all; hopefully, a more compact adapter will be released.
The rear interface of the host is quite rich, including one MiniDP 1.4; one wired LAN interface; two USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A ports; video output via USB-C (DP1.4) and one HDMI 2.0a. Additionally, this NUC integrates Intel® Wi-Fi 6 AX201 and Bluetooth support. The cooling vents are also located at the rear.
The sides of the body have cooling vents, with an SD card reader slot on the right and a security lock hole on the left. These interfaces are more abundant than most laptops, and combined with the wireless charging on top, it can easily handle daily peripheral connections.
Expandability
It is not an exaggeration to describe the Panther Canyon NUC as “small but complete”. By unscrewing four screws at the bottom of the host and opening the bottom cover, you can see that this model is a barebone system, so the purchased NUC does not come with a hard drive or memory. Internally, it can install one M.2 PCIe 4.0×4 channel SSD and has an additional 2.5-inch HDD slot. Two DDR4 3200MHz memory slots form a dual-channel configuration, supporting up to 64GB of memory.
The expanded hard drive is located at the bottom cover, and a thermal pad is provided for the SSD, which is pressed against the SSD when the cover is closed.
The top cover contains the fan and CPU area; we did not disassemble further, as Intel’s own CPU can absolutely meet the power requirements.
Next, let’s take a look at the overall configuration after assembly. We used a Samsung 980 Pro SSD with PCIe 4.0 NVMe interface, which is currently a top configuration. The memory is a single 16GB DDR4 3200MHz from Kingston, and if needed, another stick can be added, which will significantly enhance performance.
CPU-Z
This Panther Canyon NUC is equipped with the 11th generation Intel Core i7-1165G7 processor, which is common in many high-performance laptops. Built on the upgraded 10nm SuperFin process and the new Willow Cove architecture, it features 4 cores and 8 threads, with a maximum turbo frequency of 4.70GHz, 12MB of L3 cache, and a TDP of 28W. However, in this Panther Canyon, the short-term power can reach 67W and the long-term power is 40W, making its performance comparable to H35 standard pressure processors.
In CPU-Z benchmark tests, the i7-1165G7 scored 628.2 in single-core and 2837.4 in multi-core, with the single-core score far exceeding that of the i7-8700K.
Geekbench 5.3.2 test scores were 1556 for single-core and 4946 for multi-core.
CineBench R15 test results showed a single-thread score of 230cb and a multi-thread score of 1050cb.
CineBench R20 scores were 592cb for single-thread and 2650cb for multi-thread.
International chess benchmark test score was 17448, with a relative performance multiplier of 36.35.
X264 FHD Benchmark test showed an encoding rate of 33.10fps at 1080P.
From the tests above, we compare the Intel NUC with the ASUS ZenBook Duo equipped with the i7-1165G7 and the ASUS TUF Gaming A15 equipped with the i7-11375H; the performance of the NUC is quite good.
Next, let’s look at the scores on 3DMark. The 3DMark Time Spy test score was 1294, with a graphics score of 1149.
The 3DMark Fire Strike test score was 3223, with a graphics score of 3679.
The 3DMark Night Raid test, mainly for devices with integrated graphics, scored 12728.
Next, let’s look at the memory, which has a read speed of 25871MB/s and a write speed of 23492MB/s. If configured in dual-channel mode, this score can almost double, so if you purchase this NUC, dual-channel is recommended.
The Samsung 980 Pro SSD, with a capacity of 500GB, is one of the few hard drives that supports PCIe 4.0×4.
This SSD has an official read speed of up to 7000MB/s, but in this NUC’s test, the read speed was only 6460.11MB/s and the write speed was 4820.16MB/s, not reaching the maximum value. However, this speed is already sufficient to overshadow most competitors.
PCMark 10 Comprehensive Performance Test
Common basic functions including application startup, video conferencing, and web browsing scored 9227; productivity including spreadsheets and document writing scored 6674; digital content creation including photo editing, rendering, and video editing scored 4908, with an overall score of 4811.
Cooling
In an office environment with a room temperature of about 24°C, using AIDA64 to monitor CPU and FPU, after running for about 25 minutes, the average CPU temperature was 88°C, with an average power of 38W, which can normally exceed 40W.
Review Summary:
The Intel NUC still attracts me with its lightweight mini body, and its 11th generation Core processor is powerful enough. Additionally, the rich interfaces, the latest Wi-Fi 6, and PCIe 4.0 support are much stronger than many laptops. Of course, since you also need to pair it with memory and a hard drive, as well as an operating system, the final budget won’t be too cheap, but it is definitely within an acceptable range. Fortunately, it saves a lot of visible space on my desk, and the wireless charging feature is very practical.
One downside is the power adapter; if it could be smaller or use a Type-C charging interface, that would be perfect.
Moreover, the NUC’s functionality is not limited to desktop office use; with its Type-C and HDMI video interfaces, you can easily connect the NUC to a large screen TV at home, outputting 4K and 8K video, which can greatly enhance your audio-visual experience. Using the NUC as an entertainment center is also quite good, so as long as you have creativity, the NUC can do much more.