ARC HAS ENTERED THE GAME

INTEL NUC 12 ENTHUSIAST (SERPENT CANYON)

Intel’s line of NUC mini-PCs is one of my favourites, and is a testament to the ingenuity and (sometimes wild) imagination of the engineers in the company.

The Serpent Canyon, otherwise officially known as the NUC 12 Enthusiast, is a different take on the small-form-factor that we have previously seen from Intel – such as the Dragon and Beast Canyon.

While the Canyon’s gaming DNA is still visible in terms of styling and design, the Serpent’s chassis is smaller than a gaming console and comes packed with integrated components. So apart from storage and memory, you cannot upgrade the CPU and GPU. It’s kind of built to compete with closed platforms such as gaming laptops and even gaming consoles. In fact, it’s more akin to the old-school Intel NUC kits that have everything integrated, except for storage and memory.

A GLANCE

CPU

Intel Core i712700H

GPU

Intel Arc A770M

MEMORY

16GB DDR4 

STORAGE

512GB

PRICE

From $2,159

But unlike previous Canyons that I've reviewed, the Serpent Canyon comes with just a single option for CPU the Core i7-12700H. It's a 12th Gen mobile processor that's also used in many of today's newest gaming laptops. My test unit that Intel sent over also comes with 16GB of DDR4 memory and a 512GB SSD for storage.