Gadgetory

Oh hello everyone I'm Dimitri with the Huracan Ducks yes the same Dimitri now just with a shaved face but in this video we'll be exploring the potential of future desktop PCs that are super compact and you know as our desire grows for small and powerful pcs it really has pushed the market to develop space efficient machines that still offer some DIY elements while you know compact enclosures and PCs generally don't offer much upgrade ability while on the other spectrum we have larger cases larger builds that offer plenty of customization so where is that middle to balance out of great ability versus size and this is where my experience with Intel skull Canyon a nook or next unit of computing begins will explore the experiences with everything from the basics to video streaming and gaming and also some like productivity stuff and also everything in between so let's get on with it now I've always been curious about how I would utilize a small PC like this nook but as soon as it was in my hands I knew it would serve me very well this is a DIY unit so the user will need to populate their own RAM storage and the operating system and so while the Nook is $600 right now by the time you have a working PC the total price may be close to a thousand bucks this definitely brings things into perspective because for that price some buyers may approach it as a novelty product you know the tiny size being the main selling point I mean it's thinner than my pocket camera or the keyboard for that matter and ridiculously smaller than my smallest ITX case that I currently have on hand and that's incredibly impressive talk about portable standalone machine which is just slightly larger than its own power brick even though there isn't a dedicated graphics card installed this little unit has a quad core 8 thread sky like CPU the i7 6770 HQ which is pre-installed and consumes less than 100 watts while that may not sound like much for most people there is a reason why intel markets this as a mini PC with full-sized performance that processor features iris pro graphics 580 which should be adequate to play many today's games at 1080p medium settings and also the cool thing is the user can select how much system memory is allocated for that graphics processor inside we have two sodium's slots with up to 32 gear by capacity and then 2 m dot 2 slots with 80 millimeter SSD supported and I love how user-friendly the installation is everything is accessible once the bottom plate is removed and the cool thing is the screws stay with the panel so they don't get lost and check out these installation instructions there clear concise well done and I was able to assemble the nook with its components in only a few minutes at the front you'll find the power button that's dimly illuminated in white and SDXC card slot dual USB 3.0 the orange one is for quick charging a headphone jack and a consumer infrared port and this IR port is key factor if you want to control the Nook with large the harmony remotes or other infrared controllers switching science there's the power in audio with optical Gigabit LAN couple of USB 3 and a good array of display a o such as mini DisplayPort Thunderbolt 3 and the full size HDMI capable of 60 Hertz at 4k and so this type C Thunderbolt 3 here is very important for external GPU solutions and this can be added later if more graphics power is required the chassis is adequately ventilated there's a single blower fan with heat pipes coming from underneath the board and placement wise it's meant to lay horizontally like this there is no vertical position but there is a vase amount that can be used to create your own sort of all-in-one if mounted behind the monitor although on most monitors the vase amount is hidden by the stand the top plate with a skull can be swapped out for a plain one if you're not digging the game ring appeal and it's on this side that you'll find the Wi-Fi antenna with dual band wireless AC and some proprietary connections and so finally let's get the Nook ready I connected all the basics and it's a strange feeling having such a tiny PC on the desk for productivity it's perfect and I can also see this fitting into a home theater environment that's also used for some light PC gaming I got the 4k display connected I could work on my Photoshop projects the system has no problems handling Lightroom and maybe this could serve as a video editing system you know on the go but that's perhaps pushing it but what's nice for these workflows is an 8 thread processor that does provide plenty of processing power for my living room I've been using the eurocom notebook as the HTPC which is a total overkill so a nook would occupy this position very well while minimizing the footprint and forcing need to buy a wireless keyboard but 4k Netflix is gorgeous absolutely smooth playback and no surprises there considering the processor and the GPU are both beasts for such a small computer which brings us into gaming and I was honestly surprised to what we could achieve here playing overwatch at 1080p at low settings gives me 50 to 60 fps and I initially played with a tank hero for a slower-paced character and give me an understanding of the Schnucks performance but switching to a sniper class was totally fine we're hovering in high 50s and I can aim well with that framerate however less demanding titles are perfect for the nook transistor is one of them it doesn't require much to run at 60fps and if you're like me with a large indie library of games it could be how you gain in the living room dota 2 at 1080p with the best-looking preset was between 40 and 55 FPS which is fine but lowering the quality gives us a solid 80 plus framerate which is nice for multiplayer and then jumping into csgo at 1080p again on low settings our frame rate that's hovering around 140 FPS so it's totally suitable for competitive gameplay and so it depends on how and what you play and then the nook could be a nice addition or even a substitute for a dedicated light gaming PC and so to conclude this conversation I legitimately think this would be an appealing product for power users provided you value the small form factor given the extra price premium now sure you can upgrade the end or to storage and the RAM which is a good thing but of course I can hear the argument of spending that money on a more powerful desktop PC but the thing is it will never be as small as the skull canyon nook also the expansion options are quite good with an external GPU adapter if you require extra horsepower from the GP side of things via Thunderbolt 3 the type-c port here you can connect a bunch of USB hard drives if you need more storage or upgrade the m-dot to slot inside it's a very exciting product and we'll be doing more testing plus comparing into competing products that are currently on the market and maybe even building to comparing to like an ITX system that is similarly priced that we build ourselves so make sure to stay subscribed I'm Dimitri how are Canucks I hope you guys enjoy this video and we'll see you in the next one