Intel Skull Canyon NUC review

A productivity mini PC masked as a gaming rig

Skull Canyon NUC

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Without the Razer Core attached, the Skull Canyon NUC is deceptive, to say the least. Embellished by what Intel calls its "iconic" skull logo, you might confuse the NUC with something from Dell's Alienware lineup. Don't.

The Skull Canyon is fit for a particular kind of consumer, the kind that wants some control over which components go into their system without building a hulking desktop tower. It's the kind of consumer that wants something powerful to do their work on with some light gaming on the side.

Skull Canyon NUC

In fact, games a few years older than The Division and GTA V run flawlessly on the Skull Canyon, even at the highest settings. The original BioShock, for example, managed a constant 60 fps at 1080p. Likewise, Sonic Generations could pull off anywhere between 40 and 55 fps with everything cranked to the top. And, though legally ambiguous, you could probably get some decent emulation of classic games out of the Skull Canyon NUC too.

Demand anything more than that though, and you may want to turn that shopping cart around. Adding extra graphical components to the equation just isn't worth the time, money or hassle.

Gabe Carey
Gabe has been writing about video games and technology since he was 16 years old. Currently serving as a Contributing Editor & Producer for TechRadar, where he keeps articles fresh and up to date on the reg, you may recognize his byline from Digital Trends, TechSpot and Kotaku UK. He can't tell if his adoration of Sonic the Hedgehog is genuine or ironic anymore.