At the beginning of the year the Intel NUC 9 Extreme was presented, a PC with a gaming soul and a very compact size. It fell short of what the NUC family had shown on previous occasions, but it was small enough to draw attention to itself in front of a traditional gaming PC. Well now, after testing with the equipment already on sale it is clear: it is the best option to play in the living room.
Power in a compact format
When one thinks of a gaming PC, especially when looking for power, it is normal to do it on computers with a large size. Because enough space is needed to include dissipation systems that can keep high temperatures under control when operating at peak performance.
The big problem is that such a tower does not fit well in the living room . It can be placed, yes, but aesthetically it is not attractive, although there will always be someone who does not care. So, an option could be to resort to an installation that allows you to have it in another room. But if what you are looking for is something that you can place next to the TV without disturbing, in addition to the usual options that are consoles, this Intel NUC 9 Ghost Edition could be the option you were looking for.
Since it was introduced at the beginning of the year, it has drawn the attention of many enthusiasts for this compact size and its power. But now that it has already been proven, the interest is growing because it is powerful and efficient. Although the price to be paid for it takes it away.
But before talking about power, physically it is as you can see, a team that is not much larger than consoles such as the Xbox One or the PS4 Pro. It is somewhat higher, but you can fit it perfectly anywhere in the house, either in horizontal as vertical. That height or width, depending on how you look at it, is due to how its different components are integrated.
And now yes, let’s talk about your hardware. These teams can be configured with different Intel processors, from the Intel Core i5 to the Intel Core i9, a processor that with its 8 cores is capable of offering plenty of power for a multitude of tasks. That plus a good amount of RAM, SSD drives and such a powerful graphics configuration makes it position itself as the great gaming PC in the living room.
But if you wonder how it performs, you just have to see the tests of some specialized hardware channels. It is clear that it is a very attractive team by size, but especially by power. You can run all kinds of games and get a high level experience. And that, now that titles like Cyberpunk or the Crysis remastering are coming, it is striking if you want to enjoy them to the fullest. Although, as usual, it is not perfect.
The best and the worst
How do you get so much power in so little space? Well, with what they called Compute Element , a solution that allows integrating all the main components with the exception of the dedicated GPU on an own board . That design optimizes space and connects to a main board that in turn connects the GPU. An interesting scheme, because it could easily be replaced in the future to improve performance. Of course, if you opt for the more powerful configuration, little more will you need.
However, all this that is so striking and attractive has an important negative point : the price. It is undoubtedly the worst of this proposal, the cost that the equipment has with respect to a similar solution where size is not an extra that is also paid. To give you an idea, the configuration with an Intel Core i9 starts at around 1,500 euros. So, the moment you add memory, storage and graphics you can easily go to 3,000 euros.
If you compare it to Apple‘s Mac Pro it is much cheaper. Although the logical thing is to do it with PC Gaming proposals. In those cases, there are details that affect, but if you are looking for a small PC and neither the future PS5 or Xbox Series will convince you, you already know what equipment you should bet on if you are going to use it in the living room.