Intel NUC 12 “Serpent Canyon” gaming mini PC coming soon with i7-12700H CPU and Arc A770M dGPU

With the introduction of the Arc Alchemist discrete GPUs, Intel will finally be able to offer systems powered solely by proprietary technology. This applies to laptops, as well as desktop systems, and even to its NUC mini PCs that usually integrate mobile-grade components. For the mini PC enthusiasts, Intel already made a huge leap with the NUC 12 Extreme “Dragon Canyon” models launched last year featuring support for desktop-grade Alder Lake CPUs and full-size discrete GPUs, but what about the usual small form-factor models? Apart from the NUC Studio 12 Pro revealed earlier this year with Alder Lake-P CPUs, Intel is close to announcing a gamer-oriented NUC 12 “Serpent Canyon” compact mini PC that features an i7-12700H processor and an Arc A770M mobile-grade dGPU, according to a Baidu post.

The pictures posted on Baidu reveal that the upcoming "Serpent Canyon" mini PCs have a significantly thicker profile with 2.5 L volume due to the addition of more cooling vents and most likely larger heatinks. These modifications are necessary given the 115 W maximum TDP of the i7-12700H and the 120-150 W TGP of the A770M dGPU. Speaking of the graphics solution, Intel’s own A770M with 16 GB VRAM should make for a decent upgrade over the Nvidia RTX 2060 models with 12 GB featured by most NUC 11 models.

While a larger chassis might take away from the benefits of a small form-factor design, it also offers a very robust port selection that is rare even on full-size desktop PCs. The front panel comes with a UHS-II-enabled SDXC card reader along with a Thunderbolt 4 connector, plus two USB-A 3.2 ports and an audio jack. On the rear panel, we see four additional USB-A ports, another Thunderbolt 4 connector, one more audio jack, a 2.5 GbE jack and three video outputs. The Baidu post claims that this is among the first mini PCs to feature DP 2.0 outputs, and the HDMI port also gets 2.1 specs.

No specific release date is provided other than the vague “coming soon” catchphrase. Prices will probably be on the premium side considering the port selection and the dGPU model.

Buy the Intel NUC 11 Extreme barebone mini PC with Intel Core i9-11900KB processor on Amazon