Intel NUC 13 Pro Kit aka Arena Canyon review: Modern mini-PC with Intel Core i7-1360P for demanding applications
The Intel NUC 13 Pro Kit is a very compact mini-PC that provides excellent connectivity. The company offers two models under the "Arena Canyon" code name: a slim and a tall variant. The physically taller model (with "Tall" in its name) can house an additional 2.5-inch drive in its chassis. Our review unit is the slim variant, which can only hold up to two storage devices and is roughly €100 (US$109) cheaper.
With the new Arena Canyon lineup, Intel is largely just doing a product refresh by updating its NUC range with the latest Raptor Lake-P CPUs. The NUC mini-PC in this review features an Intel Core i7-1360P, an extremely powerful CPU with 12 cores and 16 threads. Our review unit already comes with a whopping 32 GB of DDR4 RAM, but you can upgrade it to 64 GB. This model also ships with a 512 GB SSD as well as Windows 11 Professional, the latest version of the OS at the time of this review.
Comparison with possible competitors
Rating | Date | Model | Weight | Height | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 80.8 % v7 (old) | 04 / 2023 | Intel NUC 13 Pro Kit NUC13ANK i7-1360P, Iris Xe G7 96EUs | 538 g | 37 mm | |
| 78.9 % v7 (old) | 11 / 2022 | Intel NUC 12 Pro Kit NUC12WSKi7 i7-1260P, Iris Xe G7 96EUs | 511 g | 37 mm | |
| 85.5 % v7 (old) | 03 / 2023 | Morefine M600, 6900HX R9 6900HX, Radeon 680M | 779 g | 40.6 mm | |
| 85.1 % v7 (old) | 01 / 2023 | Minisforum Neptune Series NAD9 i9-12900H, Iris Xe G7 96EUs | 1.2 kg | 66 mm | |
| 79.5 % v7 (old) | 02 / 2023 | Minisforum Mars Series MC560 R5 5600U, Vega 7 | 562 g | 66 mm | |
v (old) | 09 / 2022 | Minipc Union Ace Magician AMR5 R5 5600U, Vega 7 | 628 g | 72 mm | |
v7 (old) | 09 / 2022 | Minipc Union Ace Magician TK11-A0 i5-1135G7, Iris Xe G7 96EUs | 586 g | 53 mm |
Detailed look at Intel NUC 13 Pro Kit
Case
The Arena Canyon NUC looks very similar to its Wall Street Canyon counterpart. The slim variant we are reviewing is fairly thin at 37 mm (1.46") and occupies 11.7 x 11.2 cm (4.6 x 4.4") of desk space. If this sounds familiar, it is because the Intel NUC 12 Pro Kit has the exact same physical dimensions. The Intel NUC mini-PCs are considerably more compact than some of the other devices in our comparison.
The device has quite an unassuming appearance, and you'll also have to put up with its plastic construction. Nevertheless, there is a robust metal frame inside the Intel NUC 13 Pro Kit that significantly enhances the unit's overall sturdiness. That said, we do hope that Intel would switch to using an all-metal chassis in future. One more thing to mention is that you can attach the Intel NUC 13 Pro Kit to the back of a monitor using the included VESA mount.
Specifications
As previously mentioned, the Intel NUC 13 Pro Kit shares the same design and dimensions as its predecessor. The same also applies to the port selection. There are once again a plethora of USB ports, including two Thunderbolt ports. The device can connect to monitors via HDMI or Thunderbolt and also comes with a 2.5G network port.
Connectivity
Intel has equipped the NUC 13 Pro Kit with the same Wi-Fi 6E AX211 module found on the NUC 12 Pro Kit. In our testing, we saw excellent and stable data transfer rates when the device was connected to a 6GHz network. Our measurements show that the device delivers low transfer speeds if you only have access to a 5GHz connection for technical reasons. That said, the speeds we measured are still very stable and good enough for everyday use. This Wi-Fi test was carried with our reference router, the ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000.
Accessories
Inside the box, you'll find a 120-watt power supply and a VESA mount plate alongside the mini-PC itself.
Maintenance
The Intel NUC 13 Pro Kit relatively easy to open. The bottom cover, which also helps dissipate heat from the SSD, is held in place by four screws. Removing the bottom cover will grant you very convenient access to the RAM and SSD slots underneath.
Performance - Core i7 with 12 cores and 16 threads
Judging by the Core i7-1360P, we expect the NUC 13 Pro Kit to have similar great performance to a NUC 12 Pro Kit with a Core i7-1260P. With 12 cores and 16 threads at its disposal, the NUC 13 Pro offers enough performance to handle all kinds of demanding tasks.
Test conditions
All performance-related tests were carried out in "Balanced" power mode. We didn't make any modifications to the SoC's performance and left it in the default Auto mode in the BIOS settings.
Processor
Although the Core i7-1360P in the NUC 13 Pro Kit is a cutting-edge SoC, its improvements over the Core i7-1260P are pretty modest. Essentially, the new CPU's base clock has been increased by 100MHz to 1.6GHz. The processor is nonetheless capable of boosting up to 5.0GHz, which corresponds to a gain of 300MHz. There are no major changes to the architecture in terms of its cache. Consequently, whilst we did see great benchmark results similar to those from the Core i7-1260P, the gap in overall performance rating is minuscule at just 3%. Power management likewise hasn't changed at all; the Core i7-1360P has a max short-term power draw of 64 watts (PL2) and a long-term power draw of 40 watts (PL1) – just like its predecessor.
The Intel NUC 13 Pro Kit performed somewhat better than its predecessor as well as the other devices in our comparison. But it also goes to show how close these competing devices are to each other. An example to illustrate this point would be the comparison with the Minisforum Neptune Series NAD9, which features a Core i9-12900H (14 native cores and 20 thread) and came in second in our performance ranking.
Please refer to our CPU comparison table for more information and benchmarks.
* ... smaller is better
AIDA64: FP32 Ray-Trace | FPU Julia | CPU SHA3 | CPU Queen | FPU SinJulia | FPU Mandel | CPU AES | CPU ZLib | FP64 Ray-Trace | CPU PhotoWorxx
Intel NUC 13 Pro Kit - Arena Canyon vs. Cinebench R15 Multi loop
Running Cinebench R15 in a loop gave us an initial clue as to the effectiveness of the built-in cooling solution. After the third run, our review unit settled down at a relatively consistent performance level, receiving an average score of 1,825 over the course of 50 runs. By comparison, the Intel NUC 12 Pro Kit completed the same test with a final score of 1,702. The performance of both devices dropped substantially after the first run because of their cooling unit and their power management in connection with PL2.
System performance
In system performance-related synthetic benchmarks, the Intel NUC 13 Pro Kit was able to keep up the good performance seen during CPU benchmarks. That said, it didn't manage to come in first in some of the tests. The Minisforum Neptune NAD9 and Morefine M600 achieved better results in some cases. The latter has a significant edge in AIDA64 benchmarks thanks to its faster DDR5 memory. Nevertheless, the Intel NUC 13 Pro Kit is still a very respectable piece of hardware that showed great performance in our testing and is capable of handling day-to-day tasks.
* ... smaller is better
DPC latency
LatencyMon reported increased latencies when several tabs were kept open in Microsoft Edge. When the device was playing back our 4K demo video, the latencies didn't get any worse and iGPU utilisation was slightly over 40%.
| DPC Latencies / LatencyMon - interrupt to process latency (max), Web, Youtube, Prime95 | |
| Minisforum Mars Series MC560 | |
| Morefine M600, 6900HX | |
| Minisforum Neptune Series NAD9 | |
| Intel NUC 13 Pro Kit NUC13ANK | |
| Intel NUC 12 Pro Kit NUC12WSKi7 | |
| Minipc Union Ace Magician AMR5 | |
| Minipc Union Ace Magician TK11-A0 | |
* ... smaller is better
Mass storage
Our review unit came with a 512 GB NVMe SSD made by Samsung. In addition to this drive, the slim version of the NUC 13 Pro Kit can accommodate another storage device. However, the second slot can only fit an M.2 SSD with a length of 42 mm and is only limited to SATA speeds.
The Samsung SSD included in our review model delivered adequate performance in both read and write operations. As you can see in the graph below, the Intel NUC 13 Pro Kit also has no problem dealing with sustained load on its SSD. Particularly relevant here is that the bottom of the device serves as a heat sink.
You can refer to our storage comparison table for more information and benchmarks.
* ... smaller is better