Intel Serpent Canyon NUC 12 review: Fast mini PC with Intel Core i7-12700H and Intel Arc A770M
The Intel NUC 12 Enthusiast Kit is a compact and powerful desktop PC. The CPU, as well as the GPU, are manufactured by Intel. This development proves to be very exciting for end customers - competition is great for business, after all. The processor, an Intel Core i7-12700H, is a cutting-edge Alder Lake H model. Additionally, the PC features a dedicated graphics card with 16 GB VRAM, 32 GB RAM and an SSD with a storage space of 500 GB. According to its spec sheet, the Intel NUC 16 Enthusiast Kit comes as a barebone model or with 16 GB RAM and a 1-TB SSD. The barebone version comes in at around $1,591.99 and the version with RAM, SSD and an operating system costs slightly more at around $1,647.64.
In this review, we have used a variety of compact desktop PCs with dedicated graphics cards to provide a comparison. The Minisforum Neptune Series HX99G looks to be its biggest rival.
possible competitors compared
Rating | Date | Model | Weight | Height | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 88.4 % v7 (old) | 03 / 2023 | Intel NUC 12, NUC12SNKi72_Serpent Canyon i7-12700H, A770M | 2 kg | 60 mm | |
v (old) | 12 / 2021 | Intel Beast Canyon NUC i9-11900KB, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 | 189 mm | ||
v (old) | 06 / 2021 | Zotac Magnus One (ECM73070C) i7-10700, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 | |||
v (old) | 05 / 2022 | Zotac ZBOX Magnus EN173070C i7-11800H, GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU | 1.8 kg | 62.2 mm | |
v (old) | 04 / 2022 | Intel Dragon Canyon NUC - RTX 3060 i9-12900, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 | 189 mm | ||
| 82.6 % v7 (old) | 05 / 2022 | Lenovo Legion 5 15ACH6A-82NW0010GE R5 5600H, Radeon RX 6600M | 2.5 kg | 25.75 mm | |
v7 (old) | 09 / 2022 | Minisforum NUCX i7 i7-11800H, GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU | 2.4 kg | 393 mm | |
| 89.9 % v7 (old) | 02 / 2023 | Minisforum Neptune Series HX99G R9 6900HX, Radeon RX 6600M | 1.6 kg | 69.3 mm |
The Intel NUC 12 Enthusiast Kit in detail
Case
From the outside, the NUC 12 Enthusiast Kit looks very well made and sits securely when positioned horizontally or upright. This is also thanks to the PC's weight, coming in at 1.97 kg. The optional foot, which can be attached when the PC is sat upright, adds another 443 grams to the scales - and the chunky 330-watt power adapter adds another 1.3 kg. In practical use, we prefer to sit the NUC 12 Enthusiast Kit upright, so that fresh air can be sucked in without hindrance. Color-wise, the PC looks sleek - only when in use can you see a lit-up logo on the top of the device (in upright positioning on the left of the device). The PC is also branded with a skull, which is a running stylistic feature of the NUC series. Alternatively, this can be swapped out for a snake head or other images.
Connectivity
Intel has equipped the NUC 12 Enthusiast Kit with a multitude of external ports. Even Thunderbolt has been included - twice, for that matter. Additionally, you can find six USB Type-A ports, which will very likely keep most users satisfied. There is an SD card reader on the front - a feature often left out by its competitors. The distribution of the ports is well thought out in our eyes - in horizontal and upright use, you should have no problem routing cables.
The built-in SD card reader offers USB-3 speed but is unable to take advantage of our AV Pro SD microSD 128 GB V60 test card. Both the Intel Dragon Canyon NUC and the Intel Beast Canyon NUC show what is possible with UHS-II support.
| SD Card Reader | |
| average JPG Copy Test (av. of 3 runs) | |
| Intel Beast Canyon NUC (AV Pro SD microSD 128 GB V60) | |
| Intel Dragon Canyon NUC | |
| Average of class Mini PC (15.1 - 214, n=26, last 2 years) | |
| Intel NUC 12, NUC12SNKi72_Serpent Canyon (AV Pro SD microSD 128 GB V60) | |
| Zotac ZBOX Magnus EN173070C (AV Pro SD microSD 128 GB V60) | |
| maximum AS SSD Seq Read Test (1GB) | |
| Intel Beast Canyon NUC (AV Pro SD microSD 128 GB V60) | |
| Intel Dragon Canyon NUC | |
| Average of class Mini PC (18.2 - 221, n=26, last 2 years) | |
| Intel NUC 12, NUC12SNKi72_Serpent Canyon (AV Pro SD microSD 128 GB V60) | |
| Zotac ZBOX Magnus EN173070C (AV Pro SD microSD 128 GB V60) | |
Communication
The Intel NUC 12 Enthusiast Kit features a Killer AX1690i Wi-Fi 6E module from their own line of production. Using the Asus ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000 as a test router, we measured fast and consistent transmission rates using 5 GHz and 6 GHz connections. For faster data transmission, you can also make use of the LAN socket, which supports up to 2.5 Gbit/s.
Accessories
Next to the mini PC itself, Intel also include a foot, which can be attached to the PC when it is stood upright. Aside from this, there is also a 330-watt power adapter and additional stencils, which can be used to customize the lit-up logo on the top of the device.
Maintenance
It is only partially possible to carry out maintenance on the Intel NUC 12 Enthusiast Kit - at least when it comes to cleaning the fans. The top can be removed quite easily, as well as the additional covers used for heat dissipation of the built-in SSD. Unfortunately, the device has to be further taken apart if you want to clean the fans. In our test, we refrained from doing so. The built-in components such as RAM and SSD can be replaced or upgraded easily. In our case, the Intel NUC 12 Enthusiast Kit has space for two further SSDs with form factor M.2-2280.
Performance - Intel SoC meets dedicated Intel GPU
The Intel NUC 12 Enthusiast Kit is fitted with an Intel Core i7-12700H and an Intel Arc A770M - a dedicated graphics card also produced by Intel. They don't offer alternative fittings such as other SoCs or GPU options.
Testing conditions
We ran all performance tests using the energy profile "balanced". We didn't change the CPU's performance - instead, we left it in auto mode in accordance with the BIOS settings.
Processor
The Intel Core i7-12700H is an up-to-date processor with 14 cores and 20 threads. The 6 P-cores can run at up to 4.7 GHz under load. At maximum performance, its Alder Lake chip is supplied with up to 100 watts - however, due to high temperatures, this can only be sustained for a short period of time. Even so, the performance rating of the CPU benchmark scores slightly above average. the Intel NUC 12 Enthusiast Kit can decide for itself who wins in its battle against the Minisforum Neptune Series HX99G. Thanks to its higher number of cores, the Intel Core i7-12700H provides better CPU performance than the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX. However, the difference in performance is hardly noticeable.
You can find more processor benchmarks here.
* ... 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
The Intel NUC 12 Enthusiast Kit in the Cinebench R15 Multi Loop
After its third run-through, the Intel Core i7-12700H delivered a very stable performance in the Cinebench R15 continuous loop. Its drop in performance of only 200 points compared to its first run-through is quite low. We saw a much bigger performance drop in the Intel Dragon Canyon NUC. The Intel NUC 12 Enthusiast Kit is firmly positioned in second place in comparison, having achieved 2.410 points.
System performance
In the synthetic system tests, the Intel NUC 12 Enthusiast Kit weakened slightly. Its good CPU performance just wasn't enough to achieve a good result in the PCMark 10 test. In the Crossmark and RAM tests, our test sample performed much better again.
* ... smaller is better
DPC latency
As soon as we opened multiple browser tabs using Edge, we could see higher latencies. When playing 4K YouTube videos, the Intel Arc A770M was used at roughly 30 per cent capacity.
Storage devices
The Intel NUC 12 Enthusiast Kit is fitted with Kingston's extremely fast NVMe SSD. Although, the Kingston Fury Renegade only offers 500 GB storage, which is filled quickly if two or three larger games are installed. However, its performance is definitely impressive. None of its competitors can keep up by a mile when it comes to this. At roughly 100 MB/s, we can see great results in the 4K read values, which positively affect loading lots of small files. In addition to this, Intel have mastered cooling the SSD, which you can see looking at the continuous read values. Some critiques regarding storage can be forgiven since the Intel NUC 12 Enthusiast Kit can be fitted with up to three SSDs in M.2-2280 format.
Take a look at our comparison table to see more comparisons and benchmarks.
