Intel to release "Austin Beach" fanless rugged NUCs with modular specs

Intel’s Compute Element modular system previewed some months back for gaming and workstation NUCs is now expected to be featured on more budget-friendly models that do not require active cooling. Code-named “Austin Beach.” the rugged small form-factor systems will be the first fanless NUC to integrate 15 W Whiskey Lake Core U-series CPUs.

The “Austin Beach” NUCs appear to be longer and slimmer than the typical NUC designs we have seen from Intel up until now, and they come with a dust-resistant chassis that measures 10 x 6 x 1.4 inches, so it can still be easily attached on the back of a monitor. The internal specs include a special motherboard that has a connector for the modular NUC Compute Element. This smaller module can easily be replaced and comes with its own metallic outer chassis that houses a PCB with soldered CPU / RAM / eMMC storage components. Features for the motherboard include 2x M.2 2280 slots for NVMe SSDs, 2x HDMI 2.0a outputs, GbE jack, 3x USB-A 3.1 gen 2 + 1x USB-A 2.0 ports. There also is room for an expansion card that adds a second GbE NIC and a few more USB ports or additional HDMI outputs for quad-display setups.

No info on pricing for the time being, and Intel could later on provide support for gen 10 ULV Core CPUs, but until then, users may only upgrade the NUCs with the following Compute Element configurations:
BKCM8CCB4R – Celeron 4305U  / 4GB LPDDR3 / 64GB eMMC storage
BKCM8PCB4R – Pentium Gold 5405U / 4GB LPDDR3 / 64GB eMMC storage
BKCM8i3CB4N – Core i3-8145U / 4GB LPDDR3
BKCM8i5CB8N – Core i5-8265U / 8GB LPDDR3
BKCM8v5CB8N – Core i5-8365U vPro / 8GB LPDDR3
BKCM8i7CB8N – Core i7-8565U / 8GB LPDDR3
BKCM8v7CB8N – Core i7-8665U vPro / 8 GB LPDDR3