The Intel Skull Canyon NUC6i7KYK mini-PC Review

The desktop computing market has been subject to severe challenges over the last few years. The ultra-compact form-factor (UCFF) PC market that emerged with the introduction of the Intel NUCs (Next Unit of Computing) has been one of the few bright spots. PC gaming has been one of the few other markets that has withstood the overall issues. The small size of UCFF PCs usually made discrete GPUs difficult to integrate, and IGPs have not impressed the gaming crowd. Therefore, the market has not seen many products targeting the gaming market while also being compact. Intel's Skull Canyon NUC – the NUC6i7KYK – places a 45W TDP Core i7-6770HQ Skylake-H CPU with Iris Pro graphics in a chassis around twice the size of the standard NUC. The system's CPU is expected to easily surpass other compact PCs (with 15 – 28W CPUs). What about the gaming credentials? Has Intel made any sacrifices in order to get to this small form factor? This comprehensive review aims to provide readers with the answers.