Intel Atlas Canyon (NUC11ATKPE) and GEEKOM MiniAir 11 UCFF PCs Assessment: Desktop Jasper Lake Impresses

Intel’s low-power Tremont microarchitecture has powered a variety of goods – from the short-lived Lakefield, to Elkhart Lake within the embedded house, and in any case, Jasper Lake within the shopper computing space. A gentle flow of notebooks and motherboards / mini-PCs in accordance with Jasper Lake have transform to be had because the creation of Jasper Lake in early 2021. Given their pricing, ultra-compact form-factor (UCFF) machines in accordance with them be offering horny entry-level choices within the NUC area. With a variety of SKUs specified for chronic intake numbers starting from 4.8W as much as 25W, the product sequence lends itself to designs that may be both actively or passively cooled.

Intel’s Jasper Lake SKUs are a follow-up to Gemini Lake. Again in 2018, we had reviewed two other Gemini Lake UCFF PCs – the actively cooled June Canyon NUC from Intel, and the passively cooled LIVA Z2 from ECS. For Jasper Lake, now we have sourced 4 other UCFF PCs – two passively cooled techniques the usage of 6W TDP processors, and two actively cooled ones the usage of 10W+ TDP processors. Our in-depth glance into the 2 passively-cooled JSLK UCFF PCs – the ECS LIVA Z3 and the ZOTAC ZBOX CI331 nano, was once revealed final week. To spherical out our Jasper Lake protection, the assessment under takes a take a look at the efficiency and worth proposition of the 2 actively cooled techniques – the Intel NUC11ATKPE and GEEKOM’s MiniAir 11.

Creation and Product Impressions

Intel’s Apollo Lake SoCs (Goldmont-based) presented in 2016 have been briefly adopted by way of Gemini Lake (Goldmont Plus) in overdue 2017. Alternatively, the delays associated with 10nm production led to a vital hole ahead of the Tremont-based Jasper Lake merchandise made an look in early 2021. In comparison to Gemini Lake, the brand new Jasper Lake merchandise have advanced CPU efficiency (Intel claims a 33% uplift) with an up to date microarchitecture and bigger caches. The built-in GPU could also be clocked upper with further EUs on particular SKUs. At the machine entrance, sooner enlargement choices are to be had, with as much as 8 Gen 3 lanes (when put next 6 Gen 2 lanes in Gemini Lake), 14 USB ports (as much as 10 Gbps) (in comparison to 8 ports as much as 5 Gbps in Gemini Lake). Jasper Lake additionally integrates a Wi-fi-AX MAC, taking into account cost-effective techniques with Wi-Fi 6 reinforce. Producers can undertake or profit from those options in a various approach to deliver differentiated merchandise into the marketplace.

Very similar to our Apollo Lake (Intel Arches Canyon and ECS LIVA Z) and Gemini Lake (Intel June Canyon and ECS LIVA Z2) experiments, we were given cling of a couple of Jasper Lake UCFF PCs for analysis. As of late’s assessment is concentrated at the two actively cooled techniques – the Intel NUC11ATKPE and GEEKOM MiniAir 11.

A snappy comparability of the Intel NUC11ATKPE and the GEEKOM MiniAir 11 disclose the next differentiation sides:

• Intel Celeron N5095 (TDP of 15W) within the MiniAir 11, in comparison to Intel Pentium Silver N6005 (TDP of 10W) within the NUC11ATKPE
• Rather smaller bodily footprint for the MiniAir 11
• Mix of USB Kind-C and Kind-A ports within the MiniAir 11, in comparison to most effective Kind-A ports within the NUC11ATKPE
• Availability of SDXC UHS-I Card Reader within the MiniAir 11, no longer to be had within the NUC11ATKPE
• Bodily DisplayPort output is full-sized within the NUC11ATKPE, whilst it’s mini-DP within the MiniAir 11
• Combo audio jack within the MiniAir 11, whilst the NUC11ATKPE ships separate audio out and microphone jacks within the entrance panel
• Intel Wi-fi-AC 9462 within the NUC11ATKPE, in comparison to Intel Wi-fi-AC 7265 within the MiniAir 11

The NUC11ATKPE is essentially priced as a barebones machine, however availability of computing techniques typically within the fresh previous has been spotty because of provide chain demanding situations. This has allowed B2B / B2C shops like SimplyNUC to position vital premiums for ready-to-ship Atlas Canyon NUCs. Pattern this – a barebones NUC11ATKPE has a really useful buyer worth of round $180 (side road worth, when to be had, is round $188). Alternatively, SimplyNUC’s base worth for the Atlas Canyon NUC is lately $449 and is derived with 4GB of DDR4 SODIMM and a 256GB M.2 NVMe SSD. One can take away the DRAM and SSD from the configuration, however that does not impact the cost. Distinction that with the GEEKOM MiniAir 11 – with present reductions, it’s priced at $219 (inclusive of taxes) when ordered from their site and $245 (taxes further) on Amazon. For that worth, GEEKOM is bundling in a 256GB M.2 2280 SATA SSD and 1x 8GB DDR4-2666 SODIMM.

The use-cases for each techniques are manifold. Intel markets the Atlas Canyon NUCs underneath the NUC Necessities branding – low cost, but superb sufficient for workloads that would not have excessive processing chronic. GEEKOM’s push could also be equivalent – taking efforts to put across that the machine is for informal house and place of job use, and no longer for heavy gaming. The techniques also are being driven for packages in retail akin to kiosks and virtual signage.

Whilst GEEKOM sampled us a retail model in their machine bundle, Intel equipped us with a pre-production engineering pattern for analysis. Each techniques come with a 65W chronic adapter (19V @ 3.42A) and screws for putting in the interior M.2 SSD. The MiniAir 11 bundle additionally features a VESA mount (and related screws), a HDMI cable, a mini-DP to HDMI adapter cable, a garage bag, and an person information.

The NUC11ATKPE pattern was once barebones – we used a SK hynix Gold P31 PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe SSD within the M.2 slot (even though we can have were given by way of with a PCIe 3.0 x2 NVMe SSD such because the WD Blue SN500 additionally, for the reason that the M.2 slot within the NUC is electrically PCIe 3.0 x2 most effective). The DRAM possibility was once extra difficult. The Jasper Lake platform formally helps DDR4-2933. Having a lot of DDR4-2933 / DDR4-3000 / DDR4-3200 SODIMMs gathered (ranging from the Skylake days), I used to be hopeful of having a type of early high-frequency SODIMMs to perform at DDR-2933 speeds within the NUC11ATKPE. Sadly, all of them defaulted to DDR4-2400 or DDR4-2666, and the BIOS was once no longer too useful relating to permitting amendment of DRAM timings. Most effective fresh DDR4-2933+ SODIMMs have been ready to perform at DDR-2933 within the machine – sadly, I most effective had 32GB SODIMMs in hand from the hot batches. In spite of everything, the NUC11ATKPE was once equipped with 2x 32GB DDR4-3200 Kingston HyperX (now, FURY) SODIMMs for a complete of 64GB of RAM – upper than the formally specified 32GB most reminiscence capability of the NUC11ATKPE. Thankfully, the machine labored flawlessly thru our benchmarking routines regardless of this out-of-spec configuration. The entire specs of the NUC11ATKPE pattern as examined are equipped within the desk under.

The GEEKOM MiniAir 11 assessment pattern got here with most effective one of the vital reminiscence slots occupied (1x 8GB DDR4-2666 SODIMM). A 256GB SXMicro NF830 M.2 SATA SSD could also be integrated. The retail pattern comes with Home windows 11 Professional pre-installed, however as standard, we burnt up the pressure and put in our personal replica for analysis functions. The entire specs of the GEEKOM MiniAir 11 pattern as examined are equipped within the desk under.

The chassis of each techniques is manufactured from polycarbonate excluding for the steel plate held by way of 4 screws at the underside. The highest of the MiniAir 11 is shiny and draws smudges and fingerprints, whilst the NUC11ATKPE has a matte end.

A better take a look at the NUC11ATKPE case and inner photos are to be had within the gallery under. The thickness of the machine is such {that a} easy thermal pad affixed to the bottom of the chassis is enough to quiet down the put in SSD. Any other fascinating facet of the NUC11ATKPE is the absence of any kind of LED indicator within the entrance panel, rather than the facility button itself. As an alternative, there’s a entrance panel header (in the back of the versatile protecting) that comprises pins to pressure LEDs for garage task and different statuses.

The gallery above supplies a take a look at the chassis design of the GEEKOM MiniAir 11. It additionally contains disassembly footage – disassembly is easy and required if there’s ever a wish to replace the interior SSD or RAM. A thermal pad on most sensible of a steel block at the underside of the chassis makes up the thermal coverage for the put in SSD.

Within the subsequent segment, we check out the machine setup and stick with it up with an in depth platform research.