
Intel Ghost Canyon NUC9i9QNX Review: NUC 9 Extreme Realizes the SFF Dream - pavelmark
https://www.anandtech.com/show/15720/intel-ghost-canyon-nuc9i9qnx-review
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rasz
SFF Dream is 'laptopification' of desktop computing. Overpriced screenless
closed system laptops. No more incremental upgrades, instead inadequate
cooling, power throttling, dongles and converters galore, vendor/ecosystem
lockin. $2800 for last generation CPU, 16GB of RAM, and an RTX 2070.

Reminds me of
[https://boingboing.net/2012/01/10/lockdown.html](https://boingboing.net/2012/01/10/lockdown.html)

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gowld
This NUC has upgradable RAM, Disk, GPU, and CPU backplane.

It's a 8core 2.6GHz 45W CPU, not last generation, with lots of ports.

If you don't want a small cool powerful machine, it's not for you

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kup0
Pricing on this is ridiculous. Build your own SFF system using MiniITX and
save the money.

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gowld
What if I don't want to build my own?

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kup0
Actually, you know, I'm going to pull back on my original post a bit. I didn't
realize they were using a $500+ Optane drive in here and not in some of the
other systems they compared to... that does inflate the price quite a bit.

Still, it seems even the barebones being $1500 is a lot. Not sure where the
majority of the cost is coming from otherwise without the Optane and GPU.
Still seems like a decent premium, but not as exorbitant as I originally
thought. Especially since there are some trade-offs (like the x8 PCI-e, etc).

If you don't feel like building one and money is not a concern- then this
machine is likely perfect for you. No problem with that at all. In fact, if
this machine was more affordable barebones, I'd be interested myself.

