Intel Beast Canyon NUC11BTMi9 review: A bigger footprint shrinks this gaming PC's appeal

The gaming variants of Intel’s Next Unit of Computing (NUC) mini-PCs have always been expensive. For the price, you got unique, compact, and ultimately turn-key options for a portable desktop PC. You might pay out the nose, but you couldn’t replicate the experience as a DIY builder. That’s what justified the cost.

With the launch of Beast Canyon—officially known as the NUC11BTMi9 or NUC11BTMi7, depending on which version you get—the high cost is harder to justify.

Admittedly, the audience for these gaming PCs wasn’t large to begin with. But Beast Canyon is a surprisingly harder sell than I expected.

Design

Once upon a time, Intel’s gaming NUCs were tiny. That’s not so with Beast Canyon, which is an eight-liter small-form-factor (SFF) PC—or roughly the size of an eGPU enclosure.

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