Intel NUC6CAYH (Arches Canyon) Apollo Lake UCFF PC Review
by Ganesh T S on January 12, 2018 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Systems
- Intel
- NUC
- UCFF
- Apollo Lake
- Arches Canyon
Final Words
The Intel NUC6CAYH provided us with the opportunity to evaluate a high-end member of the Apollo Lake SoC family. The Celeron J3455 is a quad-core processor with a 10W TDP. It easily enabled the NUC6CAH to come out on top in all of our benchmarks when compared against other Atom-class systems.
The HDMI 2.0 port (backed by a LSPCon) with 4Kp60 support is very welcome. However consumers need to keep in mind that the benefits from the HDCP 2.2 feature on that port are minimal at best. One of the popular streaming services that we tried (Netflix 4K) ended up not working as expected, with only the 1080p version of the 4K titles getting played. That said, the system has no issues playing all types of local 4K video streams using Kodi. VP9 Profile 2 is not supported, but, given the lack of HDR support, it is not a big deal. The presence of an infrared receiver also enables usage of a remote control if the system is used as a HTPC.
The presence of a VGA port also helps the NUC6CAYH target cost-sensitive markets that are yet to feel the need to move away from a VGA monitor to a HDMI or DisplayPort one. The SDXC slot is bound to have good performance, since it is enabled by a PCIe bridge (Realtek RTS5229). On the flip side, the unit only supports 8GB of RAM. Trying to install 2x 8GB SODIMMs makes the system ignore half the memory.
Coming to the pricing aspect, the NUC6CAYH is available for $130. This is par for the course when it comes to barebones systems using Atom-class CPUs. Intel recently announced that June Canyon (the follow up to Arches Canyon) had started entering the channel in late December. It uses a Gemini Lake SoC and promises better performance compared to Apollo Lake. This should exert further downward pressure on the Arches Canyon models, and that will only be good for consumers.
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DSGT_Crockett - Thursday, January 18, 2018 - link
Interesting to me that one of the ~"usable" PCI-E lanes is 'taken up' by a Realtek NIC on an Intel ~AIO board ass'y. Realtek must really be giving those SOBs away for Intel not to have gone with their own branded NICs; but I realise as I type this that I may be playing the fool a couple ways, not least of which is a dire disconnection from mini/micro/whatever-computer equipment, and by no means do I mean to bang on your expert staff's doors with this ~obvious observation. Hell, it may have even been covered in the parts of the article I skimmed (:< I'm drunk, okay?) but I felt compelled to hit up the first page of the article with this because I'm used to Intel pushing their own network stuff _really_ hard. What gives?mode_13h - Saturday, January 20, 2018 - link
Yeah, it does seem weird, but does Intel even still make single-port Gig-E chips? It seems like their dedicated Ethernet silicon is probably focused on higher speeds & port-counts, while the low-end is probably integrated into their South Bridge chips (which this doesn't have, since it's an integrated SoC - mainly targeted at devices that lack Ethernet).Anyway, don't drunkpost. Go drink some coffee, tea, or go sleep it off.
sf101 - Monday, January 22, 2018 - link
wow this has a VGA out.That's surprising
Intel has really flip flopped on a standard Video output on these thats for sure.
sometimes HDMI sometimes only MINI - sometimes Displayport or only mini .. very surprised they added a VGA tbh.
Most wont understand this but upgrading a unit for older POS systems is a pain sometimes but adding a VGA adapter makes that far easier.
mode_13h - Friday, February 2, 2018 - link
For a lot of industrial and infrastructure applications, VGA is still in use. Not that this is exactly an industrial PC...