Intel has launched the Islay Canyon generation in the NUC line of compact computers. The systems contain Intel Core quad-cores from the Whiskey Lake family supplemented by the AMD Radeon 540X.
Intel is making four models of the Islay Canyon-NUC available: two with the Intel Core i5-8265U and two with the Core i7-8565U. These are quad cores of the Whiskey Lake generation with clock speeds of 1.6GHz and 1.8GHz respectively and tdp of 15W. The NUC of both models is available with a 256GB SSD or with a 1TB HDD supplemented with 16GB Optane memory.
All models have 8GB lpddr3 that is not expandable. The GPU is also soldered: it is the AMD Radeon 540X. They are not the first Intel NUCs with a Radeon GPU: versions with the Radeon 540, which is almost identical to the 540X, already appeared last year.
The desktops also have gigabit ethernet, 802.11ac WiFi, bluetooth 5.0, hdmi 2.0b, mini-displayport 1.2 and four USB 3.1 ports, one with type c and three with type a connection. The four variants of the Islay Canyon generation are now in the Pricewatch. The price of the Core i5 variant starts at 700 euros, that of the Core i7-NUC at 813 euros.