 Has anyone else had Enoch of the full-size desktop game? Intel released their Skull Canyon Nook, a tiny gaming bare bones all the way back in 2016. It had no dedicated graphics but it still ignited an arms race prompting competitors like Zotac and MSI to try to pack as much horsepower as possible into the smallest packages possible and Intel finally has a follow-up the Hades Canyon Nook or NUC 8i7 HVK A VR and AAA game capable PC boasting an 8th gen core i7 quad core CPU and AMD Radeon Vega graphics in a package about the same size as a Harry Potter novel You know what else is novel? Origin PC. They offer beautiful custom desktops, high-performance laptops and lifetime 24x7 technical support. They use only high quality products like Samsung's 960 Pro M.2 SSDs and you can check them out at the link below Before we get to the new one, here's a Skull Canyon from 2016. The formula that Intel followed for the design of this Nook was actually great. Solid CPU, lots of I.O. including Thunderbolt 3 and it was easy to upgrade. It was basically perfect for a compact computer except for the lack of a single CPU. I mean this pretty much limited it to easy to run games like Overwatch and Minecraft which is a pretty tough pill to swallow for anyone paying $650 which is a considerable premium over a desktop system for a bare bones with no RAM or storage But in the last two years a lot of things have happened including evidently Hell freezing over because AMD and Intel came together at last to create this Which actually now that I think about it is that where the Hades bit in the name came from? Anywho this thing is pretty OP. It's $999 for the top tier bare bones kit which is pricey But it includes a hyper threaded quad core core i7-8809G and Vega MGH graphics Or it's $799 for the step down one that gives up overclocking support and 0.1 GHz of CPU turbo And drops from 24 to 20 compute units on the GPU First thing I noticed about it is it's really really heavy for how small it is And that while it is still small it is not nearly as compact as the old ones So it better bring some really impressive performance to the table All panels save for the top are completely covered in hexagonal perforations to allow as much air as possible To be fed into the dual bottom mounted fans as for IO it's impressive Starting with USB port and USB port and USB port We get a total of 7 including a type C and a quick charger on the front And it can connect up to 6 displays including easy access to HDMI for a VR headset Overall it's got more IO than many desktops including not one but two thunderbolt 3 ports Cracking it open we get a look at the internals now Oh check that out so you can see through it that's where the RGB lighting comes through for the skull on the top And then removing this additional screw right here we can lift up this plate to get a look at our options for memory and storage So we've got two SODIMM slots with support for up to 32 gigs of DDR4 RAM Dual full length 80mm M.2 slots with support for both AHCI and NVMe drives as well as RAID 0 and RAID 1 So we're going to be using an Intel Optane 800P for our boot drive and then a regular NVMe SSD for our storage drive Because like... YOLO right? Anyway while we're in here we also get a look at the backside of the CPU and GPU So it's got this odd rectangular shape to it here and that's for a reason That's because of the way that the RX Vega MGH so the H here is for high performance Connects directly to the main CPU and they're actually installed on the same substrate So this special engineering trick which is basically a PCI Express 8x link right between them Is what makes this system so powerful, compact, and power efficient compared to other small form factor desktops Alright time to plug it in now and uh... that is a beefy power brick That power brick is actually almost the size of the old nook Anyway, fun fact, the eyes, the skull, and the power button are all separate RGB zones So you can make them any color you want or turn them off if you prefer that sort of thing But that's not the most important thing, you guys want to know how it performs And isn't this hilarious? This is AMD software but just like with an Intel skin on it Like this is so bizarre. Anyway let's get some games fired up and talk performance here We compared Hades Canyon with Intel's last generation Skull Canyon As well as a similarly priced desktop excluding costs for storage, RAM, and operating system And its performance is actually pretty surprising Compared to the last gen Skull Canyon nook, Hades Canyon completely blows it out of the water As Intel integrated graphics just isn't even in the same ballpark as the Radeon Vega chip that the Hades Canyon uses As for the gap between the new nook and our 8700K desktop system It's pretty noticeable with an average overall increase of about 35% across the spectrum of games and synthetic tests that we used Though this isn't bad if you consider the nook's 50% lower TDP and its tiny form factor But does buying this nook make any sense? Well actually especially in light of the pricing of decent dedicated graphics cards right now As a compact minimal HTPC, the Hades Canyon is actually pretty awesome Like if you told me three years ago that this was running on this I'd have been looking for the hidden wires but this is real And not only is the noise not a problem from like a couch distance or even from this distance The performance is good enough to play basically any game even if it's not at absolute maximum settings So as long as you're willing to give up future upgradeability and you'll get some kind of a benefit from the size Maybe you go to a lot of LANs for example, it's actually not a terrible deal for all the hardware that's included Optima's new force BE2 wireless Bluetooth earphones feature up to 10 hours of continuous listening battery life They're IPX5 rated, water and weather resistant It's crafted with polycarbonate and equipped with Kevlar reinforced cables And the wireless design with magnetic earpieces allows for tangle free listening and portability It comes with spin fit twin blade ear tips that are made from high quality silicon and designed to provide optimal fit and comfort Optima's new force BE2 is the only model at this price range supporting AAC Which ensures maximum audio quality and iPhone connectivity as well as other Apple products Get them now for just $39.00 US for a limited time at the link below So thanks for watching guys, if you disliked this video you can hit that button But if you liked it, hit like, get subscribed, maybe consider checking out where to buy the stuff we featured at the link in the video description Also down there we'll have our merch store which has cool shirts like this one As well as our community forum which you should totally join