Some More Coffee Lake NUC Details

The new Coffee Lake NUCs are soon going to hit the shelves, but details have been pretty scarce until lately. FanlessTech published yesterday the CPU models of each Bean Canyon / Coffee Lake NUC.




The models will be:

  • NUC8i3BEH/K, Core i3-8109U CPU
  • NUC8i5BEH/K, Core i5-8259U CPU
  • NUC8i7BEH, Core i7-8559U CPU

The models ending in letter H will have a higher case with a 2.5″ drive slot and the models ending with ‘K’ will have a more compact case with only M.2 slot for storage. The i7 will only be available in a higher case. For cooling related reasons I presume.

The specifications on the CPUs are all publicly available on Intel’s website already. Click here to see a handy comparison of all three.

Some details we already know:

  • i3: dual-core with hyperthreading, i5/i7: quad-core with hyperthreading
  • all CPUs will have a TDP of 28 watts
  • all CPUs will feature the Iris Plus 655 GPU, clocked up to 1.05 GHz on i3/i5 and up to 1.20 GHz on i7
  • GPU will include 128 MB EDRAM
  • DDR4-2400 RAM, max. 32 GB
  • WiFi Wireless-AC 9560 (802.11ac, Dual Band, 2×2 Wi-Fi + Bluetooth 5)

28 watts CPUs definitely present a challenge cooling-wise, so I certainly hope the cooling solution has been improved since Kaby Lake NUCs.

The early engineering samples have been out there for a while. I was talking to a developer running Linux on the i3 model, and we can see the BIOS version 0030 was dated April 26th. Typically it takes a few months from the point these engineering samples are out, so I’d expect these units to be available in July/August timeframe.

[    0.000000] DMI: Intel Corporation NUC8i3BEK/NUC8BEB, BIOS BECFL357.86A.0030.2018.0426.1151 04/26/2018
...
[    0.028998] smpboot: CPU0: Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-8109U CPU @ 3.00GHz (family: 0x6, model: 0x8e, stepping: 0xa)
...
[    1.494954] [drm] Found 128MB of eDRAM
...
[    7.897562] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Detected Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless AC 9560, REV=0x318




Furthermore, you can find regulatory information regarding these NUCs posted on Intel web site already, but nothing too interesting there yet.

12 Responses

  1. PlatypusW says:

    Will only purchase if HDR is available for Linux, think will probably have to wait a while yet though :(

    Hopefully fanless cases for the i3 won’t be impossible either :/

    • Olli says:

      HDR in Linux will probably be available for Intel devices at some point, but you have to understand that there’s no proper HDR support in Linux in general yet – it’s not only a matter of supporting the various devices.

  2. Huang says:

    hope the fan won’t be too noisy

  3. Mickey says:

    Max Resolution (HDMI 1.4)‡ – 4096×2304@30Hz
    Max Resolution (DP)‡ – 4096×2304@60Hz

    So if we understand correctly, HDMI is only version 1.4 and 4K at only 30 Hz, but over DP it’s 4K at 60Hz? So for a HTPC, would need to connect from DP to receiver/TV to get 60 Hz? Or a DP-HDMI 2.0 adapter? If I remember correctly, previous generations weren’t native HDMI and had issues? I had hoped it’d be native HDMI 2.0 but doesn’t look like it…

    • Olli says:

      Yeah, the CPU/GPU chip doesn’t support HDMI 2.0 natively, so there will be an LSPCon on the Coffee Lake NUCs that will convert the DP 1.2 signal to HDMI 2.0 signal. In the back of the unit you will have a HDMI 2.0 port, no need for adapters (the LSPCon basically is the adapter, it’s just inbuilt).

      The LSPCons did get bad reputation previously as the firmware on them was pretty bad when Intel released the previous generation (Kaby Lake) NUCs initially. There were serious issues with Dolby TrueHD and DTS MA passthrough for example. Since we’re going to have them in the Coffee Lake NUCs in any case I just hope that they’ll be working fine this time from the get go…

      • Zokkel says:

        Hold on a minute, Am I correct to conclude that
        – The NUC7PJYH has two native HDMI 2.0 ports but is not HDR capable,
        – The NUC8ixxxx will still have the LSPCon (with all the problems) but will be HDR capable?

        • guest says:

          It’ll likely be the same as the 7th gen nuc. One HDMI 2.0 port (that uses LSPCON internal converting chip) and one USB-C port that can switch to HDMI 2.0 as well (or mini displayport). So no, it’s not true HDMI 2.0 but can still do HDR and all that stuff (4k @60fps) — Windows 10 implements HDR poorly though… you have to toggle it on/off (or you can leave it on and everything native in the OS appears dim).

          The newer Hades Canyon nuc is the only true HDMI 2.0 native output I’m aware of sold in the NUC family b/c it’s not using Intel’s graphics but AMD’s which natively supports HDMI 2.0 on-chip (instead of using the internal LSPCON switcher/converter)

          • guest says:

            Expect to start seeing HDMI 2.1 TV’s in mid 2019. That will be the biggest change forthcoming b/c it will allow 4:4:4 chroma at 4k 60Hz, 8k, eARC, etc. Considering it was a good 3 years from when HDMI 2.0 was on TV’s until when Intel released a NUC supporting HDMI 2.0, I wouldn’t hold my breath though for an HDMI 2.1 NUC to appear until 11th gen at least (or until they change the fabrication to a smaller die).

          • guest says:

            I got a bit frustrated with driver support, sound settings, HDR, etc. within the Intel NUC and primarily use it as a working desktop now. I bought an Apple TV 4k and Infuse which seamlessly plays back all my content from my NAS and does native frame-rate, resolution switching on my TV, including full audio decoding of all formats (including ATMOS in theory with the newest beta). Life’s much easier with that little box, and simpler for the family to use. Everything on it is done in hardware decoding and the upscaling is left to the TV for graphics (which does a better job than having content upscaled in software in the NUC).

          • Olli says:

            Actually the Gemini Lake NUCs are also native HDMI 2.0 – however, Intel decided not to support HDR in their Windows drivers…

  4. Jeffrey Fischer says:

    Small typo in “NUC8i6BEH/K”, should be “NUC8i5BEH/K”

    • Olli says:

      What? Don’t tell me you didn’t hear about the new Core i6 CPU?!
      Seriously, thanks for letting me know – it’s been corrected now.

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