Packaging

Is this a NUC? I couldn’t tell for sure when I got the box out with its HUGE “INTEL NUC” branding across the top. The Intel logo is up in the top left corner as well then in the bottom right corner you have the Intel i7 badge paired up with the Radeon Vega N. The box is all black and overall Intel went out of the way to make this feel special, that said this isn’t exclusive to this model. Back in the day, the NUC played the Intel Inside sound effect when you opened up the box. The back of the box does at least have pictures of the front and back to show you the I/O along with a shorter specification listing.

Here is the NUC along with the SSD and memory that Crucial sent over, I will touch on those more later though.

So like I said they do make it feel special when you open everything up, there isn’t any music but you do have the Intel extreme Skull in the top foam. The NUC itself sits in cut out foam that is a tray you can pull out to get to everything else inside.

You get a lot of documentation including a paper on safety, one on all of the regulatory info, and then an actual instruction manual. They slipped in something on Optane and then a code sheet for free games and software. There is also a sticker with the Intel and Radeon logos on it. Now the free software was surprising. They included Sprint Vector, Warhammer: Vermintide 2, Redout: Enhanced Edition, Rock Band VR and Star Trek: Bridge Crew. Then for software Magix Fastcut, Magix Youcast, Magix Movie Edit Pro Plus 2018, and Corel Painter Essentials 6. In total, I think it is about $400 in software and games. It's important to note that most of the games are VR focused, it's clear where Intel thought this would be used.

Then along with the NUC, there were a few other things inside of the box. The power supply was the main thing and I just have to say it’s huge. I will touch on that more later but look at this monster. The plug is a little big as well. Then also included is a VESA mount like all NUCs have. This way you can mount this on the back of a monitor or TV, though given the styling of this specific NUC it would be a little bit of a shame to hide it like that.