Intel Serpent Canyon NUC 12 Available For Pre-Order And It’s Got Arc

The highly anticipated launch of the Intel Arc A7 series of discrete GPUs looks to be coming sooner rather than later, at least for the mobile version. Pre-orders are now being taken for the Serpent Canyon NUC 12 Enthusiast, and it includes an Arc A770M.

The NUC12SNKi7 is available now for pre-order, with an Intel i7-12700H CPU, up to 64GB of DDR4 RAM, and an Arc A770M GPU. This is good news for those who have been waiting for the higher-end Arc GPUs to be released, albeit only in mobile form.

The Arc A-Series GPU from Intel, paired with a 12th or 13th gen Intel CPU, should be a great fit for these NUC systems, due to Arc's Deep Link technology, which will pair up the CPU and GPU to increase performance across a variety of workloads. Gamers can also enjoy the benefits of Xe Super Sampling (XeSS), which provides AI-Enhanced upscaling in supported games, to boost performance and image quality.

Along with Intel's Core i7-122700H CPU, and Arc A770M Graphics, the NUC 12 Enthusiast base model comes with 8GB DDR4 memory, which can be upgraded to 64GB. It also includes a 256GB NVMe M.2 SSD, which can also be upgraded to 4TB. The base package will run you $1699.

Rumors suggested last month that there will also be another variant of the Serpent Canyon, which will house an Intel i5-10500H or 12600H CPU, and an Arc A550M discrete GPU. So, if the price tag for the A770M version is a bit steep, then holding off for a bit to see what else is coming down the pipe may be advisable.

There is also an Arc 7 System Bundle included with the purchase, which includes the games Call of Duty 2022, Ghostbusters, and Gotham Knights.

While there is no date as to when the Serpent Canyon will actually ship, it is good news for those who have been waiting for Arc GPUs. Hopefully it won't be much longer before Intel announces a release date for the desktop A5/7 Series GPUs as well.

*UPDATE 9/19/2022 10:35 a.m.: In a press release, Intel stated, "The new Intel NUC 12 Enthusiast Mini PC and Kit are expected to be available starting in late September, with prices ranging from $1,180 to $1,350, depending on the configuration."