Intel’s secret weapon could make your next laptop upgrade much cheaper
Plug and play upgrades, anyone?
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
Intelhas quietly upgraded its enigmatic Compute Element that now sports an i7-1165G7 Processor that can be clocked up to 4.70 GHz.
Code named Elk Bay, the miniscule board measures just 95 x 65 x 6 mm, and is part ofIntel’s Next Unit of Computing (NUC) lineup of small-form-factor barebones computer kits that enable DIYers to roll them inside all kinds of projects.
TheCompute Element 11takes NUC’s modularity one-step further by allowing users to directly plug it into a custom connector to get an instant computing boost.
Environmentally-friendly computing
The quad-core i7-1165G7 Tiger Lake processor in the recently launched NUC 11 ships with 12M of cache and 16GB of LPDDR4RAM. It also gets all the benefits of Intel’s 11th generation platform such as Iris Xegraphics, and ships with the standard complement of ports including HDMI and USB.
In fact, just think of the plug-and-play computer as a self-sufficient module complete with CPU, integrated graphics, WiFi, and memory. All it requires is a standard power cable and it’s good to go.
In essence, you can just plug the NUC 11 Compute Element into a spare PCIe slot on your existing PC’s motherboard. It won’t interfere with the existing processing unit, but you’ll be able to use the ports on the Compute Element and literally have one PC inside another, saving you the rigmarole of upgrading individual components.
Another interesting use case is theElite Group NU50 laptop. It’s powered by the Compute Element, which makes it easy to upgrade. Instead of replacing the entire laptop, if you need more juice you can just swap out the Compute Element, saving your old laptop for ending up in a landfill.
Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter
Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed!
With almost two decades of writing and reporting on Linux, Mayank Sharma would like everyone to think he’sTechRadar Pro’sexpert on the topic. Of course, he’s just as interested in other computing topics, particularly cybersecurity, cloud, containers, and coding.
iStorage Group acquires Kanguru Solutions as it looks to expand security offering
Phishing attacks surge in 2024 as cybercriminals adopt AI tools and multi-channel tactics
Arcane season 2 finally gave us the huge Caitlyn and Vi moment we’ve been waiting for – and its creators say ‘we couldn’t have done it in season one’
