Today, we review the latest NUC PRO from Intel, the NUC 13 PRO. It is a mini PC equipped with the latest Intel core i7-1360p chip. Initially proposed in barebone format, the version we test here is equipped with a 512 GB SSD and 32 GB of RAM.
The Intel NUC 13 PRO is available for €749.95 in its i7-1360p version, without SSD or RAM. A motherboard-only version is also available for purchase for €679.00 (€718.95 with power supply).
Thanks to Intel for providing us with this copy.
[nextpage title=”The Intel NUC 13 Pro – i7 – 1360p”]
The Intel NUC 13 PRO is a very small mini PC with dimensions of 117 x 112 x 37 mm. We find as processor a Raptor Lake i7-1360p from Intel, accompanied, for our example, by 32 GB of DDR4-3200 Mt/s RAM and a 512 GB NVMe SSD.
We start with the unpacking of the device. This mini PC comes in a very well finished packaging with the colors of the brand. Inside we find the mini PC on the right and a notice on the left. Underneath, we have other documents as well as the charger and the screws for the VESA mounting. The VESA mount which is unfortunately not very usable on recent screens or even not usable with a screen arm. The box is big, so Intel, plan to add a remote VESA mount to the bundle…
Let’s talk about the charger which is a 120W power supply unit in 20V using a cylindrical connector that will have to be connected to the back of the NUC.
Presentation
To begin with, the NUC 13 PRO is very compact in this version and weighs only 536g on the scale. The overall design is largely plastic with steel ventilation grills on the sides.
Then we have the connectors, we are here on a relatively complete solution. We have 2 USB type-A 3.2 gen 2 ports on the front and a 3.5mm jack. On the back, we have 2 Thunderbolt 4 ports, 2 HDMI 2.0b video outputs, 1 USB type-A 3.2 gen 2 port and 1 USB type-A 2.0 port. Regarding network connectivity, we have an RJ45 socket on Intel I225-LM chip and Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 via an Intel AX211 card inside. So we are here on a very complete solution, even if in use we would have liked more USB type A ports on the back (at least 4).
[nextpage title=”Configuration overview”]
The configuration of this Intel NUC 13 PRO is based on an Intel Raptor Lake platform. The CPU used (I7-1360P) is a low power version at 28W with a boost to 64W, perfect for this format.
The different components
We start with the CPU, the motherboard and the RAM, here on CPU-Z, we can see that the Prestige 13 Evo is equipped with an I7-1360P with 4 Pcore and 8 Ecore that can go up to 5Ghz. For the RAM, we are on 32 GB of DDR4 memory at 3200 Mt/s CL22.
Let’s move on to the graphics card. Here we are on the IGP integrated in the i7-1360P with the Xe 96sp iris (768 cores) that can go up to 1.5 Ghz.
For storage, we have a Samsung PCIe 4.0 x4 of 512TB. This one offers very good performances, especially in access time and reading speed.
And here is a summary of the specifications of this Intel NUC 13 PRO.
Disassembly, repair and upgrade
Disassembly is done in two ways, the first one by removing the 4 screws on the back of the device giving access to the changeable components. To remove the motherboard, you will also need to remove the 2 screws on the motherboard and unplug the Wi-Fi card. The top of the device can also be removed without tools.
From a modification point of view, we have access to the M.2 PCie 4.0 slot as well as the M.2 2242 Key B slot to increase storage. We also have access to the Wi-Fi card placed under the M.2 2280 PCIe slot and to two so-dimm DDR4 slots. We will see later that it is also possible to change the thermal paste easily.
[nextpage title=”Test protocol”]
The test protocol has been revised to offer something more complete. It is the same protocol as for the laptops with some adjustments, especially on the autonomy, screen or video games measurements which have no place here.
Just like the previous test of the MSI Prestige 13 Evo, we did not carry out the gaming tests given the performance of this PC in this area. On the MSI, we found 37 FPS on Rainbow 6 siege and 77 FPS on Counter Strike Global offensive in high 1080p. This NUC shares the same processor and IGP, so it will also play small games not very greedy, but without more.
The protocol
- Heat and thermal efficiency
- Synthetic CPU test
Cinebench R20
Cinebench R23
Geekbench 3
Geekbench 5
Aida 64 - Synthetic GPU Performance
3DMark Timespy
3DMark Timespy extreme
3DMark Firestrike
3DMark Firestrike Extreme
3DMark Firestrike Ultra - Productivity Performance
PCMark 10 Extented
PCMark 10 Test Applications
Blender Benchmark
PugetBench Davinci Resolve
The tests were performed with the INTEL driver version 31.0.101.4314.
[nextpage title=”Heating and thermal efficiency”]
To test the heating of the machine, we opted for two distinct tests, first the heating in IDLE and then the heating under CPU load on Cinebench R23 for 10 minutes.
The cooling system
Exterior
On the outside, we have two openings on the sides of the device to draw in fresh air for the fan. The latter expels the hot air at the back of the mini PC through a third vent.
Interior
Inside, we find the fan, blowing air through a radiator connected by heat pipes to the CPU. This system is quite good for the CPU used, but it is still noisy. Indeed, this NUC tends to start the ventilation even when the CPU is below 50°C, which is very disturbing in the long run. The application of the thermal paste is quite well done, but we noticed that the quantity is too large. As a result, the paste was changed and further tests were performed after all our tests were completed.
CPU heating alone
In IDLE:
After 8 min of Cinebench R23:
We start with the heating in IDLE and on Cinebench R23 after 10 min of stress. The CPU went up to 100°C on 1 core and 90°C on the others during the first minutes before stabilizing around 80°C. The power consumption and frequency went from 64 W and 3900 MHz to 40 W and 3200 MHz during this stress test. On the surface, we note a maximum temperature on the back of the device with 44,3 °C, the desktop at the back is 32,7°C.
And here is a FLIR image of the top of the device without the cover. As you can see, the hot spot seen previously is in the area of the power socket. We also notice a rather high internal temperature with 47.1°C under the fan.
Disassembly and change of thermal paste
To go further, we decided to change the thermal paste with be quiet! DC2 after disassembly. This high performance thermal paste is particularly fluid and will be perfect for future tests.
So we changed the thermal paste and reassembled the motherboard having first made measurements in the base configuration. Then, three tests on Cinebench R23 were carried out by noting the temperatures at 64 W and 40 W as before. Each of these tests corresponds to a cooling configuration, i.e. closed cover, open cover and motherboard only.
As we can see on the graph below, the gain between with and without cover is about 2°C at 40W with the basic thermal paste. For the DC2 we have a gain of 4 to 5 °C for the measurements at 40 and 64W between closed and open cover. The motherboard alone gains another 3 to 5 °C at 64 W and 1 to 2 °C at 40 W. The most interesting thing is that the maximum temperature went from 100°C open with the basic thermal paste to 87°C with the DC2, i.e. a 13°C gain here. And even more on the motherboard alone with a 16°C difference.
With this gain in temperature, the NUC is cooler in IDLE and under load, and quieter. Even if the ventilation management is still poorly done. This gain in temperature also leads to a gain in surface temperature, with a gain of 1°C on the top of the device and on the desk at the back.
[nextpage title=”Synthetic CPU performance”]
Synthetic CPU performance
Let’s see what this machine has in store, we start with the CPU and memory performances on some synthetic benchmarks. The i7-1360p proposed here by Intel will be compared to the same i7-1360p on board the MSI Prestige 13 Evo A13M.
Cinebench R20
We start with Cinebench R20, here the i7-1360p in desktop version manages to stand out from the Prestige 13 without difficulty. This is mainly due to the power limit reached thanks to the better cooling of the NUC. We even notice that this i7-1360p is better than the i7-12700H of the Dell Inspiron 14 plus, which has 2 Pcore more.
Cinebench R23
Let’s move on to Cinebench R23, and as for R20, the gap remains similar with the Prestige 13.
Geekbench 3
On Geekbench 3, the performance is simply impressive. With a gain of almost 30% compared to the Prestige 13 from MSI.
Geekbench 5
For Geekbench 5, same observation as for Geekbench 3 where the i7-1360p is close to the i7-12700H of Dell.
Aida 64
For AIDA64, we are mostly looking at the RAM and here the performance is in line with the memory kit used. Latency is close to what we find on a DDR5 laptop with lower data rates of 20 GB/s compared to DDR5 at 4800 Mt/s.
All in all this NUC manages to get maximum performance out of the i7-1360p, but as we will see later in this test, there is room for improvement.
[nextpage title=”Synthetic GPU performance”]
Synthetic GPU performance
Now that we know the performance of the CPU part, we can move to the GPU on some synthetic benchmarks. Here, we will compare the performance of the intel Xe 96sp to the Intel Xe 96sp of the Prestige 13 Evo from MSI, which uses the same graphics architecture. The tests were performed on a Dell SN2421NX 1080p display with HDMI.
3DMark Timespy
We start with 3DMark Time Spy, here we are at the level of the i7 1280p and i7-1360p of the MSI laptops with Intel Xe 96sp. Nothing more normal since all of them have the same graphic part.
3DMark Timespy extreme
Just like for Time Spy, the extreme version of the benchmark shows performances very close to the other machines based on Intel Xe 96sp. However, there is a non-negligible difference on the CPU, with a higher performance than the i7-12700H of the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus.
3DMark Firestrike
On 3DMark Firestrike, the NUC seems to lag behind the MSI Prestige in CPU performance.
3DM Firestrike Extreme
On 3DMark Firestrike Extreme, the gap widens a bit more on the GPU side.
3DM Firestrike Ultra
On Firestrike Ultra, the performance of this Intel IGP does not allow to exceed 1300 points.
Just like the Prestige 13 Evo A13M from MSI, this Intel 13 PRO NUC doesn’t have enough performance on the GPU side to make it a gaming PC. Since both share the same Intel Xe 96sp IGP, the conclusion will be the same. Except for small games such as Minecraft or lightly loaded titles like CS:GO or League of Legend otherwise, skip it.
[nextpage title=”Productivity performance”]
Performance in productivity
In this part, we will focus on the productivity performances. That is to say the performance of the machine on software such as Microsoft Office, Blender or DaVinci Resolve.
PCMark 10 Extended
On PCMark 10, we find ourselves, not surprisingly, at the level of the MSI Prestige 13 Evo and Dell Inspiron 14 plus.
PCMark 10 : application
The benchmark presented here uses the Microsoft office suite to give us the performance of our machine on Word, Excel and Powerpoint. Without surprise, we are again in front of the Prestige 13 Evo from MSI.
Blender
Let’s move on to the Blender benchmark, which to my great surprise shows results for this NUC 13 PRO very close to the i7-12700h. We have here almost twice as much performance as on the MSI Prestige 13 Evo even though it is equipped with the same chip.
PugetBench : Davinci Resolve
On Davinci Resolve, the Intel Xe 96sp IGP does not lack VRAM this time and manages to do over 30% better than the MSI Prestige 13. But we remain quite low in performance especially on the GPU Effect test.
Just like the MSI Prestige 13 Evo A13M, this NUC 13 PRO is perfectly fine for office use. And just like the MSI laptop, it won’t be the best choice for video or 3D content creation.
[nextpage title=”Overclocking”]
Overclocking
We now move to a part that was not initially planned. After the change of thermal paste and the gain of temperatures on the CPU, we are interested in solutions to gain in performance. Changing the thermal paste did not allow us to gain in performance because of the power limit that we were already reaching before. The solution is simple, we had to change the power limit values.
There are two ways to approach this, the first is through the BIOS, the second is via the Intel XTU software. We chose the first one and took the opportunity to set the ventilation to 100% without the cover.
So the PL1 power limit was increased from 28W to 64W and PL2 from 64W to 80W with a PL2 hold time of 228 seconds instead of 28 seconds. We then tested this on Cinebench R20, geekbench 3, 3DMark Time spy and 3DMark Firestrike.
Cinebench R20
On Cinebench R20 we observe a gain of 13% with a frequency maintained between 4100 MHz and 4300 MHz against 3200 to 3900 MHz before. The power consumption stagnates at 70 W against 64 W then 40 W before.
Geekbench 3
On geekbench 3 the gain is less with only 2.5%, here we still can’t reach the i7-12700h of the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus.
3DMark Time spy
On 3DMark Time spy the gain is negligible, here the overall score is more influenced by the GPU than the CPU. The gain on the CPU is only 3.8% and only overclocked RAM or more cores could grant a significant gain.
3DMark Firestrike
On 3DMark Firestrike same observation as on Time spy, the gain on the CPU is only 1,9 %.
This upward manipulation of the power limit therefore provides a performance gain only in certain cases. It is therefore not very useful for a machine dedicated to office work. However, it should be pointed out that the fact of being able to touch the PL1 and PL2 can be applied in the other direction. A reduction of the power limit would be judicious to better contain the heating and the noise of this NUC in certain cases of use.
Let’s find out right away with some performance tests on Cinebench R20 at different power limit levels.
As we can see, by opting for a power limit of 40 W we manage to lower the temperature by 16 °C while remaining ahead of the MSI Prestige 13 Evo A13M.
For my part, I will choose a PL1 of 28 W and a PL 2 of 40 W. This would have a definite impact on multi-thread performance but not for office use. With this setting the average temperature drops to 67°C on Cinebench R20 for 4068 points. But this has very little impact on the office suite for example with 14 105 points against 14 117 points before on the PCMark 10 Application benchmark.
[nextpage title=”Conclusion”]
We come to the end of this test which was a first for me with a mini PC of this level of performance. I can say that I was pleasantly surprised on several points and disappointed by others. We start with the positive points namely the performance of the i7-1360p, wondering if it is really the same CPU as the MSI Prestige 13 Evo tested previously. Then there’s the build quality and assembly. Despite the fact that plastic is mostly used for the exterior design. And to finish on the positive points, the cooling is quite efficient and allows the processor to express itself fully.
We come to the negative aspects with the last point mentioned, the cooling is quite noisy for no apparent reason, the fan starts around 40-50 ° C which is quite disturbing. Then we have the VESA support not usable in my case, my screens being on articulated arm with the original foot that covers their VESA fixings. It would have been nice to have a simple VESA offset plate with 4 screws in a bundle. This would solve the problem. Finally, the price is for my taste too excessive for a PC, for 749,95 € without OS, without SSD, without RAM. The price difference of 200 € compared to the i5 version brings almost nothing except 6 MB of cache and 400 Mhz of the i5-1340p. This difference should offer more, such as an i7-1370p with 6 Pcore and 5.2 GHz.
In the end, we have a mixed review because of this price tag which counterbalances the quality of the product as a consumer choice.
As a reminder, the Intel NUC 13 PRO is available for €749.95 in its i7-1360p version and €549.95 in its i5-1340p version without SSD or RAM.
The Intel NUC 13 PRO – i7-1360p
We liked:
- The performance of the CPU
- The compact size
- The connectivity
- Efficient cooling
- Build quality
- Upgradability
We would have liked :
- A quieter cooling
- A more attractive price
- A remote VESA support in bundle
In the end, we choose to award silver to this i7-1360p based NUC 13 PRO. Gold would certainly have been appropriate for the i5-1340p version offering the same thing at a more attractive price. Although this NUC was flawless in all our tests, its high price coupled with its noisy ventilation made us decide in this direction. Nevertheless, it is a very well-made machine, perfect for a clean setup dedicated to office automation, whether for businesses or individuals.