Intel reveals its tiny modular gaming PC, Ghost Canyon

(Image credit: Future)

Intel has unveiled the next tiny PC in its NUC line. The Intel NUC 9 Extreme Kit, or Ghost Canyon NUC, was announced at CES and sounds like a significant upgrade over its predecessor. It's a little bit larger than the router-sized NUC 8, but it's still ridiculously small for a gaming PC. 

One of the biggest differences between Ghost Canyon and its predecessor is that you're not limited by what you get in the box. It's powered by an i9 processor, but you'll be able to eventually upgrade the CPU. Its size also means it can fit a proper desktop GPU, adding yet more upgrade potential.

Details are still pretty slim at the moment, but given that this is an enthusiast bit of kit, making it a bit more future-proof and moddable seems like the right way to go and a much better alternative to a desktop PC than the NUC 8. Normally you need to add your own storage and RAM, so it seems likely that will also be the case here. 

Fraser Brown
Online Editor

Fraser is the UK online editor and has actually met The Internet in person. With over a decade of experience, he's been around the block a few times, serving as a freelancer, news editor and prolific reviewer. Strategy games have been a 30-year-long obsession, from tiny RTSs to sprawling political sims, and he never turns down the chance to rave about Total War or Crusader Kings. He's also been known to set up shop in the latest MMO and likes to wind down with an endlessly deep, systemic RPG. These days, when he's not editing, he can usually be found writing features that are 1,000 words too long or talking about his dog. 

Latest in Handheld Gaming PCs
A Steam Deck with SteamOS running in desktop mode.
A new and improved desktop experience just landed on Steam Deck and SteamOS is readying 'support for non-Steam Deck handhelds'
Lenovo Legion Go S playing Path of Exile 2
Lenovo Legion Go S (Windows) review
Valve Steam Deck OLED handheld PC
'The future of hardware at Valve is bright': Valve celebrates the success of Steam Deck and Steam OS
Still from a CNET video highlighting the Samsung concept device from MWC 2025
Samsung's handheld prototype delivers folding phone screens to Switch-like gaming hardware, and I am absolutely here for it
Xbox handheld
Microsoft is reportedly prepping a handheld Xbox for later this year with new consoles coming in 2027
OneXPlayer 2 pro on a table
I never thought a handheld PC bloated with Windows could replace my Steam Deck, but after gaming on an old OneXPlayer 2 Pro I can see now I judged it too harshly
Latest in News
The G-Man, The Heavy and Widowmaker hanging out
PC gamers spend 92% of their time on older games, oh and there are apparently 908 million of us now
A man holding a gun drives a boat as money flies out the back in GTA Online
Rockstar hornswoggles lapsed GTAO players with $3 million welcome-back offer that actually requires you to spend money to get most of it
Kratos is angry.
'I'm not a gamer,' says God of War Amazon series' new showrunner, unwittingly kicking a hornet's nest despite years of acclaimed writing experience
A citizen of a city
Cities: Skylines 2 celebrates 10 years of Cities with more nuanced homelessness and six new DLCs
A collage of Radeon RX 9000 series graphics cards, as shown in AMD's promotional video for the launch of RDNA 4 at CES 2025
AMD claims it has 45% gaming GPU market share in Japan but jokingly admits it 'isn't used to selling graphics cards'
The HyperX Cloud III S Wireless with extra ear plate on a blurred background
This HyperX headset is quite literally for the clouds as it has the option for winged ear plates