Tangentially related: Does anyone know if there is a NUC-style Ryzen 2700U-based machine, preferably with Thunderbolt 3? That would be a dream machine; one could use it for normal computing, development (4 cores, 32GB RAM), or even as a SteamBox (NVidia 650Ti-level of graphics performance), with the optional eGPU if that's not good enough. I couldn't find anything and I sincerely hope it won't end up as Kaveri, either unavailable or stuffed only into lowest-level notebooks.
You got downvoted, but you are actually quite right. The Hades Canon is not your normal Intel NUC, this packs exactly the gpu power parent is looking for - and the processor is strong as well.
It's 100W, very noisy and much larger than a NUC with typically 15W design. ZOTAC Magnus 1070 seems way better in every aspect comparing to this if you wanted to go more expensive route.
It's smaller than Mac Mini, yet you can do serious gaming, Deep Learning and cryptomining with it; that's not possible with Hades Canyon. It's quiet as well. Power consumption should be quite a bit lower than 1080 version as well.
Not sure why you're being downvoted as the NUC 8 handles all these issues better than dealing with eGPUs and other hassles. Its an incredible little box. My only criticism is price is high-ish, but its clear the Intel/AMD combo hits quite the sweet spot and its odd to think this little box outperforms my 970-based gaming tower PC.
Hades Canyon on average scores in between 1050 and 1060, in some games much better in other much worse (GTA V). Your 970 should be much faster unless there is something wrong with your tower (970 often beats 1060). In VR Hades is going to be way faster though.
I believe, correct me if I am wrong. You need Intel machine to get Thunderbolt. This isn't really a technical issue, just Intel won't sell Thunderbolt Chipset to non Intel Platform. And even if some MB manufacturer tried, they were pushed back by Intel.
But Thunderbolt is going to become an open standard. So hopefully that means lot of people will be design or selling IP for SoC. And I hope it would be in time for AMD to include it in their Zen 2 products.
Thunderbolt should be now open to anybody. E.g. 3rd party manufacturers should be able to integrate it with AMD/VIA/etc. if needed.
"On 24 May 2017, Intel announced that Thunderbolt 3 would become a royalty-free standard to OEMs and chip manufacturers in 2018, as part of an effort to boost the adoption of the protocol."
I was looking for one a few months ago, but no luck. You're best bet is to go with mini-itx system (which is about 4x as big as NUC, but still compact when compared to mATX).
2400G is 65W, 2700U is 15W. I'd really like NUC-style, I have 3 already and they are great, just graphics is lagging. Having an average GPU (i.e. gaming in 720p) in 15W and small NUC dimensions would be perfect! mITX is too large already.
Anything 3D over 720p. 2-year old games are barely playable at 720p low settings. Even faster memory doesn't help much. But for photo/video editing it should be totally fine ;-) For HTPC in 1080p even the BayTrail-based NUC 2820 is totally sufficient (e.g. Kodi).
