The Linux-friendly Ghost Canyon Intel NUC 9 Extreme is finally available for purchase

Intel's diminutive NUC bare-bones computers are quite a bit of fun. Not only are they cute and tiny, but once you add RAM and storage, they can run both Windows 10 and Linux brilliantly. Hell, I am currently running macOS on one as a "Hackintosh" (Shh! Don't tell Apple). The only knock on the NUC is that you can't really upgrade the GPU. Unless your NUC has Thunderbolt 3 and you add a pricey eGPU, you are essentially stuck with Intel's ho-hum onboard graphics.

With the unveiling of the "Ghost Canyon" Intel NUC 9, however, this changed. While obviously bigger than earlier NUC models, this unit can accommodate a proper gaming card from AMD or NVIDIA (if you choose to add one). You can even eventually upgrade the CPU with what Intel calls replaceable "compute elements." And now, if you have some money to spare, you can finally buy the top model of Ghost Canyon -- the drool-worthy Intel NUC 9 Extreme is available today!

This variant of the NUC comes with an insanely powerful Intel Core i9-9980HK processor. This octa-core processor (16 threads) has a 2.4GHz base clock and can boost all the way to 5GHz! You also get HDMI out, a 3.5mm audio jack, dual Gigabit Ethernet, and two Thunderbolt 3 ports. There are four USB ports on the rear and two on the front -- all are 3.2 gen 2.

You can add up to 64GB of DDR4-2666 RAM and it supports PCIe 3.0 M.2 SSDs, such as this one here. And yes, the integrated wireless internet is the top-of-the-line Wi-Fi 6 (aka 802.11ax). You even get a full-sized SD card reader on the front.

If you are ready to buy one for yourself, it can be had immediately here. The price is quite high at $1,704.47 -- especially when you consider you still need to add your own memory, storage, and graphics card.