DIGGING INTO THE NUC
HOME ENTERTAINMENT DELIGHT OR A NIGGLY NIGHTMARE?
# 01
UNLOCKING THE PUZZLE
You’d think that undoing a few screws and opening up a case would be one of the easiest parts of building a machine. However, on this occasion, the Intel NUC 12 Extreme left us scratching our heads as we tried to pop open the side panels and the front of the case. A quick Google search left us embarrassed— we’ll put the fact that we didn’t notice the four Philips screws on the back of the case down to an early morning start.
Removing the back of the case reveals the bare I/O ports. With this back panel off, we can slide the side panels toward the back of the case to pop them off. The last part to open is the top compartment. This is a hinged door that houses the system’s cooling fans and doesn’t need to be fully removed. To open this up, locate the two ‘PULL’ indicators on the hinge (see inset), as these point towards where you can lift the hinge up. Apply slight pressure and pop this up to reveal the opened NUC 12 case.