The Intel NUC 12 Dragon Canyon brings back socketed CPUs with LGA 1700

The NUC 12 Dragon Canyon marks a return to socketed processors after the soldered NUC 8 era. It uses an LGA 1700 socket supporting 12th Gen Intel Core desktop chips (Alder Lake), from i5 up to i9, with a 65W TDP ceiling. That means you can drop in a desktop-class CPU and swap it later — a meaningful upgrade from the fixed BGA chips in earlier NUC generations. For anyone who wants a mini PC that can grow with them rather than aging out, this is the right approach.