Editor's take: Intel's latest NUC (Next Unit of Computing), the very one it teased at Computex 2021 not all that long ago, is available to pre-order via Simply NUC. You'll want to bring your own discrete graphics card, however, as the company charges an unreasonable amount of money if you get one from them directly.
The small-form-factor machine starts at $1,300 which includes an Intel Core i7-1170B CPU, Intel UHD graphics, 8GB of DDR4 memory, a 256GB NVMe SSD and a 650W power supply. You'll need to source your own graphics card if you want something more than the integrated solution, but the good news is that there's room for a full-size discrete graphics card (up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080) via the PCIe x16 slot. There's also an x4 slot for add-in cards and the like.
Those wanting to start with a bit beefier base can opt for the $1,599 NUC11BTMI9, which gets you an Intel Core i9-1190KB processor.
Both configurations can be further customized with additional RAM (up to 64GB) and gobs of storage, should you need it. I'd recommend sourcing your own video card, as Simply NUC wants an extra $1,999 for an RTX 3070. I know high-end video cards are hard to come by, but two grand seems ridiculous. Surely that's an error, no?
Simply NUC expects to ship pre-ordered systems in September.