Asus intends to establish itself in the high-performance mini PC segment with its ROG NUC, a model designed for gaming with an Intel Core Ultra processor and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 40xx graphics circuit.
The mini PC market has been in full revolution for some time, as evidenced by the latest achievements of Geekom, Beelink and Minisforum, specialists who continue to enrich their respective catalogs with increasingly efficient models, worthy of competing with classic desktop computers (see our articles on the Mini IT13 Geekom, the ). But Asus, which has taken over from Intel since the American giant bequeathed it its NUC range last summer (see our article) does not intend to leave this segment to its Chinese competitors. And if it presented numerous laptop PCs at CES 2024 which is currently taking place in Las Vegas, the Taiwanese manufacturer also took advantage of the major American show to unveil the ROG NUC, a very high-end mini PC which should appeal to players.
With a volume of 2.5 l, the ROG NUC is not as compact as classic mini PCs, which generally make do with 0.5 l. But it is much less bulky than a traditional tower and fully deserves its name as a miniature computer. Its design, quite stylish with its angular lines, is reminiscent of the Serpent Canyon, the gaming-oriented models that Intel launched in 2022. A logical relationship insofar as Asus uses the principle to make its ROG NUC a real gaming PC. Because if it is larger than others, it is to accommodate heavy artillery, in particular a powerful processor and a real graphics circuit, instead of an integrated module (an iGPU in the jargon of specialists) .
And the least we can say is that Asus has not skimped on the components. On the processor side, the manufacturer immediately opted for the new generation of Intel, namely Core Ultra based on Meteor Lake architecture, such as the Core Ultra 9 185H with 16 cores and 22 threads, a 24 MB cache and a maximum frequency of 5.1 GHz. A big “engine” which should have no trouble running demanding games. And if this family of chips integrates an Arc type graphics module, Asus preferred to rely on one of the stars of the moment, in this case, a GeForce RTX 4xxx, one of the most powerful Nvidia circuits, probably in a compact version given the limited space of the case, which does not allow an XXL format card to be installed as in a traditional desktop PC. Associated with dual-channel DDR5 RAM – up to 128 GB! –, this pair of “big guns” should offer good performance, worthy of fine gaming PCs.
And the rest of the equipment is to match, with WiFi 6E, Thunderbolt 4 ports, USB 3.2 Gen 2, HDMI 2.1a, DisplayPort 1.4 and 2.5 Gbit/s Ethernet, and the ability to manage up to with four 4K screens. Asus also specifies that the case is easy to open, without tools, to simplify maintenance and cleaning. Well seen !
The release date and price of the ROG NUC are still unknown, but Asus indicates that two configurations will be offered: one with a Core Ultra 7 155 H and a GeForce RTX 4060, the other with a Core Ultra 9 185 H and a GeForce RTX 4070. There is no doubt that gamers looking to save space will be very interested in it when the time comes.