The first Asus ROG NUC (Next Unit of Computing) model is just around the corner. The small form factor PC is now up for pre-order at a German retailer, and although it’s powerful enough to rival some of the best laptops, it costs more than many comparable models — and you’ll still have to pay extra for a monitor.
Asus’ first take on Intel’s portable PC contains a lot of compute power in a small chassis. Although there are a few configurations of the PC, the one that was spotted up for sale ahead of time comes with Intel’s latest Meteor Lake-H CPU, the Core Ultra 9 185H, which sports 16 cores and 22 threads and can be boosted to run at up to 5.1GHz, all with a thermal design power (TDP) of 45 watts. However, Asus allows overclocking, meaning that the CPU can run at up to 65 watts instead.
Although the Meteor Lake CPU has its own, fairly decent integrated GPU, the ROG NUC comes with a discrete model instead, and it’s one of Nvidia’s best GPUs — the laptop version of the RTX 4070. The graphics card has a maximum TGP of 140 watts. Having such a capable GPU isn’t the norm for NUCs, which typically run on iGPUs instead of dedicated graphics — although there have been exceptions to that rule.
Aside from the above, the new Asus NUC 14 ROG comes with 32GB of DDR5 RAM and 1TB of SSD storage. According to Asus, the new ROG NUC will be able to support up to four 4K monitors at the same time.
The specs are impressive, but so is the price. The Asus ROG NUC was priced at 2,500 euros ($2,718 at the time of writing) by ProShop, a German retailer. For that amount of money, you can get yourself a solid gaming laptop, and it’ll come with a built-in screen; here, you’ll still need to buy a separate monitor. On the other hand, Asus’ first ROG NUC should be a powerful PC all on its own, and the 2.5-liter case volume will make it useful for gamers who travel often, as well as for people who need it for various resource-heavy workloads.
Comparable laptops range from a similar price of $2,200 to almost $5,000. However, it’s the combination of the Core Ultra 9 185H and the RTX 4070 that makes such a setup so expensive. Laptops with an RTX 4070 and a 13th-gen Intel CPU can be found for much less, such as the Acer Predator Helios 16 for $1,500.
Asus officially took over the NUC product line from Intel in October 2023. The company now handles the manufacturing, shipping, and support for Intel NUCs from the 10th to the 13th generation, and will continue making its own. The Asus ROG NUC is the first iteration of the mini PC after the takeover.
According to ProShop, the NUC is set to start shipping on April 10, so it shouldn’t be long until we know the official recommended list price.
