Intel Corporation recently announced the end of financial support for the Next Unit of Compute (NUC) line of mini PCs. The company started producing these devices more than 10 years ago, in 2012. Since then, NUC devices have become very popular both among ordinary users and in the corporate environment.

Unfortunately, Intel has decided to get rid of non-core businesses, and the NUC seems to be one of them. But, fortunately, the line itself will not die, now the responsibility for its survival has fallen on the shoulders of the ASUS company. And the latter decided to immediately take the bull by the horns and release… a gaming nettop with a very powerful filling. And it’s not quite what we’re used to seeing in the NUC lineup (unless, of course, you’re a fan of Intel’s Extreme NUC series), very not.

What is the situation with the NUC?

It was briefly mentioned above, but in more detail, Intel has now decided to optimize costs and its business in general, dealing only with specialized projects. The rest either terminate, or sell, or transfer the rights to use intellectual property.

It is also worth noting that it was the Intel NUC project that became the “founder” of the class of nettops produced by many other companies, from well-known brands to no-names. By the way, Dromanov got his hands on one of the names, and he will release a review of it soon. It remains only to complete some tests.

But let’s return to the topic of the article. As for the transfer of rights, this is exactly what was done with the mini-PC of the NUC series. As far as we know, the rights to release devices of this series and other companies, but ASUS is still ahead of the whole planet. At least with announcements.

The license granted does not grant exclusive rights. But it allows Intel’s partner to establish both the production and sale of NUC nettops with Intel Core processors of 10-13 generations. ASUS also got the opportunity to develop its own nettops with a modified design. Well, to support users of a new product for themselves, a special unit will be created, named ASUS NUC BU.

Well, okay, what kind of NUC is there from ASUS?

This is a nettop with very modest characteristics that allow us to talk about this device as a gaming computer. The first model will be considered the successor of Intel NUC 13 Extreme. It is difficult to see the difference between it and a full-fledged gaming system unit, except for the dimensions and a few more nuances.

The Intel NUC 13 Extreme device itself is based on Intel Core from the 13th generation (Raptor Lake). It has very advanced features, so the nettop can and should be used to solve high-performance tasks or run games.

^{Intel NUC 13 Extreme Intel used to call it a mini PC}

ASUS will replace Intel Core from the 13th generation with processors of the 14th generation, Mereor Lake. They will appear in the fourth quarter of 2023. Most likely, the release of a new powerful nettop is also planned for the end of 2023 – the beginning of 2023. At the same time, there is a non-zero possibility that Intel will release not desktop, but laptop processors of the latest generation. If so, it’s hard to say whether they’ll be able to match the performance of the Core i9-13900K, Core i7-13700K or Core i5-13600K. But be that as it may, the nettop will be very strong.

Most likely, the nettop will work on the basis of not only a powerful processor, but also an external video card. Previously, the Extreme series was equipped with ASUS video cards, so the new device is likely to be no exception. Most likely, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4000 series graphics card with Ada Lovelace architecture will be involved.

At the same time, the cooling system will be hybrid – both liquid and air. If the nettop is equipped with a mobile processor, then such a system is excessive, so it can be assumed that the card will be supplied with a 4070. It gets very hot, but the liquid cooling system is able to remove heat to prevent the nettop from overheating. If only the air cooling system was mentioned, there would be no question about the 4070 – on such a nettop then you could fry scrambled eggs (a little exaggeration, of course).

NUC Extreme nettops already had external video cards, which are usually installed in gaming desktop system units. In particular, we are talking about the Intel NUC 13 Expreme, in which a discrete video card is installed.

As for the price, it has not been announced yet, but it is likely to be expected to cost around the same price as a full-fledged gaming desktop.

And if I don’t need such a powerful nettop, what should I do?

This is not a problem, as miniature PCs similar to the Intel NUC format are produced by many Chinese companies, as well as companies from other countries. Usually the dimensions of the device are 10*10 cm, but there are much smaller systems. We have repeatedly published selections of mini PCs, among them there are also modern nettops that can be used for various purposes — from network devices and solving office tasks to working with heavy content, including video.

After connecting all the necessary accessories, such accessories work as full-fledged desktop PCs. At the same time, they are silent or low-noise (depending on whether they are equipped with a passive or active cooling system). Some nettops fit completely in your pocket, so you can carry them from home to work and back, take them with you on business trips, etc. The level of power consumption in most is less than that of productive laptops and much less than that of desktop PCs.

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