Intel recently gracefully exited the NUC business, handing over control to its partners. Notably he has a non-exclusive license from ASUS to manufacture his current and future NUCs. The deal could result in ROG NUCs replacing Intel’s NUC Extreme lineup.
According to the Italian news agency Bits & Chips sauceAsus has already started development of ROG NUC to replace Intel’s NUC 13 Extreme (Raptor Canyon) mini PC. As the model name suggests, the Raptor Canyon utilizes the 13th Gen Raptor Lake processor. So it’s logical that his ROG NUC, the successor to the Raptor Canyon, would utilize Intel’s upcoming 14th Gen Meteor Lake chips.
Intel has reportedly canceled desktop Meteor Lake, so unlike the Raptor Canyon which has Raptor Lake K-series SKUs like the Core i9-13900K, Core i7-13700K and Core i5-13600K, the ROG NUC will be the mobile Meteor. It will most likely use Lake chips. Bits and Chips believes Asus will utilize a hybrid cooling solution to cool his Meteor Lake processors inside his ROG NUCs. That sounds like overkill, considering there are rumors that the Meteor Lake will reach at 35W and 65W. Meteor Lake is new He benefits from Redwood cores and Crestmont cores, but the question remains whether the Raptor Lake 125W K-series can compete with his parts.
The Raptor Canyon has plenty of room for a triple-slot 12-inch graphics card, and it looks like the ROG NUC will retain that capability. The Italian publication claims that Nvidia’s latest GeForce RTX 40 series (Ada Lovelace) graphics card will do the heavy lifting for his ROG NUC. It mentions a possible GeForce RTX 4070, but it’s unclear if that’s the top-of-the-line SKU ROG NUC offers. A 450W graphics card like the GeForce RTX 4090 can be too hot for a mini PC to handle. If there’s one vendor that can find a way to cool massively inside mini PCs, it’s Asus, considering the company’s expertise and experience in manufacturing mini PCs, graphics cards, and cooling solutions.
The Bits and Chips report describes a ROG NUC with a futuristic design and tons of RGB lighting. Due to the lack of photos and renderings, we have to take the press at their word for now. ASUS products are usually more expensive than their competitors. This mini PC uses the brand’s Elite ROG branding and may be subject to ROG tax.
