A few week again, Intel introduced it was exiting the NUC (Subsequent Unit of Computing) enterprise. I used to be disenchanted to listen to that, as I’ve lengthy held a smooth spot for small kind issue PCs. I used to be lucky to spend time with a number of Steam Machines again in 2016. That they had their flaws, however they served to display that you just actually may cram a robust gaming PC right into a kind issue the dimensions of a shoebox.
Within the years since, Intel confirmed what was doable with its NUC Excessive mini-PCs, together with this one which packs in an i9 13900K and RTX 3080 Ti. Just a few corporations have jumped on the NUC bandwagon however for numerous causes they’ve by no means been marketed at lovers in the way in which a laptop computer or gaming PC can be.
However there’s excellent news! The NUC is much from useless. Intel despatched out a press launch saying that Intel and Asus have agreed to a time period sheet, whereby Asus will promote and help tenth to thirteenth Gen NUC product traces whereas giving Asus a non-exclusive license to design future NUC programs. Asus will create a brand new enterprise unit known as Asus NUC BU.
That is nice information. There’ll all the time be a marketplace for mini PCs. I can consider a dozen use instances. Level of sale, digital signage, crypto foreign money nodes, workplace machines, and so forth. However what actually excites me is what Asus may do with a gaming NUC. In spite of everything, it is aware of the way to construct small kind issue PCs, and actually small ones at that. I am speaking about you, ROG Ally.
Gaming and NUCs are a bit like oil and water. The TDP and cooling necessities of highly effective GPUs means they are not conducive to inclusion in really mini PCs. A system with a 13900K and RTX 4090 sounds good, however protecting temps underneath 100 levels Celsius is one other matter.
However we’re speaking about Asus. It is aware of a factor or two about PC elements. Simply think about if Asus was to develop a bespoke graphics card, for instance an RTX 4070 Ti with a TDP of round 285W. Not a little bit, however by trendy requirements, not lots both. Asus has the engineering experience to make such a card with a very oddball PCB and cooler. I am pondering of some type of tower cooler for it, maybe together with the CPU cooler and a 14cm fan on the aspect of the PC.
It may promote it as some type of Asus ROG NUC gaming PC. Heck, it may market the crap out of it and increase! It is obtained a console competitor and and 1,000,000 or two potential consumers lined up. Possibly I am reaching, however the prospects are actually intriguing.
With an organization like Asus behind it, the NUC line ought to be in good arms for a few years to return. The entire current NUC use instances stay, and I simply hope it would not neglect there are avid gamers that need NUCs too.
Godspeed Asus.