As part of its 2024 CES announcements, ASUS officially unveiled a number of NUCs based on Intel's Meteor Lake platform. The company had earlier released the NUC 13 Rugged - the first NUC product that had not been inherited from Intel's existing lineup - based on Alder Lake-N processors. The new NUCs fall under the mainstream category and are marketed with the Pro tag. The Pro line represents the original 4" x 4" ultra-compact form-factor (UCFF).
The new ASUS NUC 14 Pro products fall under the UCFF category. In addition, ASUS is also introducing the NUC 14 Pro+. These are slightly wider (144mm vs. 117mm) than the regular Pro models. Their height of 41mm is slightly more than the slim Pro kit's 37mm, but shorter than the 54mm of the tall Pro kit with 2.5" SATA drive support.
The NUC 14 Pro kits have the Meteor Lake processors configured with a TDP Of 40W, while the Pro+ kits (with space for a better thermal solution?) pushes that up to 65W. As expected, the choice of processors with the Pro+ is restricted to the top Ultra 5 / Ultra 7 / Ultra 9 SKUs, while the Pro version sports processors ranging from the Core 3 100U to the Ultra 7 165H.
The specifications of the different NUC 14 Pro and Pro+ models are summarized in the table below.
ASUS NUC 14 Pro / Pro+ (Meteor Lake) Lineup | ||||
CPU | Intel® Core™ Ultra 7 165H Processor Intel® Core™ Ultra 7 155H Processor Intel® Core™ Ultra 5 135H Processor Intel® Core™ Ultra 5 125H Processor Intel® Core™ 3 100U Processor (TDP up to 40W) | Intel® Core™ Ultra 9 185H Processor Intel® Core™ Ultra 7 155H Processor Intel® Core™ Ultra 5 125H Processor (TDP up to 65W) | ||
GPU | Intel® Arc™ GPU (U7/U5) Intel® Graphics (Core 3 100U) | Intel® Arc™ GPU | ||
DRAM | Two DDR5 SO-DIMM slots Up to 96 GB of DDR5-5600 in dual-channel mode | |||
Motherboard | 4.13" x 4.16" UCFF | |||
NVMe Storage | 1x M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4 x4 1x M.2 2242 PCIe Gen4 x4 | |||
SATA Storage | 1x 2.5" SATA 6 Gbps | N/A | ||
Wireless | Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX211 2x2 802.11ax Wi-Fi + Bluetooth 5.3 module | |||
Ethernet | 1 x Intel® i226V/LM 2.5G LAN (vPro SKUs include the i226LM non-vPro include the i226V) | |||
Front I/O | 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Type C (20 Gbps) 2x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type A | |||
Rear I/O | 2x Thunderbolt™ 4 / USB4 Type-C Ports (up to 8K@30Hz when combined) 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A 1x USB 2.0 Type-A 2x HDMI 2.1 (TMDS up to 4K@60Hz with CEC support) ports 1x 2.5 GbE RJ45 LAN Port | |||
Power Supply | 120W Power Adapter (U5/U7) 90W Power Adapter (Core 3) | 150W Power Adapter (U9) 120W Power Adapter (U5/U7) | ||
Case Material | Matte Textured Polycarbonate (Replaceable Lid) | Anodized Aluminum | ||
Operating System | Windows 11 Pro / Windows 11 Home | Barebones | Windows 11 Pro / Windows 11 Home | Barebones |
Dimensions and Weight | 117mm x 112mm x 54mm / 750g | 117mm x 112mm x 37mm / 600g | 144mm x 112mm x 41mm / 800g |
The absence of an analog audio output port / headphone jack seems to be the major departure from previous mainstream NUCs. The sliding tabs on the underside for tool-less access to the SSD and DRAM modules is another intersting update. The Pro and Pro+ appear to be using the same motherboard based on the I/O port locations in the two SKU sets. The extra space in the 5" x 4" Pro+ chassis is likely needed to accommodate the 65W thermal solution. ASUS indicated the use of a triple 6mm heat pipe dual-side exchanger for this purpose. It also allows for the Kensington lock to have a prominent position in the rear panel, unlike the side location in the Pro unit.
In other mini-PC news from ASUS, the company has also introduced a ROG NUC which seems to be a the successor to the NUC Enthusiast line. It featuring Meteor Lake Ultra 9 and Ultra 7 processors along with NVIDIA RTX 4070 / 4060 (mobile versions in all likelihood) in a 2.5L chassis. Given the success of the ROG brand, it does make sense for ASUS to absorb the NUC Enthusiast line of products into it.
ASUS is also continuing to market mini-PCs under the ExpertCenter line. The PN65 sports Meteor Lake processors along with configurable port options (such as COM) for use in edge computing and other professional scenarios.
We have reached out to ASUS for pricing and availability details, and will update the piece when we get additional information.
