SFF.Network ASUS Announces the ROG NUC 16

ASUS, under their Republic of Gamers sub brand, have announced a new member of the NUC family – the ROG NUC 16. This gaming orientated NUC is powered by an Intel Core Ultra ‘Arrow Lake-HX’ processor, a laptop variant of NVIDIA’s RTX 5080 with 16 GB of VRAM, and up to 128 GB of user provided DDR5-6400-CSODIMM memory. This larger-than-your-normal-NUC measures in at 282.4mm x 189.5mm x 56.5mm, or 3.02 litres excluding the power brick, and weighs 3.12kg. No dimensional specs for the power brick were provided on the product page.
According to the product page, all variants of the NUC16 SKU include the embedded Intel® Core™ Ultra 9 Processor 290HX, cTDP 45-75W processor. You can select either integrated graphics or NVIDIA RTX 5070 Ti (laptop variant) with 12 GB DDR7 or a NVIDIA RTX 5080 (laptop variant) with 16 GB GDDR7 VRAM. All SKUs include a 16 GB stick of memory, with it either being a DDR5-5600 SO-DIMM or a DDR5-6400...

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[Revenant]

On paper it looks good. Small size, 175 watt TGP for the GPU, and a decent albeit generation behind CPU. RAM, at 16GB, is thin. However, the GPU should match 4070 Super if not slightly exceed it.

The look is, as always, pure ROG. I don’t mind it, but it’s not my favorite.

My concerns though are if this thing will sound like a hot laptop when being pushed, and how much bloatware will ASUS include. All SFF in the world won’t make put a 60 dBA machine on my desk.

Price wise, it would be hard to recommend over a docked laptop if similar spec without a decent discount from the laptops MSRP.

 

[confusis]

From the product page;
"The ROG NUC 16 features comprehensive thermal design employing three cooling fans, a dedicated SSD heatsink, and a vapor chamber with 72% thermal coverage — including full contact over the CPU and laptop GPU. This approach enables the system to maintain noise levels below 38dB(A)—even under sustained high load."

That seems quiet enough, but what's the tone of that fan.. a higher pitched whine would be baaaaaad

 

[Curiosity]

It looks cool, as usual I love the NUCs. Im sure it'll run a bit hot but it'll perform well.

 

[HWI]

Seems like it'll be a cool little machine, but you know it's going to be priced outrageously.

 

[Revenant]

From the product page;
"The ROG NUC 16 features comprehensive thermal design employing three cooling fans, a dedicated SSD heatsink, and a vapor chamber with 72% thermal coverage — including full contact over the CPU and laptop GPU. This approach enables the system to maintain noise levels below 38dB(A)—even under sustained high load."

That seems quiet enough, but what's the tone of that fan.. a higher pitched whine would be baaaaaad

Laptop fans are notorious for their tone. I have an Asus Zephyrus 14 2020 model and it’s like a turbine when it gets going. It’s why I use headsets with it.

Hopefully, Asus improves on their fan sound quality since then.

 

[phence]

Overpriced, under cooled and with bloated software from the factory. It's a fail in my books, the cooling should be much beefier and with that pricing, what SFF could you buy or build for that? Zotac has better units for much less IMO.

 

[Revenant]

Overpriced, under cooled and with bloated software from the factory. It's a fail in my books, the cooling should be much beefier and with that pricing, what SFF could you buy or build for that? Zotac has better units for much less IMO.

ASUS really likes their bloatware. I haven’t tried a recent Zotac, but the last one I had was barebones.

Their EN models with 5060Ti 16GB are pretty nice looking…on paper at least. My personal EN1070 has been in continuous use since I got it, though I did upgrade the CPU from a 6400T to a 6700T which definitely gave it some life extension.

 

[Skripka]

Overpriced, under cooled and with bloated software from the factory. It's a fail in my books, the cooling should be much beefier and with that pricing, what SFF could you buy or build for that? Zotac has better units for much less IMO.

It is part Asus tax, part ram and SSD apocalypse.

Problem with making the cooling beefier--you need a much bigger non-NUC sized chassis. Which the NUC form factor is the only reason to get a NUC and not any of the other mini-PCs. Small, powerful, quiet; pick one or maybe two.

At 3.2 liters or so, it is probably going to get loud keeping those chips cooled to some extent.

 

[Revenant]

Pricing is out. The 5080 model with 16GB of RAM and 2TB SSD is $5,299. USD.

Hard pass. No SFF tax is worth that especially when you can laptops with better specs for half the price….made by ASUS!

 

[Skripka]

Pricing is out. The 5080 model with 16GB of RAM and 2TB SSD is $5,299. USD.

Hard pass. No SFF tax is worth that especially when you can laptops with better specs for half the price….made by ASUS!

LOL. Laptop 5080 for how much????