Mini PCs have a devoted following. Depend me amongst them! When information got here that Intel was handing over the reins of its NUC (Subsequent Unit of Computing) enterprise to Asus, I used to be positively intrigued by the probabilities. Customers aren’t the one marketplace for NUCs although, as Asus is courting industrial and enterprise shoppers with customized NUC gadgets designed for all kinds of use instances.
The Register spoke with Asus senior vp Jacky Hsu, who outlined plans Asus has to develop customized machines for numerous industrial prospects. This contains embedded, industrial and utility particular use instances throughout such numerous roles as digital signage, point-of-sale, cloud, AI or warehouse and manufacturing facility purposes, every of which have their very own environmental concerns.
Once we consider NUCs, we would consider a cuboid fashion machine or giant guide sized kind components. Asus is planning to shake that up a bit, with numerous kind components designed for various use instances. It’s going to do that by designing customized options with completely different I/O concerns and motherboards to create NUCs that match into a particular space.
The customized I/O half is attention-grabbing. One can think about Asus designing NUCs with completely different Ethernet requirements, SFP connections, D-SUB, Serial, DIN or another sort of connection you possibly can consider, relying on what’s required. If I wished 10,000 NUCs with FireWire connections, Asus may most likely oblige.
Gaming NUCs have been round for a few years—together with this one with an Intel i9 13900K and RTX 3080 Ti. Asus hasn’t revealed concrete particulars on its plans for gaming NUCs, however KW Chao, the overall supervisor of Asus’s NUC enterprise unit, has mentioned ROG branded NUCs are into consideration.
With the information that Intel’s Meteor Lake household will not be coming to the DIY market, however possible is in some type of embedded, AIO or NUC options, a Meteor Lake ROG branded NUC sounds very attention-grabbing certainly.
Asus may theoretically take one of many increased tier Meteor Lake laptop computer chips, configure its TDP to raised go well with the NUC kind issue and cook dinner up a gaming NUC with a excessive efficiency graphics card and a CPU that is comparatively near the efficiency of a desktop Raptor Lake chip. That’d provide you with a really succesful tiny gaming rig with out the compromises (and noise) wanted to chill a 125W+ desktop CPU.
Add some RGB and increase! You’ve got obtained a really marketable little laptop with efficiency that leaves consoles within the mud, probably in a fair smaller kind issue. Asus would not be the primary to promote excessive efficiency mini-PCs. MSI’s Trident PCs spring to thoughts, however there are few examples of pairing a laptop computer chip with a desktop class GPU.
It looks as if the way forward for the NUC is in good arms with Asus. If sufficient massive shoppers bounce aboard and the enterprise unit makes some good cash, then some ROG NUCs ought to come quickly. I will be ready!
