ASUS NUC 14 Pro AI Mini PC, Ultra 7 155H (16C/22T, Up to 4.8GHz) Mini Desktop, 32GB DDR5 RAM, 1TB PCIe 4 SSD, Intel Arc GPU, Type C 3.2, 8K, HDR, WiFi 6E

This device replaced my 5 year-old, larger desktop. My motivation was to have a quiet, small form factor and more powerful machine for home use. The initial Windows 11 boot up was smooth and I easily installed all the applications I used previously. This included a 2004 version of Quicken and 2010 MS desktop. To increase the overall memory capacity I added a separate 500GB SSD, see photo, to increase the overall memory to 1TB. In addition, I purchased a CD drive to assist in application installation and some Thunderbolt 4 to USB 3.2 adapters. You will also need to purchase a power cord to connect the transformer to you home outlet. This evidently frees Intel from having to have different version for international sales. All these items are available on Amazon My current setup Front USB 3.2 – unused USB 3.2 – unused Back: Thunderbolt 4 - SSD Thunderbolt 4 with USB adapter - camera HDMI – monitor HDMI – unused USB 3.2 – mouse USB 2.0 – keyboard RJ45 - Unused Wireless – printer What I really like is the large number of high performance connections. This provides a lot of flexibility for new devices. For example, I can easily connect my slide scanner or CD drive to the front when needed. I’m not a gamer, so I can comment on that performance aspect. The most processing intensive application I perform is 35mm slide scanning. This requires multiple scans per slide, specifically visible light, Infrared, for dust removal and a third scan to remove inherent scan jitter. The scan time is much less than my previous I5-8400 series processor. It’s also very quiet, even when the fan runs occasionally. Overall it looks sharp, performs well and is very well made.

And I do mean WOW! I had my 10 yr+ old Tower gave up the ghost (thermal failure due to dust buildup I think). In shopping for a replacement I ran across ASUS's NUC (Next Unit of Computing) line and chose this one. Roughly 4" square and 1.5 inches tall it is an amazing piece of technology. The tall version allows for an 1 additional SATA hard or SSD drive and one 2242 NvME SSD. I put a two TB drive in each one adding another $150 after purchase. It has more connections than I envision using. I won't belabor the number and type connections. That's in the description. This unit is FAST. This actually the first "desktop" computer I have ever had and that is nice; easy to change connections and when freed from those connections you can open the chassis without tools. No need to open it except for drive changes and adding more memory. It comes with 32 GB of memory, more than enough for the average or even agressive user. The Thunderbolt C ports are very fast and continue to amaze me when I hook the appropriate drive up. Mine runs 24 x 7 as sort of a "home server" and it hasn't missed a beat. If you are shopping for a new computer, give this a good look. After 30 years in the computer business, I have never been so impressed with a personal computer. This is a must, must buy and receives my highest recommendation!!

Do you dislike big box computers with their piles of cables? I certainly do! That is why I was attracted to this Intel Nuc. Take a look at the pictures attached to this review. Only two cables attached! An HDMI cable to the monitor and a power cable to the Nuc. Well yes, the monitor also has a power cable. So there is actually three cables. Still a very clean setup. I added a Dell Bluetooth Keyboard and Mouse combo KM7321W which is working great with my Nuc. A bluetooth keyboard and mouse combo keeps the three USB A ports open and available and banishes unsightly keyboard and mouse cables. This Nuc also has two super fast Thunderbolt 3 / USB C ports. One on the front one on the back. The back also contains an HDMI port and an ethernet port. The Nuc is protected by a three year warranty. The i7 Nucs have plenty of power to browse the web, edit photos with Affinity Photo, design posters with Affinity Designer and work with Microsoft Office. I have my Nuc connected to a Dell 4k 32 inch curved monitor. It is a great platform for watching 4k youtube videos. My brother connected an external gpu (Graphic Processing Unit) to his i7 Intel Nuc. He has been playing graphically intense games without an issue. Thanks to Amazon Prime you won't have to wait long to receive an Intel Nuc if you so choose.

I just got this item recently to replace an old Windows 10 computer that couldn't be upgraded. It does everything my wife and I need, including handling almost a dozen USB devices (printer, scanner, external sound card, etc.). All my software works, including some things I couldn't get working on the old computer. I like the fact that it has an Intel Core Ultra 7 processor (3800 MHz,16 cores, 22 threads), and the technology overall is US and Taiwan, rather than China. I got it with 32GB memory and 1TB of storage. It even has room to accept a second SATA hard drive. This is not your run-of-the-mill mini-computer, but a serious desktop replacement. It has ports for 4 monitors (2 HDMI, 2 Thunderbolt) and supposedly can natively handle up to 4K total monitor space. I suspect it could handle more monitors by using DisplayLink; I'm using the two HDMI ports but then using a DisplayLink adapter through a USB-A port for the third monitor, and that works fine. There are 7 USB ports (including the two Thunderbolt ports), 2.5gbps ethernet, wifi and Bluetooth, so plenty of connectivity. I haven't used all those capabilities, but what I've used has been flawless. One thing missing is there's no jack for audio, but that wasn't a problem for us because we were already using a Focusrite external sound card. I guess they assume most people are using USB audio these days. It comes with Windows 11 Pro. Setup was easy, it was even easy to set up a local account without connecting to a Microsoft account (maybe Microsoft has decided to stop pushing the online accounts so hard). It has a fan, but I never hear it running. Most of the time, the case is cool to the touch. Overall, very satisfied with this purchase.

So far this is looking like a great investment. My wife does not game, so it was perfect for her desktop and replaced an older i5 that was actually running like new from 10 years gone. 10 years seems like a good benchmark. I'll let you know then that comes around.

I setup this NUC 14 pro with a single 24 inch ASUS PC Monitor(10yr old PA24Q proart monitor). The fan runs on high making some noise, when more than 60 chrome browser tabs are open(as a test). The PC blows warm air over the ports and connecting wires, which causes worry about long term reliability. After purchase, i read some online tech website review which mentions that unlike NUC 14 Pro+, NUC 14 pro has a throttled TDP or power compared to 65w Rating of i7-155H in NUC 14 pro +(which has aluminum chassis and better heat dissipation setup). This particular NUC 14pro variant is extra tall (for additional SSD), but the increased space does not translate into better heat dissipation. "Air intake/ventilation grill is open only on one side, which I think due to some pc parts blocking the other side(which closed dummy grill in the chassis. I want to keep it, but have almost made up my mind now to return it. The main reason for return is not the inefficient thermal setup or the alleged throttled lower power processor, but the BIOS error warnings and having to opt to start with previous settings warnings everything. The startup has been slow/problematic(even before the BIOS errors started after startup). The power button needs to be held for a few seconds for the PC to start , as it will not start with a single press of the power button!!?? Not sure if this is an isolated issue, or a common issue on all NUC 14 pros. For a total cost of ~USD$1200, which is close to what a 2024 Dell XPS 13 would cost during regular sales, I expected more from NUC 14 pro(for the money), in terms of stability, heat management, considering that it does not come with a screen, speakers, touchpad/keyboard, or battery to save work in case of power failure. Those are additional expenses. These 3rd party assembled NUC 14pro seem to be over priced, especially considering the inefficient hear dissipation. I am wondering how much heat/fan noise will be generated(along with potentially lower long term reliability) if I connect 4 screens to the available ports on the back of this NUC 14pro. There is no ASUS branding on the NUC 14 pro. ASUS by itself seems to selling only NUC 14 pro +, but I would worry about lobg term reliability of those as well. I hope to update this review with more photos/information.

I am completely amazed at how compact this setup is. Especially considering it has an I7 processor and room for a 2nd hard drive. Sure, it doesn’t have any CD ROM or an abundance of USB ports, etc, but who actually uses CD’s or DVD’s anymore. You could always get external if you needed it. The only thing I added was a 7 port external USB hub mounted remotely. This is one single complaint I have and that’s related to upgrading to Windows11. This came with the Windows 10 system Partition locked. Because of this, every time I tried to do the free upgrade to W11 I would get an error that my machine didn’t meet the minimum requirements, when it in fact does. I went through a lot, and a lot of time, trying to get it to upgrade. It also wouldn’t upgrade to the latest version of W10 so something had to be done. I searched for a solution and even went to Microsoft’s NUC site for help. Nothing covered it. I wound up buying a second hard drive that was blank and I was able to manually load Windows 11 on to it. Right after getting it all loaded up on the fresh drive, I finally found a YouTube video that showed the steps needed to unlock the System Partition. It is all up and running now but I can say that what should have been a quick, simple, download and upgrade, was a huge pain. Especially when everything about the upgrade is automatic when you first boot the computer, but fails right at the end of the installation.

I am a serious user of NUCs. I own a number of 10th Gen i5s, and I'm very happy with them. But this 12th Gen i5 just absolutely blows me away! I immediately ran my benchmarks on it and got results fully FIVE TIMES those on my 10-i5s! (YMMV) Intel's mechanical work on this is the very best I've ever seen on the NUC product line; well-framed, with lots of very nice, useful features (such as dual HDMI and dual thunderbolt, sockets for both NVMe and SATA, and a large HDD bay for large, high-capacity 2.5" drives that are too thick for laptop bays). I'm just about speechless. I have not tried out the 2.5Gbps NIC yet, but you can bet I will! Calling this thing anything less than "outstanding" would just be an insult.