ASUS ROG NUC 970 Review
Meet the ROG NUC 970
The first Republic of Gamers NUC has arrived – Meet the ROG NUC 970
I’ll be honest: as soon as Intel and ASUS announced that the latter would be building and developing future NUC (Next Unit of Computing) PCs, I knew that a ROG-branded NUC was inevitable. Today, we are reviewing that NUC, the ROG NUC 970, the first Republic of Gamers NUC.
What we have here is a departure from Intel’s “NUC Extreme” concept. This isn’t a NUC that’s designed to accommodate desktop-grade graphics cards. What we have here is a “proper” NUC, a mini PC that has a tonne of gaming potential.
Previously, we have reviewed Intel’s NUC 11 Extreme and NUC 13 Extreme, both of which used Intel’s “NUC Compute Element” cards and supported desktop GPUs. This hardware support made these systems more comparable to mini ITX PCs than traditional NUCs. While they were smaller than mini-ITX PCs, they were large enough to make us question if this was a real NUC. That question simply isn’t there with the ROG NUC.
A truly mini gaming PC
Measuring in at 27 x 18 x 6cm, the ROG NUC is a proper mini PC. We have GPUs in our office that are longer and thicker than this PC, and the thing looks almost comically small beside a full-sized tower PC.
How has ASUS made its ROG NUC this small? The simple answer is that they have used mobile hardware to create this mini PC. This NUC pairs Nvidia GeForce RTX 40 series graphics with an Intel Meteor Lake processor with a combined TDP of under 200 watts. That’s what allows ASUS to make a PC that is this small.
A vertical stand is included with ASUS’ ROG NUC. This stand doesn’t use mechanical fasteners to attach to ASUS’ ROG NUC. Simply put, this system is too small and lightweight to require mechanical attachment.
ROG NUC 970 Specifications
As mentioned before, ASUS’ ROG NUC 970 features an Intel Meteor Lake processor and Nvidia GeForce RTX 40 series graphics. Specifically, the model that we are testing today has an Intel Ultra 9 185H CPU and a GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU. Included with this system is a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD and 32GB of DDR5-5600 memory.
This NUC can be upgraded with additional PCIe 4.0 SSDs and higher-capacity DDR5 memory modules. A lower-end version of ASUS’ ROC NUC 970 is also available.
ROG NUC 970 Specifications
CPU – Intel Ultra 9 185H CPU (cTDP 65W) (6 P-Cores + 8 E-Cores + 2 LP E-Cores)
GPU 1 – Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU (8GB) (115W + 25W Dynamic Boost)
GPU 2 – Integrated Intel ARC Graphics
Memory – 2x 16GB DDR5-5600 Memory Modules Included
Storage – 1TB of PCIe 4.0 Storage
Networking – WIFI 6E + 2.5Gb ethernet
More details about ASUS’ ROG NUC 970 are available on ASUS’ website.
Smaller than a console
Sony’s PlayStation 5 is a huge console, and the ROG NUC proves it. However, ASUS has created a system that’s smaller than Sony’s console and has more I/O options, more AI capabilities, and more powerful components. It’s worth noting that Sony only needs to cool a single SOC, whereas ASUS needs to cool discrete CPU and GPU components. Yes, both systems serve different purposes and have different price points, but it is nonetheless impressive what ASUS has achieved within the form factor.
ASUS ROG NUC Power Brick
One thing to note about the ROG NUC is that its power supply is not integrated into the system. Users will need to deal with a power brick. Thankfully, this can be easily hidden under a desk.
