Crushing the Mac Mini: Asus Builds a Better Mini PC? NUC 14 Pro Review!

[@archiox0628]

Watching this on a NUC. And I'm not going back. I'm too old now to have enough attention span for heavy gaming, but this thing is more than enough for the (probably last) MMORPG I am invested on to play. Much like the things I've learned on this channel about choosing a right phone for the user's needs, a NUC is an option I found that happens to be for me vs a full rig. I work on mastering Audiobooks (as a side hustle), and this thing is as powerful or on par with the Mac mini M1 I use (supplied by the company I work at full time) for the same function.

[@SomeGadgetGuy]

It's really been fun watching the mini PC landscape evolve. Options for brutally powerful rigs or super low power productivity solutions, and we can still crack them open.

[@LouisDuran]

The new M4 based Mac Mini is pretty incredible. The M4 Pro version can do about 22K on Geekbench 6 Multi and the GPU performs about the same as a RTX 4060Ti or so.

[@allstar7610]

This was a good deep dive on the NUC. At the end of your reviews of mini PCs, I inch closer to it being my next PC purchase. Awesome review

[@GeorgeWhittam]

Love Mini PC’s, but can it run at nearly 100% throttle for hours on my desk under my mic and go entirely unnoticed like my M1 Mac Mini?

[@FAT8893]

@@GeorgeWhittam It depends on the fan operation. That's entirely on the brand.

[@dannyize]

Asus and other clone makers are well-known for their OS development and support. Also, their commitment to privacy, data protection, migration, and recovery. /sarcasm

[@cartmann227]

Yes

[@ecu4321]

Are you referring this against the latest m4 mac mini? Seems to be a handicap given the price, size and performance advantages of the m4.. and that it doesn’t even need a power brick to cheat its small size

[@hanklee3096]

pc guy can't watch that...

[@TheJohn8765]

I don't have a NUC but I did buy an Aoostar minipc last Dec with the 4870hs Ryzen 7. It's more than enough for the games I play and has slightly better performance than an ROG Ally (45 watt tdp). It crushes non-game, everyday stuff (32 gigs of ddr5 @ 6400 mt, and three m.2 SSD slots). Plus, it has an Oculink port when I eventually need more graphics power. Honestly, if you're not a heavy gamer, a minipc is just fine for pretty much everything you want to do on a PC. I'm never going back to a tower setup.

[@ManuelGrau]

Again, same problem as all the mini-pc that are being released lately: no Thunderbolt 5. What are they waiting for? TH5 doubles the bandwidth of TH4, it makes it perfect for external discrete GPUs. Right now, the only mini pc with thunderbolt 5 is the Mac Mini with M4 Pro chip.

[@davidburns8113]

If you want a Mac like experience too, you can install elementary OS or Deepin

[@Shaggy-839two]

Just as i was about to consider a mini-pc....

[@SomeGadgetGuy]

REALLY fun options to shop these days.

[@iglapsu88]

Very tempting! Good options to Apple Mac mini.

[@SomeGadgetGuy]

It's nice to see the competition. People forget that other products exist LOL

[@FAT8893]

Geekom sent an ASUS NUC? That is interesting. Maybe Geekom is looking for some inspiration for their new affordable mini PC line, just saying. Btw, I'm still happily rocking my two-year-old Phantom Canyon NUC. I know ASUS has launched the ROG NUC a few months ago, but my current NUC is still doing solid job. Also, NexDock at 9:43!

[@SomeGadgetGuy]

Nexdock for ALL my PC builds and projects 😁

[@Pedrinios]

Now you have another movie when you compare this Asus NAC 14 pro with amac mini m4

[@OeHomestead]

Crushing the Mac Mini... because it's the only other mini PC out there. There are other brands out there than apple.

[@Crustenscharbap]

This PC in a fanless Akasa case should be insane!

[@SomeGadgetGuy]

I REALLY need to play with some different enclosures.

[@DavidDuVivier]

Windows on x86 in a small form factor is nice... except for the Fön / mistral / hair-dryer level noise you have to put up with (including on laptops... even the almost always-off fan on my ASUS Chromebox 5 is irritating). Maybe in 5 years or so less power-hungry processors will be available to solve this problem (or maybe x86 will be gone).

[@SomeGadgetGuy]

ARM is already there. The fan activity on my Surface Laptop is SHOCKINGLY quiet compared to intel systems, and the CPU performance is already in the ballpark of second gen Core Ultra.

[@Gregoriosplace]

Great video. I am new to this whole "Mini PC" thing. I assume that they can do whatever a Tower PC can do. I keep seeing the MINISFORUM Mini PC's mentioned at the top of nearly everyone's list, including user comments. Also, if you are considering upgrading, isn't that telling you that your motherboard needs upgraded too? Thanks, and great job!!

[@akin242002]

Outside of extreme GPU needs, mini-PCs are great! They have lower power use based on TDP. Usually, 25-65 TDP. Tower desktops take up 300 to 700 TDP with a dedicated GPU. The CPUs are excellent for their year, adjustable RAM, adjustable SSD, and a very good selection of ports. Also, the small size makes them easy to hide or move around.

[@SomeGadgetGuy]

It's a high end laptop chip, so you can comfortably do anything a good business grade laptop can do. It wont have the same graphics processing capabilities as a gaming laptop. There are several brands putting out good hardware, Minisforum, Beelink, Geekom, Asus. All with different designs, pros and cons. Upgrading is nuanced. Apple is training their customers that the WHOLE machine needs to be swapped, and that's often not the reality for most consumers. It's wasteful. For example, I'm playing with on device language models. My machine had 16GB of RAM, but that really wasn't enough to unpack a local AI, so I doubled it. The processing power wasnt an issue, the RAM was. That's what older macbook and mac mini customers are running into. Apple's AI also needs more RAM, but you cant add more. Or another example, my friend just switched data analysis jobs, and uses a TON of web and browser tools. He didn't need a new CPU, but keeping everything running meant a TON more RAM. He went from 16 to 64, and that was still cheaper than a whole new machine. Or lastly, just backing up family photos and videos. I really dislike having external drives taking up space on a desk. Something like this, I can pop in a bigger system drive AND add a bigger SSD. Often at more competitive prices than Apple will charge for an internal storage upgrade.

[@Gregoriosplace]

@@SomeGadgetGuy Great advice and appreciate all the information. Thank you!

[@Gregoriosplace]

@@SomeGadgetGuy RAM, as you point out, is often the easiest, cheapest, and most likely fix. I can't afford anything Apple. Besides, I don't like the proprietary stuff associated with Apple products.

[@Gregoriosplace]

@@SomeGadgetGuy Also, I prefer getting a prebuilt machine or at least a configurable one for warranty reasons. I want something that works straight out of the box. In my younger days I used to build my own PC's, early windows era, but these days, I just want a plug and play device.

[@SukrinoRahman]

Could probably mod this to attach a GPU in it?

[@DavidNgo86]

Arrow Lake has an NPU included like Meteor Lake

[@akin242002]

Watching this on an Intel NUC 13 Pro.

[@MrCaptnKaracho]

Two videos ago: stop watching everything through the Apple-glasses! This video: this mini pc crushes the Mac mini. Nice....

[@Docfly62]

Those 2 statements ARE NOT conflicting each other sir

[@israellewis5484]

2 things can be true simultaneously.

[@ChrisPollard]

I have a someone ancient (5th gen i5) upcycled office PC that I use as my living room media PC (that I'm also watching/typing this from) and the power supply fan bearings are starting to give the old telltale sounds of imminent failure. I've been thinking a little NUC-style system would be a perfect replacement ... but there are so many sketchy looking companies out there selling them that it's tough to choose one because you're never sure if there will ever be support for it if you need it at some point. Asus just might have a winning formula here.

[@SomeGadgetGuy]

I keep a 9th gen Intel NUC behind our TV. I think a more current NUC might be just the fit for you 👍

[@ChrisPollard]

@@SomeGadgetGuy Yeah, my problem is my own head. I look at it and weigh that against just building another tower that I can expand, swap parts, add or remove things, plus I have a couple of 6TB full size SATA drives in the tower for storage I would either have to put in an enclosure or build a NAS and down the rabbit holes I go! Squirrel brain is a serious condition for someone who has trouble seeing the world in black and white. I blame those Choose Your Own Adventure books when I as a kid and not being satisfied until I'd gone down every single variation and ending. LOL But in reality, one of these NUCs is probably the right choice and would run Kubuntu (current living room OS) or Mnt just fine with a couple of browsers.

[@sc9433]

in this day and age, any mini pc that doesnt come with an Oculink Port will automatically gets a "No".

[@SomeGadgetGuy]

I'll be more concerned by that recommendation when I see ANY traction on occulink cracking into real consumer market share. Otherwise, until that happens, I feel we've got good options for different consumers who have different needs.

[@israellewis5484]

Oculink would need to gain traction first. Its good on paper, but convenience is more important right now to people over whats outright "better". Only handling data over Pcie means you have to switch off the device to unplug the GPU. That is an inconvience and breaks workflow.

[@FAT8893]

@@sc9433 Thunderbolt is still more popular than Oculink, so best of luck with it. Also, the only reason Oculink exist is because of AMD.

[@druxpack8531]

this aged like milk: 3800+ single and 14000+ multi geekbench for the $600 base M4...bye bye nucky pooh....

[@knofi7052]

AMD version, please!

[@TheBeardedLibertarian]

As long as you run Linux on it

[@S-I-R-E]

Nice little thing, roo bad Asus made it. I'm never buying anything from Asus unless a miracle is pulled off.

[@boss133749]

Dollar for Dollar, is the Mac mini still cranking out the most powerful computer for the money? That’s what it looks like from the scores and the price. (Just getting to the fan section. That is something you never get with the Mac mini. I have run Final Cut Pro 4k 60 and never heard the fan) I think I’m a pretty low need consumer. But I bought the dang near base model Mac mini (just the ram upgrade) for $650. I already have a couple of external hard drives, so I don’t worry about storage, and I think for that price, it’s hard to not recommend Mac.

[@boss133749]

I will say I miss not being able to to play Diablo 4 and Guild Wars 2.

[@israellewis5484]

Its an Arm Mac right? Makes sense it's still top performance

[@BebopKoala]

Intel 13th and 14th gen CPUs have stability issues. Hard pass.

[@FAT8893]

​@@BebopKoala I believe this one runs on Core Ultra CPU. Also, stability issues mainly happen with desktop CPU.

[@billyp4850]

Only in the full desktop versions, these Core Ultras are rock solid.

[@jaj18]

core ultra series is shit.

[@FAT8893]

@@jaj18 My sister's brand new laptops runs on Core Ultra 5 CPU. Even though I'm a huge sucker for Windows ARM, I'm impressed with its performance.