The Most Powerful NUC Yet! ASUS NUC 14 Pro+ Review

In this video we check out the ASUS NUC 14 Pro+ mini PC and how it compares to the competition. There's been a redesign and some changes to the feature set to go with the launch of the first Core Ultra 9 185H NUC mini PC.
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00:00 - The ASUS NUC
01:19 - Specs & Features
04:25 - Opening It Up
05:46 - Benchmarks
07:51 - Games & Emulators
10:37 - Video Editing
11:00 - BIOS, Power, Temps & Noise
13:00 - Conclusion

[@unknown183]

The asking price is going to destroy this product. You can build a compact PC, not as small, obviously but with that price budget, still have way better specs/performance. No way. Unjustified, NUC.

[@JosephSeed]

Or even just laptop with RTX :)

[@unknown183]

@@JosephSeed I don't knock laptops but I just knock on how hot they can get sometimes. We need liquid cooling laptops in our lives.

[@artc1688]

EXACTLY!!! I don't know why people would buy a Ferrari when they can put four TURBOs in their Datsun 210 Wagon!!! I don't get it!!! 😛

[@TrusteftTech]

@@artc1688 Wait...which is the Ferrari and which is the Datsun for you?

[@unknown183]

@@artc1688 Money runs like water for the select few. That's who this is targeted for.

[@ernstoud]

Saw the price, skipped the review.

[@TimHunold]

same

[@Bajicoy]

It's a solid review and really shows how much better value Reatan and Beelink mini pc are.

[@CtotheV]

Nice it has new ARC graphics. But for the price, I'll stick with my NAB9 for better value for under $400.

[@Bajicoy]

The engineering of the cooler is really impressive how they are using a single fan to sweep air over the ram/ssd and then the opposite side of the computer in a mini pc this small. Could not do that with an axial fan. And the hinge is super impressice. It's just way too expensive and cumbersome for my diy projects. I wonder if Geekom will learn from Asus and redesign their mini pc like this and then everyone can have a more affordable version.

[@TheSektor13]

Got to love Intel for optimizing for 3d mark and not for games. Also the price from another galaxy !

[@Robtech]

Yeah, I guess it'll fool those not doing actual game comparisons.

[@akin242002]

Yeah. To be on par or slightly worse in real life performance has me 2nd guessing those time spy bench marks.

[@drnagajima]

I was looking at this unit on ASUS's website since Jan and emailed them where I could get this model - they said it would take time, so I went ahead and bought the Minisforum UM790Pro and maxed it out at 64gb DDR5. Going by this review, I didnt miss anything becasue my fan noise is as good as zero, my windows boots in 2 sec, graphics are great, USB ports are a plenty - overall I'm extremly satisfied with my decision based on your reviews of the UM790 Pro. Thank you once again!

[@artc1688]

Awesome!!! Fan speed can be adjusted based on your requirements... it is STRANGE why the platform supports up to 96GB and Minisforum is only capable of supporting up to 64GB??? hmmmm

[@ColinPatrickWeiss]

do you do any video editing? looking to get 790 or 890 pro and wondering if it can really handle 4k video.

[@Urosaurus]

Nice review, nice redesign. Need a loan now. Cheers.

[@samgao]

I kept trying to clean the dust off my screen then I realized it was his lens LOL But what I walked away from this review is this: Keep my 13th Gen Vivid Canyon (Silver/White/Aluminum) Edition of the NUC with my Razor eGPU chassis. Running a 980 Pro 2TB, and 32GB of 3200 CL20 RAM. Running Big Box & Steam and it fills my Home Arcade perfectly.

[@jjiiinn]

is the wifi card upgradable ? or its soldered to the board ??

[@ashneel]

Like a laptop without the screen/battery but you pay the same price

[@theopendoor3716]

Nice Intel hair dryer.

[@JosephSeed]

At least it's great Mac Mini competitor on which you can actually play all games.

[@commenter6441]

I was waiting for this one but is it really worth the small noticeable improvement in performance over a Beelink ser8? Along with about $800 more? Don't think I can justify that.

[@dave_r]

I dunno... there are a number of things to like about this system, even if you don't plan on using an external GPU, for example, and yes, if the primary purpose is gaming then one would almost certainly be better off with a less expensive AMD-based unit. But what bothers me very much for the price is that the storage options are the nvme OS drive, and an ability to add a 22x42 card (which I assume will be SATA). That's just not enough - that second drive should also have been a 22x80 nvme option, given the price of this. (And it remains to be seen if ASUS genuinely fixes their repair service issues, so that the 3-year warranty is worth having.) Still, this is an interesting and different new mini, and I'm glad you gave the review more time.

[@SamungVirtua]

I bought a chromebook on ebay for $40 with full function USBC. Paired it with a $60 used 2k 16 inch portable monitor. Not as powerful but its all i need.

[@artc1688]

I got a used PC for $5. It is SO much cheaper than this NUC!!! It does not do much, but it is SO much cheaper.

[@74357175]

Great review! Given that the ASUS NUC 14 Pro (without the plus) and the ASUS NUC 14 Pro+ have nearly identical specs (if you choose the same processor), what is the price difference due to? Is it the aluminum construction? E.g. the 155H Pro vs Pro+ price difference is some $130.

[@74357175]

Another benefit of the "Pro" version (no plus) is that it has Intel vPro support.

[@Robtech]

Basically a whole new design inside with the board and cooling to accommodate the jump in power draw. The 14 Pro is almost identical to the 13 Pro (similar board, cooling etc.).

[@alexfleener]

The Asus NUC era starts now!

[@tttomtxhc]

Asus is garbage

[@keithframe3489]

asus is kinda sus

[@xanderx51]

​@@tttomtxhctech is good, just as long as it stays good and you never have to deal with them.

[@danielgriffith8911]

NUC is a dead term... they are MiniPCs.

[@74357175]

What's the benefit of the Ultra 9 (185H) vs the Ultra 7 (155H)? The 185H seems to be a higher powered version of the same core layout. Is that basically it? AFAICT the NPU and other features are all the same.

[@Robtech]

Faster CPU and GPU clock and also higher power draw. Very similar.

[@donaldnemesis393]

i like how it cost like 2x more than the ryzen 7940hs mini pc

[@ColinPatrickWeiss]

love this machine but man, the power block is as big as the machine. The um890 pro has such a small power supply which is a huge plus who want a mini pc for travel.

[@Tintifax1979]

What's you take on the ASUS NUC14 Pro+ (135H) vs. the Beelink SER8 for the use-case of an HTPC (incl. mild casual gaming, non AAA). Ignore the driver "issues" on the Beelink and go for it, or accept the potential higher temp and noise on the NUC 14 Pro+ but have a decent BIOS and driver support? Also BT on the Beelink could be an issue for >3m connections with a gamepad?

[@Robtech]

Hmm depends on what you can put up with. Though drivers you can find online from the manufacturers and some of them eventually make their way into Windows update. The main one you'd be using is AMD Adrenaline on the SER8 to update the graphics driver. BIOS support is limited, but I have heard Beelink sometimes releases BIOS updates, although you might have to check on the forums if there is one. The wireless range is a problem. Hard to tell if the unit would be as bad as mine. You could possibly use a USB Bluetooth dongle if it drops out.

[@Tintifax1979]

​@@Robtech I can wait a bit longer with my decision to buy a new HTPC, but I guess all brands except the big names have the same issue with update frequency, etc.. May it be drivers or firmware. Have you tried the NUC 14 also with the Core 5 or only the Core 9? My hope would be the Core 5 does better in max. temp and noise levels.

[@alexfleener]

Can't wait to see Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 mini PC

[@J0ermungand]

I see now what you meant about Intel GPU performance being intriguing. I'm quite surprised it's getting the FPS it does. Also wondering if the difference in synthetic benchmark scores vs actual gaming FPS is down to drivers or some other hardware limitation (like maybe memory bandwidth) that limits real world performance.

[@Robtech]

Lack of driver and game optimisations for ARC would be my guess, as it goes both ways.

[@mrchico2621]

Any reason why you don't test Cyberpunk on these minis anymore?

[@Robtech]

It's 3.5 years old now. I prefer to look at newer games as time passes.

[@mrchico2621]

@@Robtech The first 4 titles you tested aren't exactly newer games 😂 CP is a great benchmark game for these little systems, probably more so than League of Legends which will run on anything. But it's up to you ofc 👍

[@Robtech]

Okay, I'll consider bringing it back

[@roqeyt3566]

Great review! This could've been a great device. I think we're all in agreement that the Asus+Intel tax are egregious though 😅 500!! For 32+1tb!

[@joaocardoso9031]

Why not comparing with minisforum hx99g or hx100?

[@Robtech]

Different form factor and the HX99G has a discrete graphics card. The ROG NUC is the one to compare against (which I did).

[@danielgriffith8911]

compare with AtomMan X7 Ti

[@74357175]

Now that these chips have NPUs, are there any AI-related benchmarks worth running?

[@Robtech]

I'm not aware of a standardised test that can be used across the AMD 8000 series and Intel's latest for direct comparisons. Hopefully something pops up soon.

[@74357175]

@@Robtech opportunity to start innovating on AI benchmarks, I guess. Even if it's just running a small Llama model on a fixed prompt and measuring tokens per second

[@bakakafka4428]

No high model I presume. Shame, I love my 2.5" drives, cheap and cool.

[@Robtech]

Seems only in the lower end, not the Pro+ model.

[@MorganEdgy]

Why the fk do people dislike the video for the price? He's not the one selling them 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@shadowbanned4606]

The Most Powerful NUC Jet!

[@Urosaurus]

Is that a USB-C 3.2 Gen 2x2 Port (20 Gb/s)?

[@Robtech]

On the front? Yeah

[@Urosaurus]

@@Robtechthanks! Good spot for a Samsung T9.

[@MrPir84free]

To be honest, if you are getting 150, 200, 400, whatever significant more frames per second than your machine can output to the monitor, does it really matter ?

[@CallMeCJorDandy]

Please do a revieww i3 - i5 cores. I think its the best temperature wise cores for mini PC's (in engineering term). Because its one main thing why all computer is getting rusty fast: **HEAT** 🔥😆❤

[@CallMeCJorDandy]

8:09 Yay , finally new character ! Thank you 😂❤

[@sativagirl1885]

Every Stooge needs a #NUC.

[@andrewvickers4487]

The price is a bad joke, unless you're rich and stupid enough to enjoy paying 100% more for 10% improvement :)

[@akin242002]

Whoa! $860 for the barebones and $1,399 for a fully built one. Way overpriced for the mini-PC market. Keep in mind that most new mini-PCs with 32GB of DDR5 RAM and 1TB cost around $870 fully built.

[@user-bf2ls1ld5d]

всё-таки надо подбирать более реалистичные настройки графики, никто же не будет играть в 20-40фпс.

[@matthewgaines10]

Bang for buck, give me a AMD NUC any day.

[@skg901]

Not worth it. Better get the NUC 13 instead

[@akin242002]

Yep! Got my Intel Nuc 13 Pro last year bare bones for $625. It is a coincidence that I used the same SSD that the fully built NUC 14 Pro has (Samsung 980 Pro 1TB). Then, I added 64GB of DDR4 RAM. Total cost was $870. No way would I have paid $1,399 when the BeeLink SER7 has dropped to $550.

[@avidwriter2882]

$860 and they can't even put wifi 7? Gen 3? Bruh

[@ShaneMcGrath.]

Nope, Not happy they ruined NUC. They have taken away one of the ONLY reasons I liked the Intel NUC's, Consumer infra red(CIR) so I can use universal remote to turn it on. I use my NUC under TV as a HTPC so being able to turn on with remote from complete power off was a main selling feature for me. I don't care if it's only 1% that use the feature or whatever BS their marketing will say, Using that analogy we could say not many businesses that use these at shop front need 8 core cpu's either yet there they are, So please bring back the infra red ASUS, Even if it's on some new Ultra Pro + model or whatever you want to call it. Looks Like I'll be stuck on NUC 11 enthusiast for many years.

[@Aryan-le7bs]

mac minis are far better in this, cost almost half.

[@shadowbanned4606]

Planned obsolescence scam.

[@Chris.Brisson]

Yawn (at this price).

[@shadowbanned4606]

Performance is crap. Price is a scam.

[@avidwriter2882]

What really happened? I'm guessing money.

[@Robtech]

Coming in an upcoming video

[@TimHunold]

The novelty of "small" comes with significant price and performance penalties.

[@SuperStareGry]

So much money for nothing more.

[@bazwillrun]

Not quiet...not interested

[@MarkConstable]

Nope, gotta have 2x 2.5GbE nics (or, better still, 5GbE) to get my money. Nope2, gotta have 2x M.2 2280 PCIe4. This model is useless.

[@artc1688]

Market Research indicated lesser than 0.5% of mini PC users need 2 NICs if you really need it, buy a USB dongle

[@MarkConstable]

@@artc1688 That's partly because most miniPCs do not have 2 nics. I guess I'm one of the 0.5% that will only ever buy a device with at LEAST 2 nics.

[@MrPir84free]

@@artc1688 Oddly enough, the mini-PC's that have dual NICs built in all tend to be lower CPU choices ; aimed more or less at the soft-router market. I have several models that have dual NICs in it; most with N100's, N305's, and N200's (the N200's have dual GB ethernet. ) . I think it's because one does not need dual NIC's in a higher end mini-PC as those are typically aimed at someone that wants to play games, not load up virtualization or router software.

[@TrusteftTech]

Potentially no power cord. No 3.5mm jack. Price. Three very good reasons for me to never buy one (if I had the money). The funny thing is that the price is the least important. How much of a cheap ass do you have to be to not include the power cord for your computer? Disgusting. DISGUSTING! The overall performance looks very good, though obviously we are talking about Intel graphics driver support so who knows how bad new and old games run on this. I would like to see very old Windows titles (DX10, DX9, if not older) run on these computers. I have no doubt that they will run on anything AMD or Nvidia (iGPU, GPU), but Intel...not so much. Also with Intel you never know for how long they will keep releasing drivers. It's not unheard of for them to stop after a year or two at most. Good luck with that. The thermal performance is very good, though the last 30 min load kind of kills it. Brand new reaching 104C...yeah. Which makes that Beelink SER8 PC look very impressive with its 79C. I assume you did not try to open the other side to check how easy it is to clean the CPU fan and replace the thermal pad if needed. I have to say, as a unit it is impressive, but when you factor in the negative parts....it is hard to recommend from me. Thanks for the review man!

[@ByteMeCompletely]

ASUS makes toys. And they're customer service sucks.

[@quake3video]

hard pass on your videos for deleting my comment in the past back when there was a 4800u shortage, you can delete this comment too if you like :\

[@Robtech]

KZbin has basic moderation on by default which limits whatever KZbin is unhappy with. I don't delete comments unless it's a personal attack, but you do you 🤷‍♂️

[@mrchico2621]

Yeah it's KZbin doing that. Loads of mine get deleted and I don't say anything too bad (mostly lol).

[@quake3video]

@@Robtech thats fair lol, did you delete or unlist any old videos because I am sure you did a review of the ASUS PN50?

[@quake3video]

@@mrchico2621 lol it probs was youtube

[@Robtech]

Yes I've unpublished about 100 videos I thought were bad due to the testing methodology used, poor editing, low quality b-roll etc. They were no longer receiving views, so I didn't think they would be missed. Took me a long time to get a review format I think is acceptable.

[@Lionheart1188]

No thanks, I rather an AMD based APU mini PC.