Intel’s NUC, short for “Next Unit of Computing” PC, was supposed to offer pint-sized PCs with desktop-level customization capabilities inside a premium chassis. But the combination of limited customization options and expensive price largely doomed NUCs like the Intel NUC 9 Extreme (“Ghost Canyon”). So Intel handed over the NUC design to Asus in 2023. Since then, ROG NUCs have proven particularly attractive to most gamers with limited desk space.
The ROG NUC 16 is the most powerful and most console-like NUC Asus has ever produced. It retains the same basic shell as the previous NUC 15, but now includes Intel’s refreshed Aero Lake CPU, the Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX. It’s packing up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 laptop GPU (so not the big desktop version that eats up a whopping 360W of power on its own), and it can be configured with up to 128GB of RAM.
And if you’re wondering how and where you can get it, Asus hasn’t indicated US pricing details. The price of the mini PC will start at 29,999 Chinese Yuan, which comes to approximately $4,420. The new “Moonlight” white version costs even more, around $4,490 in US dollars. Asus promised that the black version will arrive this month, while the white version won’t arrive until June. There is no exact launch date for either version. The previous ROG NUC 15 currently starts at $3,400 with a low-end Intel Core Ultra 7 255HX CPU, an RTX 5060 GPU, and 16GB of RAM. The version with a high-end Aero Lake CPU, RTX 5080, and just 16GB of on-device RAM costs around $5,300.
With the Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX, the ROG NUC 16 promises better performance than the ROG NUC 15 with the same RTX 5080 GPU. However, Asus’s own site shows that benchmarks like 3DMark’s “Time Spy” amount to only a 3% uplift compared to the previous generation. How well you perform will depend on the game.
The ongoing RAM apocalypse has driven up prices on all consumer electronics. Gaming devices, which rely on more memory and storage than your average lightweight device, are bearing the brunt of the losses. On paper, the ROG NUC 16 sounds attractive, but there are some missing puzzle pieces that Asus hasn’t installed yet. On its store page, the GPU flavors available in different configurations of the ROG NUC 16 are also not listed.
The ROG NUC 16 includes an updated stand for standing the PC vertically or horizontally, the latter acting as a cradle that keeps the computer off the desk. Asus promises that you’ll get even better performance when rotating the PC compared to standing up.
Asus is also bringing back its ROG Strix Scar 18 gaming laptop for 2026. Like the ROG NUC 16, it’s also been upgraded with an Intel Core Ultra 290HX CPU, and now packs a full 4K, 240Hz Mini LED display. I particularly appreciated the 2025 model’s toolless access panel that made swapping RAM and SSDs easier than ever. Over email, an Asus spokesperson told Gizmodo that the ROG Strix Scar 18 won’t be available until the second or third quarter of this year, and that pricing will be shared around release. Like all gaming hardware in 2026, don’t expect it to be cheaper than the 2025 model.
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