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When Asus rescued Intel\u2019s NUC brand<\/a> of compact computers from the dumpster, I held out hope that the company might also<\/em> revive Intel\u2019s ambitious miniature gaming PCs. It did, but prepare for a little sticker shock \u2014 these systems may cost as much or more than a comparable gaming laptop.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The company\u2019s website currently lists two models of the ROG NUC<\/a>, with what Asus tells us are tentative prices of $1,629 and $2,199. The entry-level model sports an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H, Nvidia RTX 4060 graphics, 16GB of 5600MHz DDR5 RAM and 512GB of NVMe SSD storage, while the advanced config bumps that up to an Core Ultra 9 185H, RTX 4070, and 32GB \/ 1TB of RAM and storage respectively.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Since you can easily find Asus\u2019 popular Zephyrus G14 and G16 laptops with similar specs for that price or less \u2014 despite also getting a battery and screen \u2014 these aren\u2019t exactly the barebone budget gaming picks<\/a> that an Intel gaming NUC could sometimes have been in the past. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n But you do get decent connectivity in a box just two inches thick. There are six USB-A ports, four of them at 10Gbps speeds, an SD Express 8.0 card reader, a Thunderbolt 4 port with up to 12V fast charging for USB-C PD devices, 3.5mm headset, and 2.5Gbps Ethernet, in addition to two DisplayPort 1.4a sockets and an HDMI 2.1 port. Wirelessly, there\u2019s an Intel Killer Wi-Fi 6E AX1690i and Bluetooth 5.3. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Me, I would have liked more USB-C ports \u2014 and you\u2019ll note that it uses a 330-watt external DC power brick. It also comes with the vertical stand you see in the image atop this story.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n We still haven\u2019t seen what it looks like inside yet, but there\u2019s a single button on the rear to pop open the panel so you can swap RAM and add SSDs at a minimum. It comes with three M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4x4 slots, so adding lots of speedy storage should be easy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n