ASUS has made a big bet by taking over the NUC (Next Unit of Computing) business after Intel abandoned it last year. Its latest offering, the NUC 14 Pro+, shows it’s serious about making that bet pay off.

The idea behind NUCs is to provide the flexibility and performance of a desktop machine but in a small form factor. A noble aim. Unfortunately that inevitably means compromise — either in performance, connectivity, or customisability. Often all three.

The 14 Pro+ which has an entry level price of $1,499 aims to answer the performance question by offering up to a Core Ultra 9 185H processor (this was the model we reviewed) and Intel Arc graphics acceleration in its attractively designed 144mm x 112mm x 41mm case. The anodised aluminium box is a big step up from the plastic exteriors of most NUCs on the market, and gives the 14 Pro+ a professional look as well as handling heat better (a necessity with the Ultra 9 CPU). It also incorporates “AI Boost” — an NPU designed to accelerate AI applications which are notoriously demanding.

In terms of connectivity, ASUS has gone all out. On the back of the box you’ll find two Thunderbolt 4 ports with DisplayPort, two USB type A ports (one of them USB 3.2 Gen 2), two HDMI ports, and a 2.5Gb ethernet port if you’re into wired networking. Conveniently located on the front you’ll find two more USB-A type 3.2 ports and a USB-C. You’re unlikely to find yourself complaining of a lack of ports.

The machine also supports Wi-Fi 6 with automatic sensing. When we plugged it in and started up it configured itself on the network within seconds — very cool.

As for customisation, this is where it gets fun. ASUS touts the machine as offering “toolless” chassis access, which isn’t quite true but near enough. Two sliders and a rotating lock that will need a screwdriver to turn (unless you have mighty fingernails) enable you to slide the bottom off the box. Then you lift up the fan to get access to the memory and two m-key NVMe upgrade slots if you want more storage.

If you’re unhappy with the 2.5Gb ethernet, a 10Gb adapter plugged into one of those Thunderbolt ports ought to fix that. Likewise external GPUs for better gaming performance are a plug and play away.

In use, the NUC 14 Pro+ performed as you might expect for a PC with those kind of specs. None of the tasks we threw at it seemed to tax it seriously, though serious gamers may be underwhelmed.

Its attractive compact design and the presence of two HDMI ports immediately suggested a use for the box as a media centre, so we set it up in the living room hooked up to a big screen. In this configuration it worked well (though the Core Ultra 9 was obviously wasted). Unfortunately the fan had a tendency to spin up even under this relatively light workload, and the noise was sufficiently distracting that we can’t recommend its use as a media streaming device.

ASUS is clearly pitching the NUC 14 Pro+ as a premium entry in the NUC market, and that is reflected in the pricing. Deals we could find for this configuration online hovered around the $2000 mark. It’s also available with Ultra 5 or Ultra 7 processors, and even as a bare-bones kit you configure how you want, to suit your budget.

If attractive industrial design matters, and you’re looking for the absolute top-of-the-line performance — especially for AI, like running an LLM locally — this might be a good option. For people with less onerous requirements it might be worth saving a little money for the Ultra 7 CPU — which for many applications is not far behind the Ultra 9. The lower heat output of the Ultra 7 might make it more practical as a media centre too.

Rating: 8/10

Pros

Looks great, feels solid
High performance for its form factor
Very easy to set up as is
Easy (even fun) to open up and expand
Plenty of connection options

Cons

Pricey when fully specced
Fan noise a bit of an issue, at least with the Ultra 9 CPU