ASUS NUC 14 Pro+ Silver 2024

The ASUS NUC 14 Pro+ is a tiny productivity beast with a Core Ultra 9 and 32GB RAM. Gaming is a hard no at 13.2 out of 100. Worth it for compact workstations, but shop around because prices swing by hundreds depending on region.

The Core Ultra 9 185H is a 16-core chip that handles multitasking, code compilation, and local AI workloads without breaking a sweat. Our database puts the CPU at 64th percentile, which is solid but not chart-topping. The 32GB of DDR5 RAM sits at 84th percentile, so memory won't be your bottleneck. Storage is middle of the pack at 66th percentile, but 1TB of NVMe is plenty for most users. The weak spot is the GPU at 38th percentile. Intel Arc integrated graphics are fine for video playback and light photo editing, but gaming lands at a rough 13.2 out of 100. This is not a gaming machine, period.

Stacked against the Apple Mac Studio M4 Max, the NUC 14 Pro+ gets absolutely demolished on GPU performance and raw compute. The Mac Studio is in a different league, but it also costs way more. The HP OMEN GT22-3080 and Lenovo Legion Tower 5a Gen 10 are gaming towers that will crush this NUC in any graphics workload, but they're full-size desktops. The Dell Tower ECT1250 is a more traditional office machine that can't match the NUC's portability. If you need a tiny PC for work, the NUC makes sense. If you need gaming or heavy creative work, look at the towers or the Mac.

Pricing is all over the map. In the US you'll pay between $1,309 and $1,399. In Europe the spread is even wider, from EUR 2,008 to EUR 2,790 across four listings. That's a EUR 782 gap for the same hardware. If you're in Europe, shop around before you buy. The CAD range is tighter at CAD 1,558 to CAD 1,938. For what you get, the US price feels reasonable for a compact productivity machine, but the higher European prices push it into questionable territory. You're paying a premium for the small form factor and the NUC name.

The ASUS NUC 14 Pro+ is a tiny aluminum box that packs a surprising punch. You get an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H, 32GB of DDR5, and a 1TB NVMe drive in a chassis that weighs less than a bag of coffee beans. It's aimed at people who want real desktop power without the desktop footprint.

ASUS and Intel clearly built this for productivity and AI tinkering, not gaming. The integrated Arc graphics are fine for daily work and light creative tasks, but don't expect to fire up Cyberpunk on this thing. It's a workhorse in a very small package.

Skip this if you need any kind of real gaming performance. The integrated Arc graphics are a dead end for modern titles. Also skip it if you're on a tight budget, because you can get a full-size tower with a dedicated GPU for less money. And if reliability is your top concern, the 36th percentile score should give you pause.

Buy this if you want a compact, quiet, capable Windows machine for development, office work, or AI experimentation. The Core Ultra 9 and 32GB of RAM will chew through productivity tasks. Skip it if you care about gaming, need maximum reliability, or want the best performance per dollar. It's a niche product that nails its niche.