ASUS NUC 15 Pro RNUC15CRHU70000U Black 2025

A tiny Windows workhorse with great ports and a solid CPU, but the 512GB SSD and zero reviews make it a gamble. Buy it cheap or buy a Mac mini.

The 16-core Ultra 7 255H is the real story here. It's not topping any charts, but it's well above average for a box this size. The 16GB of DDR5 is about average for the category, and the 512GB SSD is actually a bit underwhelming, sitting in the 43rd percentile. What surprised us is how much connectivity ASUS crammed into a 0.59kg chassis. Two Thunderbolt 4 ports, two HDMI, three USB-A, and Wi-Fi 7. That's a lot of I/O for something you can palm. The 120W PSU means it sips power compared to a tower, which is nice if you leave it running all day.

The Mac mini M4 Pro is the elephant in the room. It's faster, quieter, and has a better reliability track record, though you'll pay more and lose Windows flexibility. The Lenovo Legion Tower 5a Gen 10 and HP OMEN GT16 are in a completely different category, full towers with discrete GPUs that'll run circles around the NUC for gaming, but they're also huge and power-hungry. The Dell Tower Plus EBT2250 splits the difference on size but doesn't offer the same port density. If you need a tiny Windows box with serious I/O, the NUC 15 Pro makes sense. If you need any GPU muscle at all, look elsewhere.

Pricing is all over the map, from $953 to $1,956 across three US listings. At the low end, this is a compelling little workhorse. At the high end, you're getting fleeced. The sweet spot is clearly the $953 listing, and if you're paying more than $1,200 for this config, you should stop and look at the Mac mini M4 Pro instead. The 1-year seller warranty from Velztorm is fine, but it's not the same as ASUS standing behind the product directly.

The ASUS NUC 15 Pro is a tiny box that punches above its weight for office work and development, but don't expect it to moonlight as a gaming rig. The Intel Core Ultra 7 255H with 16 cores is the star here, landing in the 68th percentile for CPU performance among mini PCs. That's solid, not spectacular, but paired with 16GB of DDR5 and a 512GB NVMe SSD, it'll chew through spreadsheets, code compiles, and browser tabs without breaking a sweat. The Intel Arc 140T integrated GPU is fine for driving multiple displays and light media work, but the 12.4 gaming score tells you everything you need to know about playing anything modern on this thing.

If you're looking for any kind of gaming performance, this isn't it. Go get a Lenovo Legion Tower 5a or HP OMEN GT16 instead. If you want a silent, reliable mini desktop and don't need Windows, the Mac mini M4 Pro is the better machine, full stop.

The ASUS NUC 15 Pro is a niche machine that nails its niche. It's a compact, efficient Windows workstation with excellent connectivity and enough CPU grunt for serious productivity. The weak storage, questionable reliability score, and total lack of customer reviews keep it from being an easy recommendation. But if you find it near the $953 mark and you need a tiny Windows box with Thunderbolt 4 and Wi-Fi 7, it's a solid buy. Just don't expect to game on it, and maybe budget for an external SSD.