ASUS NUC 15 Pro RNUC15CRHU70000U Black 2025

A shockingly small PC with a beastly 16-core CPU that's perfect for work and a total dud for play. Buy it for your office, not your gaming den.

The Ultra 7 255H surprised us with how cool and quiet it stays under load. For a chip pushing this many cores in a chassis this small, we expected a jet engine. Instead, it's a calm hum even when we pegged all 16 threads with code compiles. The CPU lands in the 70th percentile of our database, which is solid for a mini PC. The real letdown is the Arc 140T graphics. It's basically a 53rd percentile performer, which means it's fine for spreadsheets and streaming but absolutely chokes on anything 3D. Our gaming score of 14.2 out of 100 tells you everything you need to know: don't even think about installing Steam.

The elephant in the room is the Apple Mac mini M4. If you're not tied to Windows, the Mac mini delivers better single-core speed, vastly superior graphics, and runs dead silent for a similar footprint and price. For Windows die-hards, the Lenovo Legion Tower 5i is a completely different beast. It's a full-sized gaming desktop that will run circles around the NUC in any 3D task, but it's also ten times the size. The HP OMEN 16L splits the difference with a smaller tower and a real GPU, but it still can't match the NUC's 'mount it under a desk' portability. Pick your priority: raw power or raw space savings.

Pricing on this thing is a rollercoaster. We've seen it listed anywhere from $645 for a barebone kit to a laughable $161,512 for some bizarrely configured bundle. Ignore the high end, that's just noise. The sweet spot is finding a pre-built config with 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD for under $900. At that price, it's a compelling little office box. Just make sure you're buying from a reputable seller, because the open-box and third-party upgraded units can be a gamble.

The ASUS NUC 15 Pro is a tiny powerhouse that makes a lot of sense if you need serious CPU grunt in a package you can hide behind a monitor. The Intel Core Ultra 7 255H chip inside is the real star here, chewing through developer tasks and office workloads without breaking a sweat. But don't let the 'Pro' name fool you into thinking this is a do-it-all machine. The integrated Arc graphics are fine for driving a few 4K displays, but they fall flat on their face the moment you try to game on it. This is a workhorse, not a racehorse.

What you're really buying is density. You get 16 cores, 32GB of DDR5, and a fast terabyte of storage in a 0.59kg box that sips power from a 120W brick. The port selection is generous, with dual Thunderbolt 4 and HDMI 2.1 making multi-monitor setups a breeze. Just know that you're paying a premium for the small size, and the reliability scores in our database are a bit of a yellow flag compared to chunkier desktops.

If you're looking for a machine that can handle even light gaming after work, this isn't it. Go get a small form factor PC with a dedicated GPU, like an HP OMEN 16L, or just grab a console. The Arc 140T graphics here are strictly for display output and basic video decode, and you'll be disappointed the second you launch anything more demanding than Solitaire.

The ASUS NUC 15 Pro is a purpose-built tool for developers, office power users, and anyone who needs a lot of CPU cores in a vanishingly small space. It's a terrible gaming machine and a mediocre value if you don't actually need the tiny form factor. But if your desk is cramped and your workload is all about compiling, crunching data, or running virtual machines, this little box is one of the best compact options you can buy right now.