ASUS NUC 13 Pro NUC13ANKi7 2023, Core i7-1360P, 16GB, 500GB SSD

The ASUS NUC 13 Pro is a tiny business desktop with a 12-core i7-1360P, 16GB RAM, and a 500GB SSD. Its port selection is genuinely impressive, with Thunderbolt, dual HDMI 2.1, and seven USB-A ports. Gaming is a hard no with integrated graphics scoring 11.4 out of 100. At CAD 1,035 to CAD 1,300, it's a reasonable buy for office work if you value the compact form factor over raw performance.

Let's talk about that Core i7-1360P. It's a 12-core chip with a 2.2GHz base clock, and it sits at the 41st percentile in our CPU rankings. That's solidly middle of the pack, which sounds underwhelming until you remember what this machine is for. You're not rendering 4K video or compiling massive codebases on a NUC. You're running Outlook, Chrome with 40 tabs open, maybe a few Excel sheets with way too many formulas. And for that, the 1360P is more than enough. It'll feel snappy in day-to-day use, especially paired with the NVMe SSD.

The integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics are where things get real. The GPU sits at the 48th percentile, which is about average for integrated graphics, but the gaming score of 11.4 out of 100 tells the real story. This is not a gaming machine. You can play older titles or indie games at low settings, but anything modern will chug. The 16GB of DDR4 RAM is also worth noting. It's at the 33rd percentile, which is on the lower end for a machine at this price point. For most office tasks, 16GB is fine, but if you're the type who keeps 50 browser tabs and a few virtual machines running, you'll feel the ceiling. The 500GB SSD is also middle of the road at the 37th percentile. It's fast enough for boot times and app launches, but you'll want external storage or a cloud sync setup if you deal with large files.

The NUC 13 Pro sits in an awkward spot when you line it up against the competition. The Apple Mac Studio M5 Max is in a completely different league for performance, but it's also a completely different price bracket and use case. If you're doing creative work or need serious GPU muscle, the Mac Studio makes the NUC look like a toy. But the NUC has Windows 11 Pro and that massive port selection, which matters for business environments where macOS just isn't an option.

On the Windows side, the Lenovo Legion 90YA003GUS and HP OMEN GT16-0364 are gaming-focused machines that absolutely crush the NUC in graphics performance. The NUC's gaming score of 11.4 is embarrassing next to those. But again, those are full-size desktops with dedicated GPUs, and they draw way more power and make way more noise. The Dell Tower Plus EBT2250 is probably the closest philosophical competitor, a business-oriented desktop, but it's a tower, not a mini PC. If you have desk space and want better performance per dollar, the Dell or the Lenovo are better picks. If you need something tiny and quiet with every port under the sun, the NUC is the one.

Pricing on this NUC is a bit of a rollercoaster depending on where you look. In Canada, we're seeing listings ranging from CAD 1,035 to CAD 1,300 across three different vendors. That's a CAD 265 spread for what appears to be the same core configuration, which is wild. If you're shopping for this, do yourself a favor and check the lower end of that range before pulling the trigger. The cheapest listing at CAD 1,035 is the one to target.

Is it worth it at that price? For a business mini PC with Windows 11 Pro, Thunderbolt, and that port selection, it's reasonable. You're paying for the form factor and the connectivity more than raw performance. If you need a small, quiet, capable office machine and you value having every port you could possibly need, the NUC 13 Pro justifies its price. But if you're just looking for the most compute per dollar, a traditional desktop tower will give you more CPU and GPU for the same money. The compact score of 56.2 is doing a lot of the heavy lifting in this value equation.

The ASUS NUC 13 Pro is one of those machines that makes you do a double take when you see it in person. It's tiny. Like, genuinely small enough to strap to the back of a monitor and forget it exists. But inside that little box is an Intel Core i7-1360P, a 12-core chip that's more than capable of handling everyday office work, web browsing, and even some light photo editing without breaking a sweat. This is the kind of PC you buy when you want a clean desk and don't want to think about your computer at all.

Who's this for? Mostly business users and anyone who needs a reliable Windows machine that doesn't take up half their desk. The 16GB of DDR4 RAM and 500GB NVMe SSD are fine for productivity apps, spreadsheets, video calls, and the usual corporate software stack. Windows 11 Pro is included, which matters if you're in an IT-managed environment or need BitLocker encryption. The port selection is honestly kind of ridiculous for a box this size, with Thunderbolt, dual USB-C, seven USB-A ports, dual HDMI 2.1, Ethernet, and Wi-Fi 6E all crammed in.

What makes this interesting is the balance ASUS struck here. It's not a performance monster by any stretch, but it's not trying to be. The NUC 13 Pro is about fitting a competent, quiet, low-power desktop into spaces where a traditional tower just doesn't make sense. And on that front, it delivers. The compact score of 56.2 out of 100 in our database reflects that this thing is genuinely good at being small, even if the overall score of 47.9 shows it's not winning any benchmark wars.

If you're a gamer, just move along. The integrated Iris Xe graphics score 11.4 out of 100 in our gaming benchmarks, which is one of the worst results we've seen for any kind of gaming workload. You'd be better off with a Lenovo Legion or HP OMEN, both of which have dedicated GPUs and will actually run modern games. Even a mid-range gaming laptop would be a massive upgrade over this for gaming.

Power users should also think twice. The 16GB of RAM and 500GB SSD are fine for basic office work, but if you're editing video, running virtual machines, or working with large datasets, you'll hit the ceiling quickly. The CPU sits at the 41st percentile and the RAM at the 33rd, which means this machine is built for everyday tasks, not heavy lifting. If you need real compute power, look at the Apple Mac Studio M5 Max or a higher-end desktop tower. And if you're on a tight budget, the CAD 1,035 to CAD 1,300 price range means you can find more performance for less money in a traditional desktop form factor.

For office workers, remote employees, and anyone who wants a clean desk setup, the NUC 13 Pro is a solid pick. It's quiet, it's small, it runs Windows 11 Pro, and it has more ports than you'll probably ever need. The i7-1360P is plenty for productivity software, and the NVMe SSD keeps things feeling responsive. If your workday is email, documents, spreadsheets, and video calls, you'll be happy with this machine.

But if you need to do anything graphics-intensive, or if you're the type who likes to keep a dozen heavy applications open at once, look elsewhere. The integrated Iris Xe graphics are a hard ceiling, and 16GB of RAM will feel tight for power users. For gaming, this is simply the wrong tool. A mid-range gaming desktop or even a laptop with a dedicated GPU will serve you far better. The NUC 13 Pro is a specialist, and its specialty is being small, quiet, and competent at everyday work. Nothing more, nothing less.