ASUS could be making a ROG NUC mini PC and our wallet is already cowering in fear

We recently heard that Intel is no longer going to make its NUCs, and that Team Blue is passing the baton for this product line to ASUS - and apparently this means a ROG branded NUC is in the cards.

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This comes from Italian tech site Bits and Chips, so as ever with rumors - particularly from lesser-known sources - be careful about accepting it as the truth. But the gossip is that ASUS is developing a high-end ROG NUC to take over from the Intel NUC 13 Extreme.

We're told this will use an Intel Meteor Lake processor paired with an RTX 4000 GPU (likely an RTX 4070), and it'll be a typically flashy ROG design which is heavy on the RGB.

As we've already suggested, it'll likely be a heavy burden on the wallet too. Intel's NUCs already had a reputation for bring pricey - well-designed and made, but expensive, especially the top tier models - and when you throw in the ROG brand, well, that's going to up the premium on the hardware even further, no doubt.

If we're looking at the inclusion of an ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4070, that flavor of the 4070 is around 25% more expensive than an entry-level graphics card for this model (going by current pricing at Newegg in the US). And with a cutting-edge Meteor Lake processor, the bill of materials is already ticking up considerably before chucking on the NUC and ROG premiums here.

Still, we shouldn't judge the price before we even see the PC - or indeed, in this case, before the rumored product even exists.

ASUS making a ROG-branded NUC does seem like an obvious enough move, however, particularly if the company wants to pocket a solid profit. Of course, we'd expect other NUC models will be in the offing, too, with any luck.