ASUS cuts ROG NUC 16 price by $1,300 with Core Ultra 7 and RTX 5060
ASUS has opened US preorders for a cheaper ROG NUC 16 configuration. The compact gaming PC combines an Intel Core Ultra 7 270HX Plus processor with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Laptop GPU.
The system is listed for $2,499 with shipping scheduled to begin on August 1. This is $1,300 below the $3,799 configuration equipped with a Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus and RTX 5080 Laptop GPU.
20-core Arrow Lake-HX Plus processor
The Core Ultra 7 270HX Plus offers 20 cores and 20 threads. It combines eight Performance cores with 12 Efficient cores, reaches clock speeds of up to 5.3 GHz and includes 30MB of L3 cache. Intel specifies 55W base power and up to 160W maximum turbo power for the mobile processor.
ASUS pairs the CPU with an RTX 5060 Laptop GPU based on the Blackwell architecture. The mobile GPU has 3,328 CUDA cores, 8GB of GDDR7 memory and support for DLSS 4. ASUS has not confirmed the graphics power limit used by this ROG NUC 16 configuration.
The $2,499 model includes 32GB of DDR5-6400 memory and a 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD. The system has two memory slots with support for up to 128GB. It also provides one PCIe 5.0 M.2 slot and one PCIe 4.0 M.2 slot, with tool-free access for memory and storage upgrades.
Three-fan cooling inside a 3-liter chassis
The ROG NUC 16 uses a three-fan cooling system with a vapor chamber covering the CPU and GPU. ASUS claims operating noise remains below 38 dBA under sustained workloads. The 3-liter chassis can operate vertically or horizontally, with an internal sensor adjusting cooling settings for each orientation.
Connectivity includes Thunderbolt 4, DisplayPort 2.1 UHBR20, HDMI 2.1, 2.5GbE, six USB Type-A ports and one 20Gbps USB Type-C port. Wireless connectivity is handled by Intel Killer Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4.
The Core Ultra 7 and RTX 5060 configuration has only appeared in the United States so far.
Sources: Amazon
