ASUS has introduced a special anniversary edition of its ROG NUC compact gaming PC.
The ROG NUC 16 Edition 20 marks two decades of the Republic of Gamers brand.
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The most noticeable change is the design. Semi-transparent side panels and gold accents set it apart from the standard model.
Under the hood, the Edition 20 packs an Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX processor. This 24-core chip is based on the Arrow Lake-HX architecture.
Memory configuration goes up to 128GB of DDR5-6400 RAM. That is a substantial amount for a system of this size.
The graphics upgrade is the highlight.
Instead of the RTX 5080 Laptop GPU found in the regular NUC 16, ASUS opted for NVIDIA's RTX 5090 Laptop GPU with 24GB of GDDR7 memory.
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This gives the mini PC impressive gaming horsepower.
Only about 15% to 20% of all Mini PCs on the market have truly capable graphics for gaming.
The system occupies roughly three liters of space. It is closer in size to a small console than a traditional gaming desktop.
Cooling such hardware requires an advanced solution. ASUS uses a triple-fan cooling system with a vapor chamber design.
The RTX 5090 can operate at up to 175W.
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Connectivity options are premium.
Thunderbolt 4, Wi-Fi 7, dual HDMI 2.1, dual DisplayPort 2.1, multiple USB ports, and 2TB of PCIe 5.0 storage come standard.
There is also room for an additional M. 2 SSD.
This product blurs the line between gaming laptops and desktops. The hardware is laptop-derived, but the form factor behaves like a very small desktop.
ASUS has not yet disclosed pricing.
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Limited-edition ROG products are rarely cheap, and a mini PC with an RTX 5090 was never going to be a budget option.
