That awesome DIMM Detection LED on Intel Z790 motherboards wasn’t the one ultra-smart iterative tweak Asus needed to present at CES 2024, nor was that powerful ROG NUC the one enchancment Asus unveiled after assuming management of Intel’s NUC enterprise final yr. The firm additionally confirmed off a seemingly small improve for conventional NUCs with mammoth implications.

Faisal Habib, a former NUC fanatic section director at Intel who made the transition to Asus, was exhibiting off a brand new type issue for the ultra-tiny PCs. The conventional 4×4-inch plastic chassis related to NUCs will likely be sticking round (in fact), however the firm can also be introducing a brand new 4×5-inch chassis milled out of aluminum with a brand new triple 6mm warmth pipe dual-side exchanger with built-in airflow cutouts for a brand new class of machine, dubbed the Asus NUC 14 Pro+.

Brad Chacos/IDG

Again, it sounds small, nevertheless it’s an enormous deal: By switching to a barely bigger, all-aluminum chassis with air flow alongside the perimeters, Asus can now equip the NUC 14 Pro+ with as much as Core Ultra 9 processors operating at their full 65 watt score. Traditional NUCs can’t deal with full Core Ultra 9 processors and have to dial again wattage ranges (and thus efficiency) as a consequence of their tighter thermal constraints. The NUC 14 Pro+ can let ‘er rip.

It’s good for different causes too. The Asus NUC 14 Pro+ encompasses a tool-less design for simple entry to internals, whereas connectivity is top-notch with Wi-Fi 6E, built-in Bluetooth, a pair of Thunderbolt 4 ports, twin HDMI 2.1 ports, 2.5G Internet, and 5 USB ports of varied sorts (principally USB 3.2).

Brad Chacos/IDG

The transfer to Core Ultra additionally let Asus improve reminiscence assist to dual-channel DDR5-5600MHz, whereas the M.2 slot inside can deal with PCIe 5.0 SSDs when you want the bleeding-edge in uncooked switch speeds.

Bottom line? Inside and out, the brand new Asus NUC 14 Pro+ appears to be like to be an enormous efficiency improve over conventional fashions, with out including a lot additional footprint in any respect. Groovy.

Stay tuned to PCWorld.com and our YouTube channel for extra cutting-edge PC reveals from CES 2024 all week lengthy!