ASUS NUC 13 Pro NUC13ANKH7 Black 2024

A gloriously tiny PC with huge RAM but absolutely no storage—bring your own SSD and a bit of patience. Great for IT fleets and hobbyists, terrible for plug-and-play fans.

The ASUS NUC 13 Pro is the ultimate blank canvas for IT managers and tinkerers. It's a barebone mini PC that comes with a capable 13th Gen Intel Core i7 processor and, in this config, a whopping 64GB of DDR4 RAM already installed, but it ships with a grand total of zero gigabytes of storage. You read that right. No SSD, no hard drive, just an empty bay waiting for your handiwork. For the right buyer, that's a power move, not a dealbreaker. For everyone else, it's a head-scratcher.

What you get is a silent, VESA-mountable workstation about the size of a sandwich. The CPU's 14 cores (6 performance, 8 efficiency) handily chug through spreadsheets, code compilation, and virtual machines, while the port selection is genuinely excellent for a box this tiny. Just keep your expectations in check on graphics, because that integrated Intel UHD silicon won't be pushing pixels for anything beyond web browsing and video playback.

Frankly, the RAM situation surprised us the most. At 64GB, this thing sits in the 93rd percentile for memory capacity among all desktops we've tested, which is absurd for a system you can palm. The i7-13620H CPU is middle-of-the-pack (54th percentile) but still breezes through business apps, and the thing barely breaks a sweat with Excel macros or Docker containers. The big letdown is storage, dead last at the 2nd percentile because, well, there is none out of the box. Once you pop in a fast NVMe drive, it'll feel snappy, but you're doing that yourself.

Pricing is a moving target. Last we checked, this barebone fluctuated from a suspiciously low $594 to a wildly inflated $107,156 across different storefronts. The realistic sweet spot sits around $700-$800 from reputable retailers, which is fair once you factor in the cost of a quality 1TB NVMe SSD you'll need to add. For IT departments deploying dozens of identical machines, that modularity saves money. For a single user, you're essentially paying a premium to finish building it yourself. If you can snag it under $700, it's a solid foundation; just don't get fleeced by a scalper.

The elephant in the room is Apple's Mac mini M4. For similar money, the Mac gives you blistering single-core speed, a far superior GPU, and honest-to-goodness storage right out of the box, all in a similarly tiny shell. But the NUC 13 Pro fights back with Windows 11 Pro, upgradeable RAM (Apple says no), and a port selection that includes Thunderbolt and dual HDMI without dongle life. If your shop runs Microsoft 365, legacy Windows apps, or needs to provision machines overnight, the NUC makes more sense. A Lenovo Legion tower or iBUYPOWER gaming desktop isn't even in the same conversation—they're full-sized and built for GPUs, not for hiding behind a monitor.

If you're looking for a ready-to-boot desktop, skip this entirely. The NUC 13 Pro demands you install an SSD and possibly an OS, which makes zero sense for someone who just wants to check email at home. Go grab an HP OmniDesk or a Mac mini M4 instead—they'll work the second you plug them in. Additionally, if you have even a slight gaming itch, this machine will just frustrate you.

The ASUS NUC 13 Pro is a purpose-built workhorse for business fleet deployments and home lab enthusiasts who already have spare drives sitting on a shelf. Its CPU and RAM potential make it a credible Windows 11 developer box, but the missing storage and nonexistent gaming chops mean it's absolutely not for casual users or anyone who wants to unbox and go. If you're comfortable turning a screwdriver and installing your own SSD, you'll get a tidy, punchy mini PC. If that sounds like a chore, buy the Mac mini M4 and call it a day.