The Ultra-Compact PC, Defined

Need a powerful PC for work-for-home or small business use, but can’t stand the thought of a big, bulky desktop tower on your desk? Then go for an ultra-compact NUC PC, which uses a 4″ (10cm) square motherboard. In case that doesn’t translate for you immediately, it’s really small!

The funny thing is that Intel supports the NUC platform in fits and starts, sometimes going nearly two years without issuing an update, which leads well-known partners like Gigabyte, Asrock, and Asus to step in. Luckily, after what seemed like an endless wait, we’re able to feature an Intel NUC in our NUC guide again!

This Month’s Build, Featuring Intel’s 12th-Gen Platform!

For January 2023, we recommend an ultra-slim, 1.5″-tall NUC with the incredible Core i5-1240P. This CPU is a 12-core, 16-thread powerhouse, despite being rated at just 28 Watts. It also has the excellent Intel Iris Xe G7 graphics solution on board. Because this is a barebones kit, you need to add your own RAM, solid-state drive, and operating system. We suggest 16GB of DDR4-3200 RAM, a fast 500GB PCIe Gen 4 solid-state drive, along with Windows 11. By the way, this system also has WiFi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2, and support for up to four monitors thank to its array of HDMI and Thunderbolt outputs. And new this month is our recommendation to turn your NUC into an all-in-one, interactive workstation: an awesome touchscreen monitor with a mount on the back for the NUC! Look for this monitor in our optional products section later in this guide.

Need even more power? No problem! We list an incredible pre-built PC in the optional products section of this guide that is honestly an unbeatable deal. For around the same price as our Intel-based build, you get the top-of-the-line AMD Ryzen 7 5700G, an eight-core, 16-thread desktop-class CPU, along with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD included. The only drawback is a slightly larger size (5″ x 5″), but anyone serious about extreme computing in an ultra-compact form factor ought to check it out.

With all that said, if you decide you want extreme power but don’t need something quite this small, check out the other options in our Small Form Factor Build Guides, which leverage the power of midrange and high-end desktop-class processors.

Final Thoughts

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