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 4.5″ square case. If that doesn’t translate for you immediately, let’s just say 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. And that’s where we find ourselves again, with AsRock first out of the gate with a 13th-Gen model.

This Month’s Build, Featuring Intel’s 13th-Gen Platform!

For May 2023, we recommend a new model featuring the incredible Core i5-1340P. 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 1TB 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. Want to turn your NUC into an all-in-one, interactive workstation? Then pick up the awesome touchscreen monitor in our optional products section later in this guide, which has a rear mount to attach the NUC and truly streamline your desktop!

Want your PC ready to go out of the box? We list an incredible pre-built PC in this guide that is honestly an unbeatable deal. For less than our Intel-based build, you get the top-of-the-line AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX, an eight-core, 16-thread laptop CPU, along with 32GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD included. 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

Note that we provide links to Amazon or Newegg for our US readers, and our Amazon links will auto-convert for our readers in Canada, the UK, and parts of the EU, with regional substitutions made where necessary. If you decide to purchase any of the products we list, please use the links provided, which helps support continued development of these guides.