Asus has put the ROG NUC 2026 up for preorder in China, and the pitch is exactly what gaming mini-PC buyers wanted and maybe feared: desktop-class ambition squeezed into a chassis under 3 liters. The box pairs Intel’s Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus with Nvidia’s RTX 5080 Laptop, supports up to 96 GB of RAM, and starts at 29,999 yuan for the 1 TB model in black.
That pricing puts it firmly in premium territory, which is no surprise for a tiny machine that promises serious gaming and creator-grade output. The more interesting part is how Asus is using the mini-PC format not as a compromise, but as a substitute for a bulky tower – and asking buyers to pay accordingly.
ROG NUC 2026 price and configurations
The preorder lineup is straightforward. Asus is offering the system in Soul Black and Snow White, with storage and color driving the price:
- 1 TB SSD, black: 29,999 yuan ($4430)
- 2 TB SSD: 31,499 yuan ($4650)
- 2 TB SSD, white: 31,999 yuan ($4725)
That kind of sticker shock is the point. Compact gaming PCs rarely compete on value; they compete on how much heat, speed, and graphics muscle they can hide in a box you can actually move without a furniture dolly.
Intel Core Ultra 9 and RTX 5080 Laptop specs
Inside, Asus has gone all-in on mobile silicon. The Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus has 24 cores and 24 threads, while the RTX 5080 Laptop carries 16 GB of GDDR7 memory, ray tracing support, and DLSS 4.5. For a machine this small, that is an aggressive spec sheet rather than a polite one.
The standard memory configuration is 32 GB of DDR5-5600, and it can be expanded to 96 GB. Storage goes through two M.2 slots with PCIe 4.0/5.0 support and a ceiling of 8 TB, which is exactly the kind of overbuilt flexibility that turns a niche machine into something enthusiasts will argue about for months.
Less than 3 liters, five 4K displays
Asus says the chassis stays below 3 liters, with dimensions of 282.4 x 187.7 x 56.5 mm and a weight of 3.12 kg. The Glacier Cooling Architecture uses three fans and two vapor chambers to keep sustained power above 300W, which is the real trick here: small gaming systems are easy to make fast for a few seconds, harder to make fast for a long session.
Connectivity is equally overstated in the best way. The machine includes Thunderbolt 4, HDMI 2.1, and DisplayPort 2.1, and Asus says it can drive up to five 4K monitors at once. Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, and Aura Sync lighting round out the package.
The ROG NUC 2026 looks built for buyers who want a tiny rig that behaves less like a compact PC and more like a trimmed-down gaming tower with a grudge.