ASUS NUC
Shares rank 16 of 18 mini PCs by recommenders
Small, low-power x86 mini PC that people run as an always-on home server; critics say it is pricey and can hard lock.
Small, low-power x86 mini PC that people run as an always-on home server; critics say it is pricey and can hard lock.
9 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 6
- criticize it
- 3
- approval share
- 67%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Low power draw for always-on use
“A good mini-PC, e.g. an ASUS NUC, with a negligible power consumption when it is operated 24/7, is completely sufficient”
Comment from 23 Feb 2026 in “Don't host email yourself – your reminder in 2026” “idles at 5W with a bunch of services running”
Comment from 25 Aug 2026 in “New Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Expensive compared with alternatives
“it is both much more expensive and much slower”
Comment from 27 Nov 2025 in “DIY NAS: 2026 Edition” “the asus rog nuc is extortionate pricing”
Comment from 13 Nov 2025 in “Steam Machine”
Other mini PCs people recommend
The four most recommended other mini PCs, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple Mac mini | 390 | 160 | 71% | 13 | 2 yrs42 owners | Approved |
| NVIDIA DGX Spark | 170 | 121 | 58% | 12 | 6 mo16 owners | — |
| AMD Strix Halo | 130 | 83 | 61% | 13 | 11 mo8 owners | — |
| Framework Desktop | 93 | 26 | 78% | 12 | 3 mo9 owners | Approved |
| ASUS NUCThis page | 6 | 3 | 67% | 6 | — | — |
What people said
10 of the 11 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Having x86 is surprisingly important in Linux.”
“idles at 5W with a bunch of services running”
“ASUS does this on my NUCs and motherboards.”
“but also more powerful (8 cores and decent GPU)”
“A good mini-PC, e.g. an ASUS NUC, with a negligible power consumption when it is operated 24/7, is completely sufficient”
“it hard locks occasionally when streaming”
“it is both much more expensive and much slower”
“which came with a non-functional BIOS, but was eventually coerced into working after forcibly flashing it”
“it's a pain logging into Windows”
“the asus rog nuc is extortionate pricing”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.