ASRock launches new NUC Mini PCs with Intel "Raptor Lake" 12 cores

While Intel is taking its time when it comes to introducing the really compact versions of the NUC13 series, the Taiwanese PC manufacturer ASRock is getting down to business. Sales of the NUC Box-1300 Mini-PCs with Intel “Raptor Lake” CPUs will start immediately.

ASRock had already announced the NUC Box 1300 series at CES 2023 in January. Now the really small mini-PCs with strong Ultrabook CPUs in the classic format of a “Next Unit of Computing” (NUC) are finally starting to go on sale. With a footprint of only around 11 x 11 centimeters and a height of less than four centimeters, the devices are actually particularly small, unlike Intel’s previously available gaming and workstation versions of the NUC13 series.
12 cores in just 11×11 centimeters: ASRock NUC Box-1300 in the classic NUC format

ASRock packs everything that makes a modern PC into the mini cases, which on the outside actually correspond completely to what is known from a classic NUC design. The basis is formed by the Intel Core i5-1340P or the Intel Core i7-1360P, which can reach up to 4.6 or 5.0 gigahertz with their four high-performance and eight energy-saving cores.

Plenty of memory and PCIe4 SSDs possible

So ASRock is stuffing the new “Raptor Lake” chips into a NUC package in the original format for the first time. In Germany, the devices will initially be introduced in the form of barebones devices, which the user can equip with up to 64 gigabytes of DDR4 RAM in SODIMM format and a PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe SSD of full or half length.

The devices are not lacking in connections, as they are actually positioned as “industrial” mini-PCs. There’s a Thunderbolt 4-capable Type-C port on the front, another Type-C port with DisplayPort 1.4a support, two USB-A 3.1 ports, and a combo audio port. On the back are two HDMI 2.0b and two USB-A 3.1 ports, a 2.5 Gbps Ethernet port and the power connector. Transmission is via ax-WLAN and Bluetooth 5.2, and the scope of delivery even includes a VESA mount with which the ASRock NUC Box 1300 models can be attached to the back of a monitor. A total of up to four 4K displays can be addressed with the microcomputer. As is typical for barebones, the customer has to provide an operating system himself.

The new mini PCs in NUC design from ASRock are not particularly cheap. So far, only the price of the i7 variant is available for Europe, which is just under 800 euros. In the US, the devices cost $550 and $690 respectively.

Summary