Last week, we dropped the news that Intel is exiting the PC business as it stops investment in the Intel NUC. That led to many questions such as if the NUC team is disbanded, what happens to newer NUCs that are still under warranty? Also, who will pick up the torch and continue the form factor? Today, we finally get to post the news that we have heard rumors about over the past few days, Intel and ASUS have agreed to a NUC term sheet.
ASUS and Intel Agree on Deal for a NUC Future
Intel announced it agreed to a term sheet with ASUS to manufacture, sell and support the Next Unit of Compute (NUC) 10th to 13th generations systems product lines. The agreement will also see the development of future product lines.
Per Intel: Under the proposed agreement, ASUS will receive a non-exclusive license to Intel’s NUC systems product line designs, enabling it to manufacture and sell 10th to 13th Gen NUC systems products and develop future designs. This will enable ASUS to provide product and support continuity for Intel NUC systems customers. ASUS will establish a new business unit called ASUS NUC BU. (Source: Intel)
It sounds like ASUS will have a license for the designs and provide support for the lines. Establishing a new ASUS NUC BU seems as though ASUS is also committed to keeping the name for the Mini PC’s and continuing the operation.
Final Words
The news today is something we have heard rumblings of, and it makes sense. Intel has sold over 10 million NUCs, and many came to the STH main site to hear of the discontinuation of the line. At the same time, ASUS has a strong mini PC business where it not only sells mini PCs under its own ASUS brand, but companies, like Geekom (we will be reviewing the AS6 as an example soon) re-brand ASUS mini PCs. ASUS is a large manufacturer with the ability to continue the line in the future, so it makes sense that ASUS is taking this step.
The next question is whether companies like ASRock which also make 4×4 NUC systems like the ASRock NUC BOX-1260P will also get a license to continue using the NUC brand. Hopefully, we get more details of the deal coming soon.
For those STH readers who are wondering, we have a Geekom AS6 review coming (ASUS PN54) as it has made cameos in several recent videos. We also have a number of ASUS mini PCs that we are working with.
Almost the entire reason I use NUC is not having to use ASUS BIOS and BIOS update tools.
well, there is a reason why Asrockrack is the best motherboard company on the planet right now, for having disagreed with Asus and left Asus.
With Intel, i was pretty confident for long term bios security updates until product EOL. Telling me this will be know done by Asus instead makes me pretty sceptic and untrusty for my NUCs anymore.
If ASUS simply builds NUCs based on Intel designs and without any consideration towards improving the reliability of the design & firmware, then ASUS will be sinking it’s own ship.
The Intel designs and firmware seem to have oddball issues that other systems do not appear to have. Could it be other vendors do more & better testing? Or do other vendors have better designs & better firmware teams? The checkered history of Intel motherboard designs (and I owned/maintained a few) and the “pile of problems” they tended to be was enough to steer me away Intel motherboards and NUCs.
When I heard the original announcement I wondered if EVGA would pick up the reins. It would have been a perfect pivot for them. Sadly not to be.
Asus support is like not having support at all.
Actually, Dell Optiplex Micro board always made by Asus tho. But I dont know whether Dell do their own “secret sauce” like making the BIOS itself or the BIOS is also made by Asus. Hardware-wise, i can confirm it is an Asus. (at least on my Optiplex 3060 Micro. But it seems all Optiplex micro are sourced from same vendor)
TS: Funny, I was about to comment how thankful I am that it was NOT ASRock or Jetway or something. Every ASRock system I’ve ever built/purchased had weird stability problems.
If anything, my experience with ASRockRack products has been even worse.
eVGA would have been an interesting combination though.