ASUS NUC 16 Pro
Stepping up from the NUC 16, ASUS is also offering the NUC 16 Pro. These systems have a significant overlap with the NUC 16 in terms of functionality, but benefit from the much greater performance of the higher-powered Core Ultra Series 3 (Panther Lake) processor family.
ASUS offers a wide range of processor options for the full NUC 16 Pro mini-PCs. The entry-level configuration is based around the Core Ultra 5 325, which is a 45W cTDP chip with 4 P cores and 4 LPE cores. Above that, they have a Core Ultra 7 356H SKU that offers a full 16 CPU cores (4 P, 8E, 4 LPE) and runs at 65W. Finally, the flagship of the lineup is a NUC 16 Pro SKU based on the Core Ultra X7 358H, which builds upon the mid-tier configuration by upgrading the integrated GPU from a 4 Xe core Intel Graphics configuration to the company’s 12 Xe core B390 configuration.
The choice of CPU also affects the available memory options. The mid- and low-tier NUC 16 Pro systems feature 2 CSO-DIMM slots that can accommodate up to 126GB of DDR5-7200 memory. Otherwise, the top-tier Core Ultra X7 system swaps DDR5 out for 32GB of LPDDR5X-8533 (as required by Intel). Unfortunately, this RAM is soldered down, so there are no memory upgrade options here.
As for I/O, with the shared heritage of the Wildcat Lake and Panther Lake platforms, the NUC 16 Pro offers I/O connectivity very similar to the base NUC 16, with a couple of notable improvements. On the front of the system is still a triple USB-A/USB-C port setup, but on the back side of the system, ASUS has been able to work in some additional functionality thanks to Panther Lake’s greater capabilities. Specifically, there is an additional 40Gbps USB4/Thunderbolt 4 port, bringing the system to two TB4 ports, and the rear USB-A ports have been upgraded from 480Mbps to 10Gbps.
Otherwise, the rest of the I/O is the same as on the NUC 16. This includes a pair of HDMI 2.1 ports for display outputs, and a pair of 2.5Gb Ethernet ports for wired networking, driven by Intel’s I226-V controller. For that matter, the system similarly integrates Intel’s BE211 radio for WiFi 7 + BT 6.0 connectivity.
There is one surprising omission from the system, however: analog audio. While the NUC 16 includes a combo audio jack driven by a Realtek codec, there is no such hardware on the NUC 16 Pro. Instead, this is a purely digital setup, meaning audio is available only via an external USB DAC or via HDMI or DisplayPort audio-out. It is an unexpected configuration choice on ASUS’s part, given how cheap and commonplace analog audio is on desktop systems today.
Moving on to storage, the Pro NUC offers a greater amount of internal expansion as well. The system features two M.2 2280 slots, one backed by a PCIe Gen5 x4 connection and the other backed by a PCIe Gen4 x4 connection, allowing the NUC 16 Pro to tap into the full bandwidth offered by the latest generation of M.2 SSDs. For ASUS’s furnished SKUs, the company offers the NUC 16 Pro with either a 512GB or 1TB SSD pre-installed.
On that note, like the NUC 16, the NUC 16 Pro is being made available as both a complete system or as a stripped-down barebones kit. The NUC16GDK-B does not come with any storage or memory installed (when it is a DDR5 SKU), leaving that for the buyer to install on their own. ASUS is also offering a slightly wider range of board configurations for the barebones kit than they are for the furnished NUC. Along with the Core Ultra 5 325, Ultra 7 356H, and Ultra X7 358H SoC options, the barebones kit also has a Ultra 7 366H and Intel’s top-of-the-line Ultra X9 378H as available options. These SKUs seem to be primarily for business use, as both SoCs are vPro-enabled, whereas the base three SKUs are not.
