As component prices soar and games grow more sophisticated (read: demanding), mini PCs have seen a surge in popularity as of late. Fuelled by the Steam Machine's compact form factor and with the Xbox Project Helix rumor mill further spinning up excitement, many are turning to these mobile-component toting boxes as a cheaper alternative to both full towers and gaming laptops.
But what if you go straight to the top of the food chain? The Asus ROG NUC holds a price tag comparable to the best gaming PCs on the market, while using the same components as the best gaming laptops. While most of the mini PC market sticks with streamlined engineering of integrated graphics cards, it's one of the few tiny rigs that sports full-fat RTX 50-series GPUs and therefore draws quite the crowd.
