Compact mini PCs with up to 64 GB DDR5 RAM and Intel Core 300 CPUs go official

Earlier this year, ASRock revealed its Intel Panther Lake-powered lineup of mini PCs, dubbed the NUC Ultra 300 BOX series. Now, it appears that the company has unveiled lower-tier mini PCs with Intel's Wildcat Lake CPUs, aimed at folks with more casual workloads.

To be more precise, the lineup consists of the NUC BOX-320, and the NUC BOX-304 mini PCs. The BOX-320, as the name suggests, comes equipped with an Intel Core 5 320 chip, whereas its lower-end sibling, the BOX-304, comes equipped with the Intel Core 3 304 CPU.

The Core 5 320 features a 6-core setup consisting of two performance and four efficiency cores. In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU should be able to keep up with a three-year old AMD Ryzen 3 7330U APU. Clearly, the Wildcat Lake CPU will only be good enough for casual workloads that aren't too demanding, such as web browsing, office tasks, and the like.

The Intel Core 3 304, on the other hand, is even slower, boasting a 5-core setup consisting of a single performance core and four efficiency cores. In synthetic benchmarks, the paltry chip can only manage to keep up with an Intel Core 3 N355 'Alder Lake-N' CPU.

That said, both systems can be equipped with up to a healthy 64 GB of DDR5-6400 RAM, courtesy of a single SODIMM slot. There is no scope for discrete graphics, and both the CPUs' integrated parts are only good enough for basic video acceleration and extremely lightweight workloads.

The I/O on offer has been detailed below:

• Dual HDMI 2.1
• Single USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, dual USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A
• Dual USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Type-C (with DP 1.4a)
• Dual 2.5G Ethernet
• 3.5 mm audio

Other notable details and pricing

Storage requirements are handled by an M.2 2242 slot (PCIe Gen 4 x1), as well as an M.2 2280 slot (PCIe Gen 4 x2). An M.2 2230 slot is also present, occupied by a networking card with WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 support.

Both NUC BOX mini PCs weigh in at 1 kg or 2.2 lbs, and measure 117.5 x 110 x 49 mm or 4.63 x 4.33 x 1.93 inches, sporting a volume of just 0.63 liters. VESA mounting support is also present.

ASRock has not publicly revealed the mini PC's pricing details. Interested customers are therefore requested to reach out to the company directly in order to get a quotation.

That said, typical consumers with higher performance requirements might be better served by something like the Minisforum X1 Lite, currently available for $663 on Amazon.