Small form factor computers are great for those with limited space, for retailers with customer kiosks and businesses that don't need huge desktop PCs cluttering up the office. The latest ProArt Series mini computer from Asus has been developed for content creators, packing lots of power into a shapely skin that turns its back on the sharp-angled boxy design that's common in this space.
At 176 x 176 x 365 mm (6.9 x 6.9 x 14.3 in), the liquid-cooled computer is certainly smaller than a full-blown desktop PC but isn't quite in the same space-saving league as the kind of mini machines from companies like CompuLab or Shuttle. But it is quite the power house.
The Mini PC ProArt PA90 can be had with 9th Gen Intel Core i9-9900K/i7-9700K processing brains, supported by as much as 64 GB of DDR4 RAM and a storage design that supports two 512 GB M.2 PCIe SSDs and a 2.5 inch 1 TB HDD. Graphics is served up as Nvidia Quadro P4000/P2000 "workstation grade" GPU to support video and photo editing tasks, as well as CAD workflows.
Elsewhere, there are two USB 3.1 ports to the front and two more around back, together with four DisplayPort connections and two Thunderbolt 3 ports. There's 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless connectivity, as well as Gigabit Ethernet LAN. The Mini PC doesn't have a built-in speaker but does have a 3.5 mm headphone jack to the front and a line-out jack to the rear.
And it features a novel ventilation system where the top cover extends upward to increase airflow when the CPU runs hot.
Asus is not giving away pricing and availability information – but you can expect the top spec models to be pricey. The company will be displaying its new products at CES 2019 in Las Vegas next week, for show goers wanting a closer look ahead of launch.
Source: Asus
