ASUS NUC 14 Essential (N355)

What owners say

Two press reviews and three owners had this Core 3 N355 kit, and the word that keeps coming up is quiet. Notebookcheck often could not hear the fan over the room at idle and measured 32.3 dB(A) at most under load; one editor says the fan is off about ninety percent of the time. It is frugal too: 4 to 6.5 W at idle in the lab and around 29 W on average under load, with the chip peaking at 82 °C and running above its 20 W sustained limit without trouble. The limits show in heavier work. Windows updates and big spreadsheets pinned the processor at 100% for one reviewer, and 4K editing and Blender renders were frustratingly slow for another. Notebookcheck also measured the worst DPC latency in its comparison and dropped frames in 4K video, and advises against it as a high-resolution streaming box, although another reviewer found 4K HDR playback fine. Behind four screws there is room for one DDR5 module of up to 16 GB and only one SSD, despite ASUS's specification listing two slots. Linux owners should know the Realtek 2.5GbE port needed a newer driver on Ubuntu 24.04.2, and one server lost its link every second reboot until ASPM and EEE were disabled. The BIOS is unusually thorough.

For whom

A near-silent office PC or small always-on server that sips power, bought as a barebone.

Not for

Photo and video editing, very large spreadsheets, 4K streaming where dropped frames matter, and anyone who wants two internal drives.

Our own summary of 6 published sources, reviewed Sep 23, 2026. We have not tested this Mini PC ourselves; the sources are listed under About this data.