ASUS has introduced a new mini-PC that combines a passive cooling system with Intel’s low-power Alder Lake N-series processors used in low-cost notebooks or compact computers.
Intel N’s are intended for entry-level PCs, web browsing, multimedia entertainment, and basic computing. They are not the best in performance, but they have the advantage of their 6 watts TDP consumption. Thus, despite its small size, a passive cooling system that avoids installing fans is sufficient, which reduces noise and the ingress of dust.
The ASUS ExpertCenter PN42 chassis has a very contained size of 127 x 132 x 57mm and can be opened without the need for tools for maintenance and upgrading. You can equip Intel N100 or N200 processors and up to 32 Gbytes of DDR4-3200 memory. For storage, it has an M.2 2280 PCIe Gen 3 x4 to equip solid state drives of up to 2 Tbytes.
Quite good in connectivity like most of these compacts, with Wi-Fi 6E AND Bluetooth 5.0 for wireless connections and a good number of ports along the front and back:
- 1 Ethernet LAN 2.5GbE
- 1 HDMI output
- 1 DisplayPort 1.4 output
- 2 USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports
- 2 USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports
- 3 USB 2.0 ports
- 1 3.5mm microphone jack.
- 1 x 3.5 mm combo jack (line, headphone)
It also has a configurable port that can be used to add additional USB-C, COM, VGA, DisplayPort, HDMI, or 2.5GbE Ethernet ports. ASUS ExpertCenter PN42 can power multi-monitor systems, up to two screens with 4K resolution or 3 screens with lower resolution, simultaneously.
One of the design details is seen in the power button with RGB lighting and that is intended to show the user the status of the computer with six different colors that indicates a correct status or different errors in startup or operation. ASUS ships the machines with a 60-watt power adapter.
The mini-PC pre-installs Windows 11 Pro and includes a new ASUS Control Center app as centralized IT management software for business, one of its uses as it can really be used for any basic computing task, office or consumer desktop. No price has been provided, but it must be quite cheap. And if you need more performance, ASUS has a good number of compacts in its catalog like the one we presented to you last week in collaboration with GEEKOM and in a fairly powerful configuration based on AMD’s Ryzen 9 6900HX.
