A Look Inside

Pulling that latch releases the panel, and the spring-assisted hinge swings it open in seconds. This was by far the easiest Mini-PC I have opened, with no screws to remove and most of the motherboard immediately accessible. The fan is built into the hinged panel itself, along with a large thermal pad that contacts the internal components when the system is closed.


Storage access is especially simple because ASUS labels the two M.2 connectors directly on the motherboard as Gen 5 NVMe and Gen 4 NVMe. The 1 TB Samsung PM9E1 occupies the PCIe 5.0 slot, leaving the second M.2 2280 connector open for another SSD. With the panel folded out of the way, both drives are directly accessible and there are no additional brackets to remove.


The Intel Wi-Fi card sits just below the installed SSD and is also replaceable, with both antenna leads accessible from the same side of the board. Memory is different on this LPDDR5X configuration because it is soldered to the motherboard and cannot be upgraded later. Buyers who want replaceable memory will need to choose one of the socketed DDR5 versions when ordering.