NUC 15 Pro

ASUS NUC 15 Pro Slim U7-255H NUC15CRKU7 - supports 128gb ram. works great for vmware etc

ASUS NUC 15 Pro Slim U7-255H NUC15CRKU7 - supports 128gb ram. works great for vmware etc

I think this is the same kit that William Lam u/lamw07 uses in this review of the NUC 15 Pro on ESXi. It’s probably fine, even if it isn’t on the QVL. https://williamlam.com/2025/06/vmware-cloud-foundation-vcf-on-asus-nuc-15-pro-cyber-canyon.html

For those tasks, get the Asus NUC 15 Pro (Ultra 5 225H). You will need 32 GB of RAM and a gen 4 SSD at minimum. The base M4 Mac Mini only has 16 GB of RAM and their SSD is on par with gen 3 SSD. Even with it's amazing CPU, it would struggle.

Those are good options for programmers, but local AI LLMs will require more GPU power combined with 64 GB of RAM. If you are willing to connect an external GPU, the Asus NUC 15 Pro would be my pick between the 2. You can allocate up to 50% of your RAM to the iGPU. With the Minisforum AI X1, you can

Interesting. I also have the ASUS NUC 15 Pro slim, and I've been running 2x64GB without issues in mine with the following kit. https://www.newegg.com/crucial-128gb-ddr5-5600-cas-latency-cl46-laptop-memory/p/N82E16820156426?Item=N82E16820156426

Coming into 2026, and without no way software requirements for the office, I'd say something along the lines of an ASUS NUC 13 Pro NUC13ANKI7 Slim with the Core i7-1360P, 32GB RAM & a 1TB. Here's an example of one a shop customer purchased recently from Amazon to replace aging hardware. If you have

I would highly suggest you invest more into the base config (the CPU) than focusing on 64GB of RAM. Not only is RAM outrageously priced right now, unless you know you need 64GB of RAM, 32GB will be totally fine. Hell, my 2021 M1 MacBook Pro only has 16GB of RAM and I still use it today to edit photo