A Closer Look

Like the previously reviewed NUC BOX-1165G7 and 4X4 BOX-4800U, ASRock sticks with a similar design for the NUC BOX-1260P. This keeps costs down and means ASRock can quickly release affordable products with updated specifications to the market. That said, the outer shell is rather glossy but otherwise has no real eye-grabbing features, acceptable, since it is meant to be mounted on the rear of a monitor anyway. The fact it doesn't stand out plays to its main target markets such as digital signage, office work, kiosks, home media, or considering the performance, a decent emulation station for older games. Just be mindful that if you're not going to hide the NUC BOX-1260P behind your monitor, it will likely gather visible fingerprints and dust quickly.


The Front I/O consists of two USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C ports with DisplayPort 1.4 support and a USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A port, which will be ideal for external storage duties. Rounding out the front I/O is a combo audio jack for your headphone or microphone needs. When it comes to the power button, it's located on the top left, useful if the system is mounted to the rear of a typical office display. If placed on the back of a larger screen, it may be more troublesome to reach. Regardless, in most situations, the placement is convenient. As for the left side, a quick look shows a large vent for improved cooling.


Looking at the back I/O, you will find 2x USB 3.2 Type-A ports, 1x DisplayPort 1.4, 1x HDMI 2.0b, 2x 2.5 GbE LAN, and the power plug. Overall, the system's I/O, while not incredibly plentiful is still quite versatile. Between the front and back, you have five USB ports comprised of three Type-A and two Type-C, with the Type-C offering DisplayPort functionality for a quad-display setup. Compared to the previous generation of NUC BOX units I've reviewed, the NUC BOX-1260P has received a nice upgrade regarding LAN connectivity, with both ports being 2.5 GbE rather than 1 GbE or a mix of 1 and 2.5 GbE. Meanwhile, the right side has another large vent for increased airflow.


To power the system, ASRock opted for an AcBel 90-watt power brick.


As the system is barebones, I used 16 GB (2x 8 GB) of Kingston KVR32S22S6/8 3200 MHz memory and a Kingston KC3000 512 GB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD to get it up and running along with the latest Windows 11 ISO, with all patches. It should be noted the memory ran at 2666 MHz, and I was unable to force it to run at 3200 MHz since there were no accessible BIOS options with which to do so. Either way, it is a shame since the CPU itself supports speeds up to 3200 MHz. I should also mention that I did try Intel's XTU tool to see if I could force the memory to run at 3200 MHz, but the tool does not support the i7-1260P and left me hitting a brick wall. As such, even with the CPU supporting 3200 MHz memory, your mileage will vary as I do not have another set of memory on hand to verify if it's an issue with just the sticks I am using. Memory with JEDEC speeds of DDR4 3200 (not requiring XMP profile) should theoretically work out of the box.