Mini PCs offer more potential than laptops yet more pitfalls than a desktop PC. Here’s how to navigate the choices
You’d be forgiven for assuming that it’s easier to choose a
smaller, simpler computer than it is to buy a full-blown desktop or find the
right laptop. Yes, but also no. Mini PCs might not have the expandability of
their full-size cousins, and you don’t need to worry about screen, trackpad or
keyboard quality as you do with a laptop, but there are still plenty of
pitfalls.
In fact, with limited scope to upgrade and limited space to do it in, it’s more
important to get the fundamentals right from the start. Happily, we’re here to
assist.
The Size Advantage
All mini PCs are small by definition, but many are less than one litre in volume – that’s about the size of four to six thick slices of supermarket bread. For a comparison of how the PCs in this test measure up, check out the size graph on p95.
Why go small? First, the obvious: mini PCs weigh less and take up less room than standard computers. They usually have a far smaller footprint than a laptop, and if not you can often mount them vertically. That means they’re a great way to reclaim space in the office, or pack a powerful PC into a small bag. Nearly all mini PCs come with a VESA mount, which lets you fix them to the back of most monitor stands: out of sight, out of the way.
This limited size does come at a cost; mini PCs almost exclusively use laptop processors for their lower power consumption and limited heat generation. Similarly, their tight cases can’t deal with the size, power or heat of discrete graphics cards, so you’ll almost always end up relying on the processor’s integrated chip.
That said, you can add an external graphics card via USB 4, Thunderbolt 4, or
OCuLink (as fitted to the Minisforum AI X1 Pro on p87). If you think you might
want to add a graphics card, remember that USB 3.2 isn’t fast enough.
Number crunching
Laptop processors won’t slow you down. In fact, they’ll probably be significantly faster than those in a desktop PC you might be replacing. Every PC here has more than enough processing power for everyday Windows computing.
However, as you’ll see from the performance charts from p94, there’s a wide spread of power on offer. If you’re likely to run processor-intensive software for coding, video editing or other multimedia applications, be prepared to pay more for lots of power. If you’re not, you’ll do fine with a more entry-level device – it will save you money and probably use less electricity, as our estimated running costs graph on p95 shows.
While none of this group of mini PCs is suitable for high settings in the most demanding games, several come with enough power for casual gaming. Three scored more than 3,000 points in 3DMark Time Spy – a commendable result – while all but three could manage a playable 30 frames per second (or close to it) in Shadow of the Tomb Raider.
AI in the sky?
When we last focused on mini PCs (see issue 363, p78), none came with powerful enough AI capabilities to qualify for Microsoft’s Copilot+ PC scheme. Things have moved on, and you can choose from four such models here: Asus’ ExpertCenter PN54 and NUC 14 Pro AI, the MSI Cubi NUC AI+ and Minisforum’s AI X1 Pro. Two other PCs offer AI acceleration but fall short of Microsoft’s 40 trillion operations per second (TOPS) requirement.
It’s hard to say definitively how much this matters. In theory, a neural processing unit (NPU) adds highly optimised firepower for AI-enhanced software, particularly in a mini PC that can’t otherwise draw on grunt from a discrete graphics processor (GPU). In a Copilot+ PC, you get useful features such as live captions and live translations, plus Recall, designed to help you find things by describing what you remember about them.
As yet, only a minority of software derives a direct benefit from an NPU. However, you tend to find them on high-end processors, which perform strongly anyway. All of the best benchmark results in this group came from the six mini PCs with an AI processor, but five of these were the most expensive PCs in the test.
Upgrade yourself
You can swap out almost anything in a desktop PC, and generally very little in a laptop. Mini PCs are somewhere in the middle. It’s usually incredibly easy to pop off the base, where you’ll usually have access to dual RAM slots, and often one or more empty M.2 slots. However, mini PCs sometimes have integrated memory that can’t be upgraded – three did in this test. Many others (five here) come without any free RAM slots, so you’ll need to remove the fitted memory if you want to upgrade.
Dropping in an extra SSD is a good way to add fast storage – ten of the 12 PCs on test had at least one free slot. Both Geekom mini PCs use their extra height to offer both an SSD slot and a slot for a 2.5in disk up to 1TB. That’s a cheaper way to add storage where speed isn’t the priority, but note that in both these computers the spare M.2 SSD slot supports only slower SATA disks, not PCIe ones.
Mini PC processors are usually fixed, so you can’t upgrade anything else internally. Seven of these computers had the necessary USB 4, Thunderbolt 4 or OCuLink ports to add an external graphics card, however.
Connections
Almost none of this group is likely to come up short when it comes to connecting peripherals. With the exception of Lenovo’s ThinkCentre Neo 50s Gen 5, each had at least one USB 3.2 Gen 2 port, capable of 10 gigabits per second (Gbits/sec) data transfers. That’s fast enough to get the most out of external storage, or support a USB display adapter up to 4K.
As mentioned above, seven PCs had at least one Thunderbolt 4 or USB 4 port, with the Minisforum AI X1 Pro the only model here to also offer an OCuLink port.
With more home routers and office switches offering 2.5GbE network connections, it makes sense to look for a mini PC with a 2.5GbE network port – two-thirds of those tested here have at least one. The standard is 2.5 times faster than regular gigabit Ethernet, which can make a big difference if you regularly transfer big files to and from a network drive, or back up to a NAS.
Remember, though, that you’ll need a 2.5GbE switch and other 2.5GbE devices to access the extra speed. And while two 2.5GbE ports allow for redundancy, load balancing and – potentially – higher speeds, you’ll need two cables and two sockets on the switch for every device you connect this way.
Or you could go wireless. We were astonished that the two Lenovo computers tested here came without Wi-Fi, but everything else arrived supporting a minimum of Wi-Fi 6, which offers a theoretical maximum 9.6Gbits/sec bandwidth. Five PCs supported Wi-Fi 6E, which uses the 6GHz band to improve real-world speeds, while three had Wi-Fi 7, with a theoretical top speed of 46Gbits/sec.
You’ll need at least a Wi-Fi 6 router to benefit, but – separated from our Wi-Fi 6 mesh extender by one storey – all the Wi-Fi-equipped PCs could sustain at least 500Mbits/sec on large file transfers, with several bursting at up to 700Mbits/sec. At that speed, a one gigabyte file transfers in less than 12 seconds. All the Wi-Fi-equipped PCs also had Bluetooth, with versions ranging from 5.2 to 5.4.
Warranty and support
Finally, don’t overlook the length of warranty on offer, and the kind of support you’re likely to get. The PCs in this test offer from one to three years of cover, while our Labs Winner offers two years on parts and five years’ free labour. You can compare many of the brands here in the PC Pro Technology Excellence Awards (see issue 363, p26), but we don’t yet have enough data to include Geekom or Minisforum. You can find extra information about a brand on third-party review sites such as TrustPilot.