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Meanwhile, creative professionals and other power users should consider the graphics-acceleration recommendations of the apps they plan to run, using the software maker's system requirements as a guide. Graphics-accelerated video rendering or AI programs can benefit from the same types of GPUs as intensive 3D games. Professionals eyeing workstations will want to consider Nvidia's RTX A series lineup or AMD's Radeon Pro models.
Desktop towers and mini PCs also require separate speakers or headphones to deliver audio. If you don’t already have them, you'll have to spend extra money to buy some, and in the case of dedicated speakers, they'll take up room on your desk. For people who don't care as much about audio quality and just want loud enough audio to hear family members on the other end of a Skype call, the built-in speakers of an AIO should work just fine. Few Android games can take advantage of its rotating display, but it's a nifty online kiosk for a family room or even a home office.
Best Mini Desktop
The 27-inch iMac is a must-have desktop computer for creative professionals who need to multitask between multiple processor-intensive programs. Random-access memory is memory that your computer uses to perform multiple tasks simultaneously. We recommend a minimum of 8 GB of RAM on standard computers, and 2 GB of RAM on microcomputers. When researching desktop computers, we make sure to consider offerings from respected and reliable brands that have been industry leaders for years.
Also, the typical base and boost clock speeds may be lower, and the chip may not support multithreading. That said, many desktop PC buyers will be fine with these lower-powered CPUs for everyday work, and a little more. AMD and Intel, the two biggest makers of processors for PCs, offer desktop-class chips and laptop-class chips to system manufacturers, but often the CPU model names are similar and tricky to tell apart. For example, you will see Intel's Core i7 in both laptops and desktops, but having a "true" desktop CPU versus one made for a mobile device makes a big performance difference. IT-manageable, security-conscious business desktops—most of them nowadays made by Dell, HP, and Lenovo—have their own pricing dynamic and tend to cost more, all else being equal. That's because of their premium warranty or support plans, as well as the possible addition of enterprise-specific silicon focused on manageability or security.
HP Pavilion TG01-1120
Although not as powerful as a machine with top specs, this Pavilion machine has power where it counts — and it's as cheap as $700. Most manufacturers offer the chance to bundle a keyboard and mouse when you buy a desktop, so we suggest you just do that. While your personal memories and files used to be stored on large mechanical hard drives that were prone to failure after extended periods of use, things are a little different in the modern computing world.
Apple's iMac is probably the model of a 24-inch all-in-one desktop, but it starts at $1,299. MSI's Modern AM241P 11M starts at $849.99 with a peppy Intel Core i5 CPU, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB solid-state drive, a reasonably good-looking full HD display, a nice array of ports, and a wireless keyboard and mouse. Its screen bezels are too thin for a built-in webcam, but MSI bundles a sharp 1080p USB webcam you can park on the top bezel and remove when not in use.
Lenovo Legion Tower 5i (
If price is your top concern, it’s cheapest to buy the base Mac mini and then purchase a 24-inch monitor, a wireless keyboard, and a wireless mouse. If you were to buy our budget picks from each of those guides, before tax you’d pay around $950, rather than $1,300 for the cheapest iMac. In doing so, you’d get all the same features as with the iMac, missing out only on its excellent display, though you could upgrade your own monitor later on with the Mac mini. Apple doesn’t offer a ton of options to customize your computer, but you should still make sure you’re selecting the right specs. If you want a home base for all the computing you can’t do on your phone, and if you use services that sync across devices such as iMessage, FaceTime, iCloud, and Apple’s Photos app, a Mac desktop is a great option. You might also want a Mac desktop if you do a lot of creative work on macOS-optimized apps and want to bring your own big display (or want a larger built-in display than a MacBook can offer).
While investigating desktop computers, we have found that one of the reasons people prefer them to laptops is the full-size keyboard, especially if said keyboard uses mechanical switches. Laptops and mobile devices may be all the rage these days, but there are times when nothing but a proper desktop computer will do. Whether you’re a hardcore PC gamer, a work-from-home warrior, or a once-in-a-while user, a desktop computer is the perfect way to get peak performance at a fraction of the cost of an equivalent laptop. Make sure you get a PC with enough storage space to hold everything you want to store on it. Ensure the primary storage is solid-state rather than a hard drive , as an SSD is much faster than an HDD. You can always add more internal drives if your PC has the space for them, and if not, then external hard drives or Network Attached Storage is an option.
The best mini gaming PC
Technically one of HP's Z series desktop workstations, the Z2 Mini G9 outdoes even Apple's Mac mini at cramming serious computing power into a diminutive desk accessory. Taking just 8.3 by 8.6 inches of desk space , the HP combines Intel's 12th Generation "Alder Lake" silicon with an industry-standard swappable graphics card and up to 64GB of memory and 8TB of storage. The best desktop computers give you plenty of processing power and memory storage.
You get to pick out components, and a PC's assembly isn't as daunting a task as you might think. However, it is time-consuming, and if you're doing it for the first time, it can be scary, and there is some risk of damaging expensive components. If you don't want to invest the time into part sourcing, installation, and troubleshooting, you might be better off buying a pre-built system. Desktop PCs come in many and varied shapes and sizes, but few stand out quite as much as the Alienware Aurora Ryzen Edition R14. It’s hard to say whether the Aurora R14 looks more like an alien spacecraft docked on your desk, or a jet turbine from some futuristic fighter jet. When it comes to desktop PCs, towers and all-in-ones represent the vast majority of the market.
A fourth option is to buy a desktop with no operating system at all and install an open-source one of your choosing, such as Ubuntu Linux. We don't recommend going this route unless you're technically savvy, willing to experiment, and okay fixing software compatibility issues and other quirks. You'll pay about $3,000 for a Z2 Mini G9 as well-equipped as our review unit, but if you need genuine workstation muscle in a tiny space, it's a heaven-sent solution. Architects, graphic designers, and engineers can get even faster performance and more expandability in bigger boxes, but if you crave not the most bang for the buck but bang for the square inch, it's your dream machine. The Surface Studio 2 is meant for graphics professionals, but it’s got tons of handy features for anyone who’s got the cash for the hefty price tag. It’s centered around a 28-inch touch screen display with 13.5 million pixels that are intended to more accurately represent real colors than competitors.
Dell is offering this new XPS desktop with Intel Alder Lake and DDR5 RAM for those who are in search of the best gaming PC. You can add in up to an RTX 3090 graphics card as well, which is a serious amount of power considering the size of the machine. Powerful hardware means more heat, but the XPS 8950 gets rid of it well with optional liquid cooling and a case with plenty of room for airflow. Desktop PCs come in a mind-boggling array of shapes and sizes, from streamlined all-in-ones to giant towers.
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