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The throwback-style ports are there for people who still need to use them with older, specialized hardware such as point-of-sale scanners or industrial equipment. Of course, you can buy dongles and adapters for these special port needs, but the possibility of having them built in is a key benefit of choosing a desktop over a laptop. A 4K monitor or one with a high refresh rate will require a very powerful GPU to display games at the monitor's maximum potential. If you're just looking to do some middle-of-the-road gaming on a 1080p monitor , a mainstream card like those in Nvidia's GeForce GTX series will do just fine. At the high end, current GPU choices for gaming desktops comprise Nvidia's GeForce RTX 3000 series, and AMD's Radeon RX 6000 series. The RTX 2000 series and RX 5000 series respectively indicate previous-generation cards.
The exception to this rule is if you’re looking to use your desktop for gaming. While there are hundreds of games made for the Mac OS, the vast majority of serious gamers prefer Windows. Most games are released for Windows first, and often, they are not available for Mac computers.
Best Chrome OS All-In-One Desktop
Packing that small design with gaming-grade performance is no mean feat, but with a full-length graphics card and an "Alder Lake" desktop CPU, this is one scorcher of a mini PC. This little Dragon can hang with the big boys, providing as much gaming performance as larger systems. The latest Intel NUC is another entry in Intel's long line of mini PCs, and another that comes highly recommended. Leveraging laptop components to create a truly compact desktop experience, the Intel NUC 12 Pro is surprisingly powerful, and ready for everything from media streaming to professional work.
The Balance uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy. With its M1 processor is an easy recommendation for almost anyone. The Surface Studio 2 is also difficult to find now, with Microsoft no longer selling it via the official website.
Do I Need a Powerful Graphics Card?
Prices start at $1,299 for the base model with Apple's M1 chip — an 8-core processor that is also found in the Macbook Air — but you can spend up to $2,499 if you want extra RAM and storage. In late 2020, Apple introduced the M1 Chip, its first ARM-based processor built specifically for Apple hardware. That hardware included the Mac mini, making it a formidable little machine. However, the design of the Mac mini is a little disappointing, given that it's less upgradeable and has fewer available ports than the previous generation of this PC. Compact all-in-one desktops make good centralized family computers. The HP Chromebase takes it a step further by pairing one with the simple and secure Chrome OS -- the same operating system found on the Chromebooks your kids are probably using at school.
There’s even Google Assistant support, so you can use it like a smart speaker, too, and ask what the weather is like or start playing a song using just your voice. Acer has other desktop ranges, including the PS4-looking Veriton computers, but you’re paying more for the compact design here, and you’re getting less powerful PCs for your money. What you get here is an all-in-one PC, so no need to spend extra on a monitor or keyboard.
The best mini gaming PC
For storage, choose from either a traditional hard disk drive or a solid-state drive up to 1TB, with a secondary HDD up to 2TB for additional storage. You can also choose to have either Windows 10 Home or Windows 10 Pro installed to best suit your needs. The front of the PC tower has an SD card reader to quickly transfer files from mobile devices or cameras, as well as a USB-C port for faster file transfers from the latest devices.
Adam Doud has been writing in the technology space for almost a decade. When he's not hosting the Benefit of the Doud podcast, he's playing with the latest phones, tablets, and laptops. When not working, he's a cyclist, geocacher, and spends as much time outside as he can. Typically, you want to have at least 8GB unless you’re considering a low-power Chrome OS device. If you're going to do more multitasking, content creation, or gaming, then you want a minimum of 16GB.
HP's redesigned G9 version of its Z2 Mini workstation punches well above its weight, with desktop-class CPUs, replaceable graphics, and excellent connectivity. Dell’s redesigned XPS Desktop has a spiffy new look and extensive configuration options that suit it for just about any performance-forward task. It’s even got a relatively low footprint featuring a build that’s just 11.5mm and a design that weighs less than 10 pounds. This means you can pack extra monitors or speakers easily onto your desk and connect it to your new Mac desktop. This computer is a good pick if you spend most of your time streaming videos, browsing the web and doing light work like word processing, creating spreadsheets and putting together slideshows. If you need a tower-style desktop computer for casual use, HP’s Slim Desktop is the right choice.
He has extensive experience in tech and games journalism, with work published on IGN, Kotaku UK, Waypoint, GamesRadar, Trusted Reviews, and many more. You'll find him covering everything from smartphones and home computers to 3D printers and headphones. Some people use older PCs as a media server to store and stream videos. Some people install Chrome OS or Linux onto older PCs since they often run well on lower specifications. You can also see if your local school district takes donations or if there's a computer recycling center nearby. If you go that route, be sure to scrub all of your personal data off the computer first.
We mostly refer to Windows systems when we talk about workstations, but macOS holds a well-earned part of the design and digital content creation market. Its unibody aluminum chassis (7.7 inches square and 3.7 inches high) holds up to 128GB of memory and 8TB of storage. A plethora of ports support all the monitors and peripherals you could desire. And as for speed, well, we applaud PCs that perform our HandBrake video encoding test in under eight minutes. The Mac mini has been around since 2005, and it's never been better. Its starting price of $699 is dirt cheap by Apple standards, but its move from Intel to Apple's in-house M1 processor has revitalized the 7.7-inch-square (1.4 inches high) desktop.
We review hundreds of PCs every year, evaluating their features and testing their performance against peers in their respective categories. That way, you'll know which are best suited for gaming, which is our favorite general-purpose all-in-one, and which is the best if all you need is a small, powerful system you can get up and running quickly. Give some deep thought to the screen resolution, whatever the panel size. A 4K or even 5K resolution makes for a breathtaking screen, especially one that's 27 inches or larger, but such resolutions often add significantly to the price. As a result, you may want to settle for a screen with a full HD or 1080p (1,920-by-1,080-pixel) native resolution and spend money to upgrade other components instead.
The tiltable screen allows users to lower the screen almost flat and read or mark up documents with the stylus while standing up. The HP Envy All-In-One PC features a 32-inch display that produces stunning 4K resolution, giving you high-quality video recording and playback. The edge-to-edge glass also has an anti-reflection coating to help reduce glare and eye strain. With Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity built-in, you can wirelessly connect peripherals and integrate the computer into your home or business network. The dual speakers support Dolby Audio technology to produce deep, rich audio, while the front-facing camera records and streams in 1080p HD.
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