The Best Windows Mini PCs for 2024 (2024)

The term "microcomputer" has its origins in the 1970s—the "micro" of the personal computers emerging then lay in stark contrast to the room-size mainframe beasts of the day. But fast-forward half a century or so, and oh, micro, how you've changed!

Most of the acceleration toward super-small desktop PCshas happened over the last decade or so. Of course, it's still easy enough to find ordinary business boxes and hulking power towers packed with bigvideo cardsand multiple platter-based hard drives. But starting with the "small-form-factor" (SFF) PC revolution of the '00s, many desktops have gone from half-size towers to compact cubes to, in their most extreme reduction, sticks not much bigger than a USB flash drive.

A big reason why? Graphics acceleration and other essential features, handled in the past by separate chips or bulky cards, have been subsumed under the CPU. Nowadays, miniaturization is getting to the point where you can't go all that much smaller. You need to leave some space for ports to plug in a thing or two.

Our guide here will explore the nuances of today's smallest PCs. First, we've broken out the best mini PCs for 2024 that we've tested below, according to the usage case. Following that is a detailed breakdown of how to buy the right model for you. We wrap up below that with a chart-style spec breakout of all our top picks.

Deeper Dive: Our Top Tested Picks

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Buying Guide: The Best Windows Mini PCs for 2024

We're seeing some clear stratification in the market for tiny desktop PCs. The very smallest PCs might be termed the "stick class," pioneered by the Atom CPU-poweredIntel Compute Stickwe first reviewed in early 2015 (and again in its refreshedCherry Trail AtomandCore m3forms), followed by similar sticks from Asus, Azulle, Lenovo, and others.

You can still find stick PCs on the market, but these are suitable only for display/signage use or extremely basic applications. After a promising debut those years back, they have not seen all that much evolution or momentum. They have failed to have a major impact; the form factor is just too small to grow beyond those use cases.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

The models next up in size were much more dynamic, a bunch we traditionally termed the "NUC class." NUC stands for "Next Unit of Computing," a longtime initiative started by Intel to spur the development of very small Windows-based desktop PCs using its mobile-centric processors. Over the last decade or so, the chip giant released successive series of NUC-branded mini PC kits, and several of the traditional PC component makers have followed suit with similar models.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

Most of the "classic" NUC mini PCs were around 5 or 6 inches square, thoughlater NUCs expanded the footprint to wider and taller designs, with commensurate increases in the performance level. Intel shuttered its NUC program in 2023 (stocks of some of its latest NUC models remain on the market for now), but Asus has picked up the NUC-brand torch and is keeping the name alive. They and other PC makers continue to deliver mini PCs with decent power, plus some that push the boundaries of the platform.

(Credit: Kyle Cobian)

Separate from those is a host of PCs that are undeniably small but follow their own shape and size rules. Zotac, a major player in small PCs (and one of the category's unsung innovators), offers a huge range of Zbox PCs that range in size from "classic NUC" size on upward. Shuttle, too, is another small-PC pioneer, offering machines in a host of shapes mostly nowadays for business and industrial audiences. And on the macOS side of things, the venerableApple Mac miniis a sleek, square silver box with rounded edges that saw a big update in 2023. Like the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, it received Apple's homegrown M1 and M2 processors in recent years, greatly increasing its performance.

Should You Buy a Bare-Bones or Fully Configured Mini PC?

Not all mini PCs ship as complete systems. With some models, you get what amounts to a PC kit: a tiny chassis with a motherboard pre-installed. (In some cases, a soldered-on processor is in place, as opposed to a socketed one.) Plus, in most cases, wireless connectivity is built in. To complete the kit, you have to shop for and install a storage drive (a hard drive and/or a solid-state drive, depending on the model) and RAM modules, and install your operating system.

This arrangement is what's called in reseller lingo a "bare-bones PC." You'll want to make sure you know what you are getting. In some cases, a given mini system is sold in bare-bones form,as well asin pre-configured versions with storage, RAM, and Windows present.

You need to factor those parts and a Windows license (unless you plan to use Linux) into the total cost. The parts you will need, mind you, will be small: the kind that you'd typically find in a laptop, not a desktop. Many small PCs like these make use of DDR4 or DDR5 SO-DIMMs—laptop-style RAM modules—for their main memory instead of full-size desktop DIMMs.

(Credit: Zlata Ivleva)

The form factor of the storage varies more. Depending on the mini PC you are looking at, you may need a 2.5-inch drive (a solid-state or hard drive, the size that goes into most full-size laptops), or a slimmer variety of SSD that's known as anM.2 SSD. Such drives are the size and shape of a stick of chewing gum. Check out our guide to these complicated drives at the link; if you need to install an M.2 SSD on a bare-bones desktop, you need to know about some interface/bus and sizing subtleties before you shop. (It's easy to buy an incompatible drive.)

If a given system is a bare-bones kit, you'll need to get more than a little hands-on with it to get it up and running. But a kit gives you maximum flexibility in terms of component selection. That said, one advantage of a pre-configured system, apart from the easier setup, is the fact that Windows or macOS comes installed; you won't need to install and update the OS and its drivers.

Should You Get Dedicated or Integrated Graphics in Your Mini PC?

Most mini PCs are as "mini" as they are because they rely on the basic-grade graphics acceleration built into the CPU to power their video outputs—no separate graphics card is involved. This integrated graphics silicon will suffice for productivity work and video playback. A few outlying models, though, do incorporate the same kind of separate, dedicated mobile graphics chips that appear in gaming laptops. A few compact workstation desktops even make use of Nvidia's professional-grade graphics and up to Intel Xeon processors for high-power, ISV-certified tasks.

(Credit: Kyle Cobian)

Some of the larger Intel NUC models included discrete mobile and desktop GPUs. That means well-above-average graphics performance in a system this size. These "Extreme" Intel NUCs made room for a dual-slot graphics card up to 12 inches long. That opens up some serious productivity and gaming power, but the NUC Extremes take you out of the true "mini" size category, and they're only available as end-of-life models at this point. It's all relative. We'll have to watch for some newer models, such as the forthcoming Asus ROG NUC, to carry on the trend.

The thing is, if you're sticking with a truly small PC, a dedicated graphics chip is seldom an option, simply because of space and thermal design reasons. We'll see what this year brings in this department, but a traditional gaming PC will always be your best bet to maximize power for serious gaming.

Mini PC Connections: What Do You Need?

Some mini PCs include mounting kits that let you attach them to the back of an LCDmonitor. Check for that feature if space savings of that kind is important to you. And check the back of your monitor for mounting holes, which, if present, normally comply with the VESA mounting standard.

Also, check for 802.11 Wi-Fi (wireless networking) of some flavor. Most micro PCs include at least that as a standard feature (and most also incorporate Bluetooth), but double-check that the system or kit doesn't require the purchase of a separate Wi-Fi card in the Mini-PCI Express or M.2 form factor. Some do.

USB and video outputs may seem like obvious things to look for, but with smaller PCs like these, the number provided can be less than you may be used to. Check for enough of each for the peripherals you need to connect.

Also check for multi-monitor support if that is a factor for you. Some small PCs are designed explicitly for digital signage and may support more concurrent displays than you might expect from a little system. Note, though, that these models may emphasize video outputs in place of other connections, or indeed, even much in the way of CPU power.

Which CPUs Should You Look for in a Mini PC?

You'll see a variety of mobile-grade CPUs in the small PCs out there, ranging from Intel Celeron and Pentium chips (very basic, and good at best for simple productivity work, e-mailing, and web browsing) up to Core i5 and i7 (and in a few cases, i9) processors that can do some modest media-crunching and rendering work. You must know, however, if you are looking at a mobile-grade CPU (the kind used in laptops) or a desktop-strength chip. The size of the PC isn't always a good predictor of that. (That said, the very smallest PCs will always use mobile chips.)

How to tell? Most of the mini PCs on the market make use of Intel silicon, and the dead giveaway whether you're looking at a mobile CPU or a desktop one is usually the letter at the end of the processor's number. Look for a "T" or a "K," or no letter at all, as a dead giveaway for a desktop chip (for example, Core i5-13400T), or a "U" or "Y" (or possibly a "G3," "G5," or "G7") for a mobile one. With the chip family and generation being equal, you can generally expect more muscle (usually a consequence of more cores and higher base clocks) from the desktop version of, say, a Core i5 than from a mobile Core i5. In addition, Intel chips ending in "H" are a higher-powered grade of mobile processor, occupying the middle ground between the mainstream mobile chips and all-out socketed desktop chips. They are uncommon in mini desktops, but not unheard of; one of our favorite selections, the Lenovo IdeaCentre Mini, packs a 13th Gen Core i7 H-series CPU.

(Credit: Zlata Ivleva)

You'll also find some occasional AMD flavors as well, such as the embedded-class AMD Ryzen V1605B in the ECS Liva Q3 Plus and even the Ryzen 9 6900HX in the potent Geekom AS6. Intel also launched a new Core Ultra mobile platform; these haven't shown up in mini desktops just yet but, like other mobile processors, should eventually. Their onboard AI-ready neural processing units (NPUs) may prove useful to desktop users.

What to glean from that mobile-versus-desktop insight? Our benchmark testing will quantify the trends, but none of the mobile-grade chips in these small PCs is a proper substitute for a desktop chip if you're a heavy multitasker, or a media pro who needs real processing muscle, say, to convert lots of video or photo files from one format to another. In most cases, the CPU is the single biggest factor in the cost of a mini PC, so keep an eye on the performance numbers in our reviews for a relative idea of what you are getting.

(Credit: Molly Flores)

Rule of thumb? For light office work, you can get by with a mobile or desktop Core i3-based mini PC, but you'll want to err on the side of a higher-end, desktop-strength Core chip if you'll need extra pep for serious multitasking, file conversions, heavy calculations, or multimedia content manipulation.

So, What's the Best Mini PC to Buy?

Check out the spec breakout below for our latest mini PC recommendations, which parallel the models we outlined above. If you're shopping for a small desktop to save money, you'll also want to check out our picks for thetop cheap desktops.

If you'd like to go a bit bigger, head on over to our top choices for standard-sizedesktops, which include some small-form-factor PCs, or see our guide to thetop all-in-one desktops, which tend to be trim and feature built-in displays.