10+ best Windows 10 mini PCs to buy today [2021 Guide]

• Mini-PCs are an excellent choice for those that want to blend te processing power of a PC with the compact nature of a laptop.
• This list will showcase the best mini-PCs that are currently on the market, based on a performance/price ratio.
• To read more about these amazing devices, check out our Mini-PC Hub.
• We have plenty of other lists like the one below in our Computers section, so head over there.

Mini-PCs are small, capable devices that can deliver enough computing power for on-the-go jobs.

Most users do not need the latest i7 processor teamed-up with 16 GB of RAM, they only need a computer capable of performing basic to medium tasks.

Compared to regular desktop PCs, mini-PCs are cheaper, they run on less power, have eye-catching design, and don’t take as much space on your desk.

Mini-PCs can also be customized for specific performance.

The main downside is represented by the task limitation they impose, with very few exceptions. You cannot use a mini-PC to edit videos of photos because the results will not be satisfying.

Also, don’t buy a mini-PC to use it to play games, it simply does not have the computing and the graphics power to run games smoothly.

If you do want a small, portable gaming device, check out this mini-tower gaming PC from MSI.

What are the best mini-PCs deals?

Beelink U57 (recommended)

• Supports two drives (mSATA)
• 2 USB 3.0 ports available
• WiFi/Bluetooth combo card included
• 265 GB SSD included

• Can be considered a bit thick

This device is powered by an Intel Core i5-5257U Processor (up to 3.1 GHz) . You can also rely on 8 GB of RAM and a 256 GB SSD for storage. And if that’s not enough, you can easily extend it with another 2.5 inch HDD or SSD.

For fast data transfer capabilities, it supports dual Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0. It doesn’t have a discrete graphics card but the Intel Graphics 6100 does a pretty good job with most casual purposes.

Beelink 157 has average dimensions for a mini-PC ( 8.54 x 5.35 x 2.44 inches) and it weighs only 1.81 pounds / 821 g.

HP EliteDesk 800 G2(suggested)

• Very thin case
• Powerful specifications
• Easy accessibility to output ports
• Great for business apps and more

• Slightly higher price than other mini PC

This is definitely not your standard definition of a mini-PC. It is small but is very powerful.

Powered by an Intel Quad-Core i5-6500T (up to 3.1GHz) processor with 16 GB of DDR4 RAM, HP EliteDesk 800 is a perfect business mini-PC but it can also tackle more demanding apps.

It doesn’t have a discrete graphics card but it compensates with high storage from a 512 GB SSD.

CHUWI CoreBox

• Competitive price
• Interesting design
• Good heat dissipation and excellent cooling fan
• Can be used as DVR

• Slightly bigger than most mini PCs

Chuwi CoreBox looks like a fancy desktop PC that was shrunk by some kind of spell. Even so, its dimensions ( 6.81 x 6.22 x 2.87 inches) can be considered a little too big for a mini PC.

This pretend-desktop PC is powered by an Intel Core i5 processor and 8GB of DDR3 RAM. Its included 256GB SSD can be expanded with a 2TB 2.5 Inch HDD.

As for the connections, you’ve got a 2.4GHz/5GHz dual WiFi/Gigabit Ethernet and Bluetooth 4.2.

Lenovo Thinkcenter M700

• Very competitive price
• Powerful specifications
• Easy accessibilty to output ports
• Can be used as DVR

• Slightly higher price than other mini PC

Thinkcenter M700 is one of the few mini-PCs equipped with 6th Gen Intel processors for blazing-fast responsiveness.

Unlike other devices, it has been tested to military specifications against high temperatures, vibrations and shocks.

This mini-PC will be just fine even if your three-year old drops it to the ground. Lenovo’s dust shield reduces dust intake by nearly 40%.

M700 is packed with plenty of ports: 6 USB 3.0 ports, DP + DP, LAN, audio ports, and an optional VGA, HDMI. With all these features, you may be wondering how big it is: 1.36″ x 7.20″ x 7.05″ / 34.5 x 182.9 x 179 cm, weighing only 1.3 lbs /0.6 kg.

Guzila Mini PC

• Ultra-compact and light
• 2 HDMI ports
• Perfect for both office and home
• 4K video output
• Small price

• Not fanless

This mini-PC is indeed a monster. It is powered by a Quad-Core Intel Celeron J3455 processor (up to 2.3 GHz) with 6 GB of RAM .

This tiny box supports 4K resolution output from 2 HDMI ports, has a 120 GB SSD, and supports Gigabit Ethernet and dual-band Wi-Fi.

The Guzila Mini PC has average dimensions measuring 8.86 x 6.06 x 2.68 inches and it weighs only 1.72 pounds (780 g) which makes this mini-PC extremely portable.

Editor’s Note: This article continues on the next page . If you want to read more about the best tech deals, check out our wide collection of guides .

Frequently Asked Questions

Are mini PCs worth it?

In terms of sheer power, a mini PC is much weaker than a regular PC. However, they make up for it in size and power requirements. Here are some of the best mini PCs for Windows 10.

Are mini PCs noisy?

Not at all. Because their components are so compact and they aren’t so powerful, they don’t generate too much heat, and some don’t even have an internal fan either.

Are mini PCs compact?

Yes, they are. In fact, if you’re looking for the best mini PCs that will save your space, check out this guide.

The Best Windows Mini PCs for 2021

Some are bare-bones kits. Others are ready to go out of the box, complete with an OS, RAM, and memory installed. Whatever the form, these top Windows micro desktops all deliver surprising features, value, and pep for their size.

Our 10 Top Picks

Best for Early Adopters, Power Users

Intel NUC 9 Extreme Kit (Ghost Canyon)

Best for Decent CPU Pep and Storage Space

Asrock DeskMini X300

Best for Professional Users

Dell Precision 3240 Compact

Best for Architects, Engineers, Financial Analysts

HP Z2 Mini G5 Workstation

Best for Tinkerers, Space-Limited Productivity

Intel NUC Kit NUC8i7BEH (Bean Canyon)

Best for Businesses

Lenovo ThinkCentre M720q Tiny

Best If Quiet Running Matters Most

Lenovo ThinkCentre M90n Nano IoT

Best for Basic Digital Signage

Azulle Byte4

Best for a Basic, Configurable Business PC

Dell OptiPlex 7080 Micro

Best for Simple, Everyday Computing Tasks

ECS Liva Z3 Plus

Compare Specs The Best Windows Mini PCs for 2021

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 have changed!

Most of the acceleration toward super-small in desktop PCs has happened over the last decade. Of course, it’s still easy enough to find ordinary business boxes and hulking power towers packed with big video cards and 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 a whole lot 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, small-ification 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.

Mini PCs: How to Define Degrees of ‘Small’

As a result, we’re seeing some clear stratification in the market for tiny desktop PCs. The very smallest PCs might be termed the «stick class,» vanguarded by the Atom-CPU-powered Intel Compute Stick we first reviewed in early 2015 (and again in its refreshed, Cherry Trail Atom and Core m3 forms in 2016), followed by similar sticks from Asus, Azulle, Lenovo, and others.

These are really only suitable for display/signage use or extremely basic applications, and after a promising debut a few years back, have not seen all that much evolution or momentum. You can still find them on the market, but they have failed to have a major impact. A few vendors (notably, Azulle) still make them, though.

The Best Windows Mini PC Deals This Week*

*Deals are selected by our partner, TechBargains

The models next up in size are a bit more dynamic, a bunch we might term the «NUC class.» NUC stands for «Next Unit of Computing,» an initiative by Intel to spur the development of very small Windows-based desktop PCs using its mobile-centric processors. The chip giant has released a series of NUC-branded mini-PC kits in its own line, and several of the traditional PC-component makers have followed suit with similar models (Asus with its VivoMini line, and Gigabyte with its Brix models, for example).

The NUC PCs and their ilk tend to be around 5 or 6 inches square, though Intel’s 2020 NUC 9 Extreme changes this somewhat. The NUC 9 is a new mini-PC platform that Intel is encouraging partner manufacturers to utilize for many different types of PCs, based on a core-computing module called the Compute Element. While it’s technically a mini PC, full retail models from partners, such as the Razer Tomahawk, can be much larger than the small square boxes we’re used to associating with NUCs.

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 early innovators), offers a huge range of Zbox PCs that range in size from a fat smartphone to a bulky Discman. Shuttle, too, is another small-PC pioneer, offering machines in a host of shapes. On the macOS side of things, the venerable Apple Mac Mini is a sleek, square silver box with rounded edges that saw a big update in late 2020. Like the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, it received Apple’s homegrown M1 processor, greatly increasing its performance.

Should You Buy Bare Bones or Ready-Configured?

Not all mini PCs ship as complete systems; more so than any other class of PC, they tend not to.

Especially in the case of Intel’s NUC kits, Shuttle’s small PCs, and many of Zotac’s Zboxes, 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 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 own 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 as in 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 SO-DIMMs—laptop-style RAM modules—for their main memory instead of full-size desktop DDR4 DIMMs.

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 cutting-edge variety of SSD that’s known as an M.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 in a bare-bones desktop, you need to know about some interface/bus and sizing subtleties before you shop. (It’s easy, otherwise, 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?

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. Among them are Zotac’s Zbox Magnus models, which employ dedicated GeForce graphics muscular enough for serious PC gaming at reasonable detail settings at 1080p (1,920 by 1,080 pixels) and, in some cases, higher resolutions. The 2021 Dell Precision 3240 Compact even makes use of Nvidia Quadro graphics and up to Intel Xeon processors for workstation-grade tasks.

One interesting such dedicated-graphics model from the last couple of years is the Intel NUC Kit NUC8i7HVK («Hades Canyon») mini PC, which debuted in the first half of 2018 and only recently went out of support. This small desktop makes use of one of Intel’s pioneering «Kaby Lake-G» processors that were developed in concert with AMD. The chip used here combines Intel Core i7 silicon for the CPU portion and AMD’s peppy Radeon RX Vega M graphics acceleration on the same die. (Earlier Intel NUCs relied solely on Intel’s own integrated HD Graphics or Iris solutions.) That means well-above-average graphics performance in a system this size.

Many of the new Intel NUC 9 models mentioned earlier will undoubtedly offer superior performance, but in a notably larger form factor. The thing is, when you’re dealing with a truly small PC, a dedicated graphics chip is seldom an option, simply because of space and thermal-design reasons. One promising development, though, is the peppier integrated graphics in Intel’s 11th Generation «Tiger Lake» CPUs. Designed for mobile systems, they would also seem a perfect fit for mini PCs, and the integrated Iris Xe graphics silicon has shown solid improvement in our early tests and first Iris Xe laptop reviews. Look for mini PCs based on Tiger Lake CPUs through the start of 2021.

Connectivity and Mountability

Some mini PCs include mounting kits that let you attach them to the back of an LCD monitor. 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 a bunch more 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.

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 Atom and Celeron chips (very basic, and good at best for simple productivity work, e-mailing, and web browsing) up to Core i5 and i7 processors that can do some modest media-crunching and rendering work. It’s crucial that you 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 stick 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 (but not always) 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 i5-9400T), or a «U» or «Y» (or with the very latest chips, possibly a «G3,» «G5,» or «G7») for a mobile one. 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.

What should you 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.

Rule of thumb? For light office work, you can get by with a mobile or desktop Core i3- or Pentium-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 calculation-based work, or multimedia content manipulation. Celeron chips, meanwhile, are okay for only the very lightest of tasks, or undemanding digital display/signage use. Atoms (which are mostly gone from the market) are best avoided except for single-use, mostly passive tasks.

So, Which Mini PC Should I Buy?

Check out the list below for our latest mini PC recommendations. If you’re shopping for a small desktop to save money, you’ll also want to check out our picks for the top cheap desktops.

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