Small Form Factor PC Reviews And News
Palm sized or pint sized, PCs are getting smaller, more powerful and more capable. Micro ATX motherboards and mini ITX motherboards for X86 processors, as well as tiny single board computers that run Linux and other open source operating systems, can deliver powerful computing experiences and great performance per square millimeter. Here are the mighty mites.
Lenovo Legion Go (starts at $699, as tested $749) Lenovo's entry into the handheld PC gaming device space has great performance for its size, solid battery life, and a beautiful display. Beautiful, high-resolution screen Comfortable controllers Good performance for a handheld PC Low-power battery life, including streaming, is great Innovative...
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AYANEO Retro Mini PC AM01: Starting at $149 Ayaneo's first-ever mini-PCs sport a cute retro aesthetic and good-enough performance for desktop use or casual and retro gaming. Cute Macintosh Throwback Aesthetics Efficient & Nearly Silent Operation Capable Desktop Performance Accessible Pricing Power-Limited...
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Geekom Mini IT13 - Starting at $499 (Use Coupon Code hothardwareit13 For $40 Off). Sample we tested with Core i9-13900H, 32GB RAM and 2TB SSD currently $899 $789. A very compact system, which seems nicely built and excels in some workloads, but held back somewhat by slower DDR4 RAM and an occasionally...
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Kamrui AM08 Pro - Starting at $699 (Use Coupon Code 2C729Y55 For $100 Off) A pint-sized Ryzen-Powered mini-PC with solid performance, the Kamrui AM08 Pro is held back somewhat by a middling price-to-performance ratio. Compact micro tower form factor User configurable TDP with a twist Easy access to RAM and storage upgrades 2.5...
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Ace Magician AM06PRO: Starts at $237.95 with Ryzen 5 5500U APU The Ace Magician AM06PRO is a fast, affordable and surprisingly powerful Mini-PC, packing a 6-core / 12-thread AMD Ryzen processor and Radeon graphics. Ryzen 5 5000U 6C/12T CPU with Radeon graphics Compact form factor Great price Includes 16GB RAM...
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ASUS ROG Ally: Starting At $599.99 The ASUS ROG Ally gaming PC handheld brings premium features to a market awash in me-too gadgets and compromises. It offers high performance in a small form factor at a competitive price. Incredible Handheld Performance Excellent Display And Great Sound Virtually Silent...
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DFI PCSF51 Industrial Pi: $580 (As Tested) + $28 Passive Heatsink The DFI PCSF51 is an 'Industrial Pi', powered by and AMD Ryzen Embedded R2000 processor for intensive and demanding edge applications. Compact SBC with x86 Ryzen CPU and Radeon Vega GPU Runs silently with the larger passive cooling option Highly...
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Falcon Northwest FragBox SFF Gaming PC: $5,489 (As Tested) The Falcon Northwest FragBox takes the crown as the fastest pre-built PC we've tested to date, even with its relatively small and portable form factor. The fastest hardware money can buy Impressive thermal management Low noise levels Premium fit and...
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Intel NUC 13 Extreme - Starting at $1179 ($1549 w/ Core i9-13900K) The new Intel NUC 13 Extreme is the fastest, most powerful NUC yet, but it's also the largest. Ultra High Performance Relatively Quiet Supports 3-Slot GPUs Easier To Build Pushing The Limits Of SFF Price Premium Intel has consistently updated and upgraded its...
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Minisforum HX90G Mini PC - Starting MSRP barebone $799, as tested $909 Minisforum's latest Mini PC is an all-AMD mobile processor affair. It is a compact and portable unit that outperformed most gaming laptops using similar hardware, and at a compelling price. Solid 1080p Gaming Compact size Easy...
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While it's only been about six months since Apple introduced the M1 Pro and M1 Max SoCs that would power the 16-inch and 14-inch MacBook Pro, the architecture within those chips can trace its roots back another full year to the dawn of Apple Silicon in the Mac mini's M1 processor. This is when Cupertino left Intel...
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Back in the mid-90s, I recall sitting around with his friends at the school lunch table poring over glossy magazines like PC Gamer and the long-defunct PC Accelerator, as well as the immense, phone-book-like Computer Shopper. Sure, you had your Dells, and your Compaqs, and your smaller vendors too, like ZEOS, Quantex...
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When Intel introduced its first NUC systems featuring its Compute Element, it said the modular design would decrease the time to market for newer, more powerful small form factor systems. That certainly appears to be the case. Hot on the heels of our NUC 11 Extreme review from a few months back, we have the latest NUC...
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We’re long-time proponents of big, bold and bodacious desktop systems around here. We’ve been evaluating the latest and greatest PC hardware for over two decades after all, and many of us have ben PC enthusiasts even longer than that. As much as we dig fully-loaded, high-end desktops though, there’s just something awesome...
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When Apple announced its new Mac lineup -- consisting of a MacBook Air, MacBook Pro 13, and Mac mini -- with its new M1 processor, the company was met with a mixture of enthusiasm and skepticism. Apple's performance claims were incredible. For instance, the company said that its new Apple Silicon offers upwards...
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Full disclosure, I've never been much of a mini-ITX form factor kind of guy. I mean I get the allure of a space-efficient PC design that can more easily integrate in to an office or home environment, but there are almost always caveats. Typically the trade-offs are either sacrificing performance and features, or you end up having to tolerate...
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Intel has been steadily updating, upgrading, and augmenting its line-up of small form factor NUC systems for many years now. Initially, most of the systems had a similar design language, but over time, Intel has expanded its offerings to address the needs of many more customers and potential use cases. Recently, we...
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We first got a taste of the Intel NUC 9 Extreme, codenamed Ghost Canyon, back at CES 2020 earlier this year. Like previous Intel NUCs, the NUC 9 is a small form factor system that will be sold in a variety of flavors. The NUC 9 extreme will be offered in barebones configurations, where customers must purchase memory...
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Dell's new OptiPlex 7070 Ultra desktop PC features a new, innovative design approach that's sleeker and more useful than traditional small form factor machines, when integrating them with standard displays. Small form factor PCs, like the Intel NUC, Gigabyte BRIX and ZOTAC ZBOX, tend to include VESA mounts for easy...
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The Raspberry Pi 4 is one of the cheapest single-board computers around, and thanks to its substantial performance boost over its predecessors, it also represents a good bang for the buck if you're interested in learning Linux, or just want to kick back and play some of your favorite retro games in Lakka. The good...
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Back in June, the Raspberry Pi Foundation announced their newest single-board computer, the Raspberry Pi 4. This tiny PC packs a quad-core Cortex A72 SoC from Broadcom and up to 4 GB of DDR4 memory at a very attractive price. While aimed at emerging markets for folks new to computers, the Pi really caught on with...
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Intel has embraced small form factor systems for many years. Whether it be high-end mini-PCs like the Hades Canyon NUC, complete with discrete graphics for gamers, or ultra-tiny devices like the Compute Card, Intel has consistently pushed small form factor markets forward, for just about as long as ‘performance...
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