Product Survey: mini PCs

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For those who don’t want a laptop or a large desktop, here’s the solution: mini PCs. Often based on laptop components, these machines don’t take up much space and offer all the functionality of a standard PC.

Florent Alzieu
Updated: July 20, 2009

Energy consumption

The good news is that minis don’t consume much energy. Often based on laptop components, they benefit from the energy economy advances in this sector and consume a lot less than a standard desktop. The Mac mini is a very good example. It needs 10 watts on standby and only 35 watts when in heavy use. This is 10 times less than a powerful desktop.

Watch out though, there is a but… You need to factor in screen consumption. Although screen consumption is taken into account on a laptop, here you need to add 35 watts for a 22 inch screen and more than 40 watts for a 24 inch.

Some common uses for a computer? Office work, using the net, touching up photos, editing video and gaming. In the case of mini PCs, you need to start out by thinking that your main use for them will be office work. They are perfectly adapted for office documents and internet navigation. They can also be used for working on photos or editing video. You’ll just have to make sure that the built-in processor is powerful enough. If it’s an Atom, you’ll need to be very patient. Gaming is a little delicate. If you’re only playing in 2D and games that aren’t particularly demanding of graphics resources, you should be able to get away with it. If you’re trying to play on a 1920x1200 display using advanced options such as anti-aliasing, you’ll have a lot less joy.

Multimedia server

Depending on the video and audio connections, you may be tempted to buy a mini PC for use as a multimedia server. This is a good plan. Make sure that the processor and graphics card are powerful enough to deal with Full HD video if you’re also going to use your server to view films on. Adding a remote (often an option) is a good idea, if your wireless mouse doesn’t work from the couch.

Why go for a mini PC rather than a laptop?

One of the recurring problems with laptops is the quality of screens. Panels are often shiny, give poor colour quality and low contrast. With a mini PC you have the choice. Depending on the available connections at the back of the machine, you’ll be able to plug in the screen of your choice and get a larger, better display. Take a look at our 22 inch and 23 to 28 inch product surveys to help you make your choice.

No or little opportunity to update

You can open up a desktop (guarantees notwithstanding) and poke around inside to change any components that are outdated. This will give your machine an extra lease of life if it’s getting a bit tired. In the case of mini PCs, your options are more limited. You won’t, for example, be able to touch the processor or the graphics card. The RAM and sometimes the hard drive are often the only accessible components. This limits the life of mini PCs and you need to be aware of this before you buy.