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. Most of the acceleration toward super-small desktop PCs has happened over the last decade or so. But fast-forward half a century or so, and oh, micro, how you've changed! 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. Since 1982, PCMag has tested and rated thousands of products to help you make better buying decisions.

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Be sure to check out our collections of the best desktop computers and best Windows laptops for a bunch of great full-size PC options. The attractive little case comes with an external power supply and motherboard to get you started.

You can buy it barebones, or you can go with a model that also includes RAM and storage.Īnd if you're a fan of DIY, ASRock's DeskMini X310W supports Intel 8th Gen (socket LGA 1151) processors with built-in graphics, but you need to provide a chunk of the components yourself.

The latest NUC 11 Performance kit packs in 11th Gen Intel CPUs for excellent performance, plus it's built into a chassis that's compact and easy to manage. But when it comes to compact computers, Intel continues to lead the way with its NUC line.

Find out more about how we test.ĭespite their size, all these machines are capable Windows PCs. Why you can trust Windows Central Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you.

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