Mini-PC

The last generation of the popular fruity board for tinkerers landed in 2021, though its creators did double the system memory the following year. Now the Raspberry Pi 5 has launched rocking in-house silicon for much-improved performance.

You don’t always need a big desktop rig covered in RGB LEDs – decent specs can come in tiny packages. The Pix Nii is one of the smallest and lightest mini PCs we’ve seen, which along with its dual 4K HDMI ports could make it a great media center.

Lenovo has launched an interesting addition to its ThinkStation line of desktop workstations, which offers the kind of tower-like performance needed to run CAD and BIM modeling applications but in a space-saving compact form factor.

We've seen a number of fanless mini computers from Israel's Compulab over the years, aimed at the Internet of Things, AI edge computing or industrial automation applications, and now the company has updated its modular fitlet model with Intel's latest Atom processor.

Though notebook-like devices tend to get most of the attention in the Chrome OS space, mini computers are also available where space is a premium. The latest Chromebox from Asus should also be a quiet runner thanks to its fanless design.

This year's all-digital CES doesn't officially kick off until next week, but Lenovo has partnered with NEC Personal Computers to break early with a small-factor portable PC concept called the Lavie Mini that has an interesting gaming twist.

Back in 2017, Asus leveraged its motherboard know-how to throw down the single-board computer gauntlet to the Raspberry Pi Foundation with the Tinker Board. There have been a few variations since, but now the second gen boards have been revealed.

Desktop computers can get rather bulky, which is unnecessary for people who just need to access the internet or do office work. If a mini PC takes up too much space for you, the new Raspberry Pi 400 packs a whole home computer into just a keyboard.

PC gaming can be a bit intimidating for new players or those used to consoles, but it’s worth it. After a few weeks with the Minisforum H31G, I can say this is a great place to start, packing more power than I expected into a simple, portable design.

Not everybody needs powerful computers – mini PCs can be great for work, media centers, or some modest gaming. Minisforum is now unveiling the EliteMini H31G, a small PC with a dedicated GPU that should let it run some more heavy-duty games.

Small form factor desktop computers are great if you're short on space, but you don't necessarily need to sacrifice performance. Such is the case with Lenovo's smallest ThinkCentre PC, which has been equipped with AMD Ryzen PRO processing.

Almost a year after the Pi 4 went on sale, the Raspberry Pi Foundation has doubled the maximum memory option to 8 GB, while also renaming the default operating system and releasing a 64-bit beta OS image.