An all-in-one (AIO) desktop is quite a different animal than both of these form factors. An AIO can save you some space, since the display is built in. An AIO's value proposition comes down to space saving and whether you happen to be shopping for a desktop display at the same time. Though you can find budget AIOs with basic feature sets, lower resolutions, and non-touch screens, many new models include touch-enabled screens, and some AIO panels have exceptionally high native resolutions of 4K (3,840 by 2,160 pixels) or even 5K (5,120 by 2,880 pixels). Touch displays make them excellent choices for watching movies or serving as a multimedia hub in the kitchen or other public area of your home, though the absolute highest resolutions target content creators rather than consumers. IDC Whitepaper: “Optimizing Performance with Frequent Server Replacements for Enterprises” commissioned by Dell Technologies and Intel, March 2021. Results are based on interviews with 18 IT practitioners and decision makers at midsize and large enterprises and a web survey of 707 IT practitioners and decision makers at midsize and larger enterprises using Dell Technologies server solutions across 7 industries. See full whitepaper: https://www.delltechnologies.com/resources/en-us/asset/white-papers/products/servers/server-infrastructure-resiliency-enterprise-whitepaper.pdf Screen resolution is key when buying a monitor, and should be your primary concern. Anything that is less than Full High Definition (1920 x 1080 pixels) should be rejected, but you’re unlikely to find a modern day monitor with lower resolution.

The latest Intel NUC (Next Unit of Computing) is another entry in Intel's long line of mini PCs, and another that comes highly recommended. Leveraging laptop components to create a truly compact desktop experience, the Intel NUC 12 Pro is surprisingly powerful, and ready for everything from media streaming to professional work. With plenty of ports and a design that encourages add-ons and novel uses, this tiny PC is excellent for everything shy of gaming and heavy media editing. It's also offered as either a preconfigured system, or a bare-bones kit (you provide the RAM, solid-state drive, and Windows license), making it a fine choice for hobbyists looking to tinker. Who It's For Desktop towers and mini PCs also require separate speakers or headphones to deliver audio. If you don’t already have them, you'll have to spend extra money to buy some, and in the case of dedicated speakers, they'll take up room on your desk. For people who don't care as much about audio quality and just want loud enough audio to hear family members on the other end of a Skype call, the built-in speakers of an AIO should work just fine. How many buttons - Most desktop mouse designs have two buttons and a scroll wheel. However, with the introduction of programmable buttons on more advanced models, there can be huge convenience to being able to add your most used keys to the mouse. Outside of whether you want a traditional 'box' and separate monitor and accessories, it's the specifications (and what you’ll pay for them) that are the key difference between desktops and all-in-ones.Media keys - For those using their PCs to play music and movies, a keyboard with dedicated media buttons can be extremely convenient. The inclusion of play, pause and volume buttons saves having to navigate to the program with the mouse. How to buy a PC mouse Space saving - If space is at a premium, an all-in-one can be a good fit as you'll only need to consider where to place the screen, and don’t have to house a traditional ‘tower’ too. This makes them more flexible in the home, and also a degree more portable. While you won’t want to take it on the train with you, it’s much easier to move an all-in-one from one spot in your home to another. Can be cheaper - If you already have a monitor and a keyboard and mouse, then a desktop PC can be a good value option compared to an all-in-one. Generally speaking, it can be cheaper to buy a powerful Core i5 or i7-processor desktop, compared to the equivalent on an all-in-one. If you're looking for a computer to use primarily at home or in the office, the choice will come down to either a traditional desktop PC or an all-in-one PC. Less powerful - as mentioned above, they often use laptop-grade components instead of more powerful desktop-grade ones. This is fine, but if absolute performance is a must, you should opt for a big tower instead.

Since you won’t be lugging a desktop around nearly as much as you would a laptop, it’s less important to handle the chassis and test-drive its build quality in the store before you bring it home. Still, if the desktop comes with peripherals included, it can be helpful to type a few lines and move the mouse around in the store. And setting eyes on an all-in-one desktop is more crucial than with a typical tower desktop or mini PC. The screen is an integral part of what you are buying, and eyes-on time matters, especially if you’re not well-versed, say, in the differences between a 24-inch and 27-inch panel, or a 1080p screen versus a 4K one. As should be expected, the Mac Studio with Apple's latest M2 Ultra processor is the company's most powerful small-form-factor Mac desktop to date. In fact, it uses much of the same silicon and supporting hardware that the brand-new Mac Pro has, albeit in a far smaller case, which limits thermals as well as expansion comparatively. Regardless, our review unit tore through all of our benchmarks, proving to be well worth its steep but relatively competitive price, earning an Editors' Choice award. Who It's For

Apple Mac mini (2023)

Google's ChromeOS is a viable alternative to Windows and macOS, but desktops running it (called Chromeboxes) are rare and best suited to niche uses like powering a restaurant menu display. A fourth option is to buy a desktop with no operating system at all and install an open-source one of your choosing, such as Ubuntu Linux. We don't recommend going this route unless you're technically savvy, willing to experiment, and okay fixing software compatibility issues and other quirks. Not as user-friendly - While we’ve come a long way since the days of home PCs being the reserve of the technologically minded, if you’re skittish around tech, you might be slightly put off by the concept of a connecting up a desktop or custom-choosing its inner workings, compared to the ‘plug and play’ nature of an all-in-one. Of every all-in-one desktop we’ve tested in recent memory, the Lenovo IdeaCentre AIO 5i is the best AIO today for most of you. It’s not outstanding at any particular task, but it reliably meets the needs of the average household. With a large 27-inch 1440p screen, it does well to replace most monitors more than a few years old, and you’ll find an excellent 1080p webcam above it. This isn’t a barn-burner on benchmarks, but it has lots of pep for its price. Who It's For If you use Macs for high-end multimedia or 3D asset manipulation and rendering, this is the Mac desktop you've probably been holding out for. While we weren't able to directly test many uses cases for the Mac Studio, such as machine learning performance, we did note promising accuracy between most our test results and many of Apple's M2 Ultra performance gains. If you don't necessarily need the huge expansion available in the Mac Pro, then save yourself tens of thousands with the Mac Studio.

Wired or wireless - A wireless mouse is arguably more useful if it’s being used with a laptop, but if you want a wire-free work surface, then they can be a great choice for a desktop, too. As the power drain on a wireless mouse is low, you’ll find that the battery life is excellent, with one set lasting you for months. Some models are rechargeable too. While there are a wide selection of peripherals for all budgets, it’s important to consider your own requirements and not be tempted by flashy products that you won’t make use of. How to buy a keyboard However, people who need copious amounts of CPU or GPU muscle (and who have a clear idea of what hardware moves the performance needle with the apps they use) should pay attention to PC-component release cycles. Traditionally, Intel has announced new desktop CPU generations once a year, with the new chips showing up in PCs in the fall or early in the holiday shopping period. (This has shown more variance in recent years.) More powerful - While the basic specs might not look all that different, larger tower desktop PCs are generally a little faster than all-in-ones. That is because their internal components have more room to expel heat, meaning they can run faster for longer. The components inside of an all-in-one are usually more akin to what you'll find in a laptop.Ergonomic keyboards - Ergonomic keyboards are designed to feel more natural to type on, and can be a boon if you spend hours at a time typing. They tend to put less stress on the wrists and forearms, helping to cut down on chronic pain and repetitive strain. They take some getting used to, as the button placement is slightly different to a traditional keyboard. If possible, try one out before buying. New graphics-card releases are less frequent and depend on the vagaries of technical advances—Nvidia's highly successful GeForce GTX 1000 series, for example, was the cutting edge for several years before the first GeForce RTX cards were announced.