These drives are very small, the size and thickness of a stick of gum. Memory capacities of 8GB or 16GB are fine for most users, and these are the most common configurations on entry-level or midrange desktops of all forms and sizes.
Few people will see much benefit from memory amounts above 16GB, but there are exceptions. Gaming PCs above the budget level should have at least 16GB of RAM, and 32GB is a prudent upgrade for esports hounds who want to play and simultaneously edit and stream in-game footage.
Finally, assuming your professional software can address higher memory amounts, professional workstations should have at least 32GB of memory with error-correcting code ECC capabilities to keep everything running smoothly. You'll want to follow the guidance of the software maker, in that case. You might be able to excuse a relative lack of input and output ports on a sleek AIO.
The screen and speakers are built in, and you'll likely use a wireless keyboard and mouse, anyway. But mini PCs and desktop towers need the right selection of ports. At a minimum, they'll have to connect to a display, speakers or headphones, and a power source. Make sure the machine's video outputs are compatible with your display and its cabling. Larger tower PCs will have many more ports, offering support for pretty much any peripheral you need to connect.
Expect six or more USB ports, for starters. Note that a tower with a graphics card may also have video outputs that stem from the motherboard, but you should only use the video outputs on the GPU. Many towers will also have multiple audio ports, including possibly an optical output and ports for individual speaker channels in a surround-sound setup. Make sure that these match up with any gear you may have; the number of surround-sound jacks can vary depending on the PC and its motherboard. Note that Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, while reliably present on even the cheapest laptops and many smaller desktops, is not a given on larger towers.
The throwback-style ports are there for people who still need to use them with older, specialized hardware such as point-of-sale scanners or industrial equipment. Of course, you can buy dongles and adapters for these special port needs, but the possibility of having them built in is a key benefit of choosing a desktop over a laptop.
When evaluating a desktop, beyond looking at what ports are present, also evaluate where they are. Are they easily accessible? Towers tend to have a few commonly used ports on the top or front usually a headphone jack and few USB ports.
Some AIOs, in contrast, have some of their key ports hidden behind the stand, in hard-to-reach places. Some buying concerns, no less crucial than the ones above, apply only to certain types of desktops. Deciding on a screen size and type is critical for AIO shoppers, for instance. A touch-enabled display with support for in-plane switching IPS to widen viewing angles is nice to have for an AIO that serves as the family's calendar or photo album, but know that touch support is not currently available on Apple's iMacs.
Give some deep thought to the screen resolution, whatever the panel size. A 4K or even 5K resolution makes for a breathtaking screen, especially one that's 27 inches or larger, but such resolutions often add significantly to the price. As a result, you may want to settle for a screen with a full HD or p 1,by-1,pixel native resolution and spend money to upgrade other components instead.
Some AIOs, like the Microsoft Surface Studio line, have extraordinarily adjustable stands; in the case of the Studio, you can recline it nearly flat on the tabletop, for work with fingertip touch input or a stylus pen.
Also look for multiple cameras, one facing the rear, that could make an AIO a good choice, say, for an ID-card printing station. Fan noise is also a consideration with AIOs, since their computing components will be on your desk instead of hidden underneath it. Desktop towers have many of their own idiosyncrasies. Enthusiasts who like to tinker with components but aren't interested in building their own PCs from scratch will need to pay special attention to the number and type of expansion bays and how easy it is to access power and data cables.
They should also check the maximum wattage rating of the power supply unit PSU and whether or not the case has the clearance for bigger coolers or the mounting points for liquid cooling gear , if they might plan to add a more powerful CPU later on. A low-wattage PSU, such as a watt model used in a desktop with integrated graphics, might preclude adding a graphics card later on without upgrading the PSU, too.
Note also, that some very inexpensive desktop PCs use low-wattage, custom-design PSUs that can't support a graphics card and also aren't easy to upgrade, due to their use of nonstandard connectors on the motherboard side. Again, this is where a careful reading of reviews comes in. Desktop towers and mini PCs also require separate speakers or headphones to deliver audio. 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.
For most people in the market for an inexpensive desktop tower, there's no single best time to buy. While traditional sale holidays such as Black Friday can net you the odd bargain, when you find a system whose features, price, and performance match what you're looking for, take it home.
That said, 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.
New graphics-card releases are less frequent and depend on the vagaries of technical advances—Nvidia's highly successful GeForce GTX series, for example, was the cutting edge for several years before the first GeForce RTX cards were announced.
Keeping track of PC-component release cycles helps you become aware of what's new before you buy, and also what is going off-market. For shoppers seeking maximum value or on a tight budget, getting a desktop based on a discounted last-generation but still powerful CPU or GPU can be the way to go.
Shoppers looking for an all-in-one PC, meanwhile, should pay attention to announcements from Apple and Microsoft. Many other manufacturers end up copying—and, sometimes, improving upon—the field-leading designs of the Apple iMac and the Microsoft Surface Studio. 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. In fact, some configurations can be exclusive to a single reseller, such as Best Buy, Costco, or Walmart.
Other merchants, such as Micro Center, frequently have in-store-only deals that aren't available anywhere online. This is where return policies come in handy. If you find a desktop with your ideal specifications online but can't audition it locally, a seller with a liberal return policy is your best friend. Just make sure you've got adequate time to return it, if it ends up not working out. Most desktop makers offer one-year warranties on parts and labor, with extensions available for as many as five years at an additional charge.
Before you pay to extend the warranty, though, check your credit-card account benefits guide—your issuer might cover mishaps for a short period of time after you buy a new product, and possibly extend the manufacturer's warranty, too. Many MasterCard accounts include a doubling of the standard warranty period, up to one year, for example.
They can be excellent values in certain circumstances. Large corporations lease fleets of desktops for a few years at a time, after which third parties refurbish them and offer them for resale on eBay, as well as via retailers such as Best Buy, Newegg, and TigerDirect.
To find them, search or filter the product category pages for "off-lease" or refurbished systems. They do come with drawbacks. Their components are usually several years behind the cutting edge, they may be in imperfect cosmetic condition some refurbishers grade condition on an A-B-C scale , and different refurbishers can have varying levels of attention to detail.
Still, if you're looking for a cheap desktop to stow in a cabinet or under a desk, used just to check your email and calendar, refurbs can be a fine option. Just be sure to buy from a seller with a reasonable return policy in case you get a dud. Armed with all of the knowledge and decision points above, you're almost ready to shop. The final consideration is how well a desktop PC performs.
We review hundreds of PCs every year, evaluating their features and testing their performance against peers in their respective categories. That way, you'll know which are best suited for gaming, which is our favorite general-purpose all-in-one, and which is the best if all you need is a small, powerful system you can get up and running quickly. Our current favorite desktops are below.
Not finding anything that looks good? Check out the full feed of all of our latest desktop reviews, as well as our narrower-focused guides to our favorite all-in-one PCs , business desktops , and gaming desktops. Workstation Other 5. AMD Intel AMD Athlon 1. AMD Ryzen 5 AMD Ryzen 7 AMD Ryzen 9 Intel Core i3 6. Intel Core i5 Intel Core i7 Intel Core i9 9. Other 1. Add Your Own AMD Radeon Intel 1.
Nvidia GTX Nvidia RTX Add your own Graphics Card GeForce GTX 1. GeForce GTX GeForce RTX GeForce RTX 7.
Radeon R9 4GB 9. Radeon RX 8GB Radeon RX 16GB Without Other Windows 10 ADV 1. Windows 10 Home Windows 11 Home Desktop DIMM Mini Tower 1. SFF 2. Tower DVD 1. Other 7. Built in WiFi Intel Wireless AX 1.
Wi-Fi 6 6. Other 3. Bluetooth Without 2. Modular Non-Modular Semi Modular 1. Omen 25L. Reasons to avoid - Unimaginative design. MSI Trident 3 9th. RAM: up to 16GB. Storage: up to 1TB. Reasons to avoid - Come with bloated software. HP Pavilion Gaming Desktop. Dell G5. Reasons to avoid - Can get pretty pricey at the highest configurations. Matt Hanson. See more PC news.
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