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Best early Prime Day mini PC deals: Save big on tiny computers

PCWorld

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Mini PCs are affordable, compact alternatives to standard desktops! Amazon Prime Day is one of the best times of the year to score a mini PC deal. These compact machines have exploded in popularity thanks to their tiny footprints, surprisingly strong performance, and wallet-friendly prices. Whether you need a capable productivity box, a living-room PC, or even a compact gaming rig, Prime Day is packed with discounts worth considering.


Geekom's A6 mini PC drops to 479, a solid workstation with gaming chops

PCWorld

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Geekom's A6 mini PC is down to $479 at Amazon, a special $170 discount from its original $649 with discount code at checkout. This mini PC stands out for its workstation-class speed and incredible price-performance, all packed into an ultra-compact, premium aluminum chassis. At the heart of this mini PC is an AMD Ryzen 7 6800H CPU, which might be a 2022-era chip but don't let that turn you away. It's still a very capable eight-core processor built on AMD's Zen 3+ mobile architecture that prioritizes efficiency, meaning performance-per-watt over sheer power. That makes it suitable as a workstation for remote workers.


RTX Spark vs. Snapdragon X2 Elite: Which chip do you want in your AI PC?

PCWorld

PCWorld compares Nvidia's RTX Spark and Qualcomm's Snapdragon X2 Elite processors for AI-powered mini PCs, highlighting their distinct strengths for different use cases. Qualcomm's chip excels in single-core performance and general productivity tasks, while Nvidia's platform dominates AI content creation and gaming with its RTX 5070-equivalent GPU. The choice depends on specific needs, as both face compatibility challenges with some applications requiring emulation or specialized optimization for optimal performance. One big thing changed at Computex this past week: Windows on Arm processors became the next big thing for Windows desktops, specifically for mini PCs designed for productivity and AI applications. So which Arm processor is the best bet? Until they hit our test bench, we can't say for sure.


Acemagic M1 review: A mini PC with big-time power

PCWorld

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. The Acemagic M1 packs Intel's i9-13900HK into a surprisingly compact housing, promising desktop performance in a minimum of space. The Acemagic M1 with i9-13900HK is a very fast, surprisingly compact mini PC that brings classic desktop performance and near silent operation. Although it lacks an NPU and some GPU power compared to the latest AI mini PCs, it impresses with a powerful processor, many ports and an attractive price. If you mainly run office, development, and moderate media workloads, you'll get a lot of computing power in a small form factor.


Minisforum AI X1 Pro review: A mini PC with maximum performance

PCWorld

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. The Minisforum AI X1 Pro sets new standards among mini PCs: compact, quiet and ideal for smart homes, offices and media centers. In recent years, Minisforum has developed from an insider tip to a firm name in the mini PC market. The manufacturer has become renowned for its compact systems with high computing power, innovative cooling, and sophisticated designs. With the new AI X1 Pro, Minisforum wants to prove this claim - as a powerful all-round PC with integrated AI acceleration, which is not only intended for professionals and developers, but also for smart home enthusiasts and creatives.


I swapped my 1,000 desktop for a 300 mini PC and regret nothing

PCWorld

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. You might not need as much computer as you think. I didn't expect it to change my entire computing setup. But here I am now, using the $319 Beelink SER5 Mini PC as my daily workhorse, powering an ultrawide 1440p 100Hz monitor and smoothly handling any productivity task I've thrown at it. This little computer has been so delightful to use that I've relegated my full-sized desktop tower PC to the basement television, where it's now serving exclusively as a gaming rig.


MSI's new mini PC includes a Copilot button and fingerprint reader

PCWorld

MSI's latest Cubi NUC AI 2MG mini PC is as much smart speaker or laptop as it is a small, compact, desktop NUC: It boasts a dedicated hardware Copilot button as well as a dedicated fingerprint reader, and you can talk to it, too. Starting at 899, MSI's little mini PC is also Copilot qualified, with either a Core Ultra 9 288V or Core Ultra 7 258V chip inside. Both are Core Ultra Series 2 "Lunar Lake" chips. The hardware design, however, is something special. This isn't the first mini PC with a dedicated Copilot button -- that was the Asus NUC 14 Pro AI, launched at the 2025 edition of CES. However, this is the first mini PC that I can recall with a dedicated fingerprint reader underneath the power button, a feature normally associated with laptops like the Samsung Galaxy series.


I switched my 1,000 desktop for a 300 mini PC. I regret nothing

PCWorld

I didn't expect it to change my entire computing setup. But here I am now, using the 300 Beelink SER5 Mini PC as my daily workhorse, powering an ultrawide 1440p 100Hz monitor and smoothly handling any productivity task I've thrown at it. This little computer has been so delightful to use that I've relegated my full-sized desktop tower PC to the basement television, where it's now serving exclusively as a gaming rig. Consider this a lesson on technological overkill. Outside of some specialized use cases, the required compute power for getting things done might be a lot less than you think.


I built a maxed-out Raspberry 5 mini PC with an SSD for under 200. You can too

PCWorld

The Raspberry Pi 5 is several times faster than previous models of the compact and cheap computer. For less than a couple hundred bucks, you can have a computer that can do many tasks that previously required a regular PC, that consumes very little power, and for which the web is overflowing with exciting tutorials and projects you can take on. In this guide, I'll first walk you through how to build a Raspberry Pi 5 with maximum performance so you can use it for everything it's capable of. To do that, you'll need to take advantage of the board's new ability to connect an SSD via PCI Express. You will also need a power source, either a USB charger that supports USB-PD and a USB-C cable or the official charger from Raspberry Pi.


Nvidia's tiny 3k AI mini PC is a glimpse of what's next for Windows PCs

PCWorld

When I first saw that photo of Nvidia's new Project Digits mini PC unveiled at CES 2025, I couldn't help but notice the Apple influence -- minimalist, sleek, next to a monitor that looks like Apple's Studio Display. Apple's latest Mac Mini is revolutionary in many ways, delivering the company's impressive M4 silicon in an efficient, affordable package. Windows PCs haven't yet been able to reach the same level of design beauty and overall balanced unit. Could Nvidia's new Mac Mini-like small-form-factor AI supercomputer usher in a major disruption for Windows PCs? Let's dive into Project Digits, what it is, and what it brings to the table for the future. It's a little unfair to compare the Mac Mini and Nvidia's Project Digits, mainly because they target vastly different users and markets.