Mini pc and small form factor (sff)

@Loofah I hope you get some good responses here as my PC is also aging and will need an upgrade soon.

 

It may be worth having a look at the Dell Outlet this is where they sell refurbished or slightly damaged Dell products.
I've bought Dell for about 30+ years and always find something in the Outlet that suits. I may have to wait a while to find what I want.

My latest purchase, about 3 years ago I bought a desktop that was described as having a scratch on the side. I saved over £1000.
When it arrived it was a brand new PC without a mark on it anywhere!

 

I’d never heard of a mini PC so did some searching. This may be useful @Loofah:

The Best Windows Mini PCs for 2025

 

My former employer kitted out a lot of people with mini PC's which was fine so long as you didn't need an additional ethernet connection for example, as you cannot fit a standard add on card into a mini case.

 

I have a Bosgame one I bought last year, it's fine. Very low power use, and I can stick it in a drawer when I don't need it.
I doubt you'll notice any difference in use from a full size desktop, so long as you pick a suitable spec to begin with.
Geekom is one of the brand leaders and regularly gets the high review ratings in the gadget and PC magazines.

 

I hadn't seen them before, but I imagine they'd be something like a laptop but without the screen and keyboard, ie no room inside to add extra disks, cards etc, no CD/DVD drive. Maybe most people don't need any of that these days.

Make sure that whatever you choose has enough ports to connect up whatever you need. USB A and C seem to be the widely-used ones these days, plus whatever you need for your monitor(s) - HDMI or DisplayPort are the usual ones unless you're using a really old monitor. LAN port if you use a wired network.

More reviews here Best mini PC of 2025: our top mini computers benchmarked for work and play (from July so not the absolute latest).

 

You can convert between a lot of standards too. My Bosgame has an HDMI and a DP connector, but I actually use it with an old VGA monitor via a VGA to USB-C adapter.

 

Worth getting the fortnightly magazine Computer Active ( in big supermarkets) which regularly review these mini pcs and most Geekom models always get good comments and they list one model as their Best Buy

However be aware most basically have laptop CPUs so their computing power cannot match that of a true desktop, if fast gaming or video editing are high priority for you in the future ?

Have you considered the All in One PCs which have everything in the Monitor, Dell do a big range will many options for CPU and memory.
All In One - Desktop Computers | Dell UK

For all those choices , as you say you are in no rush, it might be worth waiting until Windows 12/AI provides full details of any Hardware requirements it needs to avoid the problems they made with Windows 11 needing TPM and only suitable for certain CPUs.

In the meantime you may be able to get more speed out of your older laptop, if it is possible to increase the RAM memory and replace the HDD with a faster SSD.

 

That'll be because in the small box they can't get the cooling that's needed for the gaming PC chips and graphics cards (having said that, my last laptop died because the heat sink failed and the chip got fried). OH's big tower computer is mostly empty space inside with a huge fan and liquid cooling. But you don't need that unless you're doing a load of graphics-intensive gaming or suchlike. Judging from the specs. a mini PC should be fine for anything that you'd do on a laptop, but with a monitor and keyboard of your choice. A laptop with an external monitor and keyboard attached would do the same but I haven't compared the prices. The mini PCs ought to be cheaper for a similar spec, because fewer parts.

 

True, you buy a tiny one for the other advantages. You free up all that desk space, and you don't have a huge fan making a racket and sucking dust into the innards.