A Great Pocket-sized Form Cistron PC

The Asrock DeskMini is hands down the best small form factor computer I have ever had the pleasure of working with. The DeskMini is possibly the easiest (small) reckoner you volition e'er come across for upgrading hardware - and with virtually the same options every bit a fully-fledged desktop PC, the results can be spectacular.

And so how has Asrock accomplished such a feat? By keeping things expressionless simple. The DeskMini is a stark dissimilarity to the custom molded plastic exterior and compartmentalized design of the MSI Cubi 2 Plus. Instead, you get a metal box with a removable motherboard tray that slides out on a pair of rails.

Asrock has maximised the available space past creating a evidently box. From a practical stand bespeak, it makes this little computer extremely flexible, and expressionless easy to piece of work with. The no-frills approach ways there is room for a real CPU cooler, and non something y'all would expect to find in a laptop. The standard Intel box libation never permit the Core i5-6500 exceed 47 degrees, even when placed nether full load for 20 minutes, meanwhile the arrangement was most silent.

Unlike the Cubi 2 Plus, we find that by connecting the Type-2280 M.2 slot directly to the CPU the DeskMini is able to fully utilize high-speed NVMe SSDs. Asrock has besides created a swell piffling dual two.five" drive bay on the underside of the motherboard and included the data/ability header here as well for like shooting fish in a barrel installation. And so, yous see, this is a uncomplicated, yet well thought out pattern that gets straight to the point.

Every bit for shortcomings, nosotros couldn't come up upwards with much. Perhaps there could be a few more than USB ports, just two on the front with another two at the rear is the blank minimum we like to take on a desktop machine earlier it starts becoming impractical.

At that place is something else to dearest about the DeskMini, and that is the price. Asrock tells u.s.a. that the MSRP has been fix at just $130 for the barebone version, making the DeskMini a seriously skilful buy in our opinion. For that price, you lot get the STX chassis and H110 motherboard along with a quality 120-watt power supply. A total-sized desktop PC using similar components would probable cost more, then you lot aren't paying a premium for this little STX organisation.

For the configuration featured in this review, users volition demand to invest $205 in a Core i5-6500 processor, $57 for G.Skill's Ripjaws 16GB DDR4 kit (of course spending half as much on an 8GB kit would suffice) and if you must, $285 on the Samsung SM951 512GB SSD. Buying a Samsung SSD 850 Evo 250GB ii.5" SSD for $95 might be a smarter pairing, depending on your needs. Provided that you lot are happy with the more than affordable SSD, the build would come up out at just under $500, which is a pretty incredible bargain given what is on offer hither.

Pros: Its no frills design is not much to look at only it's flexible, functional and dead easy to work with. Can fully utilize high-speed NVMe SSDs. Great value overall.

Cons: Only two USB ports in the front and two in the dorsum.