I've used a lot of different computers in my life. When I first started working in tech journalism just seven years ago, my work device was a laptop that didn't even have a 1080p display. No extra screens or accessories, nothing. Of course, as I tested more devices and started being able to afford more things, that setup evolved in many ways over the years.
I've used a lot of laptops and big desktop PCs, but the centerpiece of my work desk today is a mini PC, specifically Apple's Mac Mini, and I wouldn't have it any other way. I love mini PCs for my job, and outside of travelling, I find them to be perfect for my needs, which is especially true of the Mac Mini in particular. Here's why I'm not planning to switch to anything else anytime soon.
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4 It gives me a clean(er) setup
More space for everything else
One of the big benefits of a mini PC in a desk setup is the space it saves, and that's especially true for me considering I have a standing desk. No matter how you slice it, a mini PC is going to be far smaller than a laptop, so unless I intended to work on a laptop's small screen and nothing else, this is a huge improvement. Using a laptop would be more annoying, too, because if I set up a Windows Hello sign-in method like a fingerprint or facial recognition, I'd have to either keep the laptop open to access those methods (making things even clunkier), constantly switch back and forth between sign-in options, or just settle for a PIN or password sign-in, which would make those features feel useless.
As for a traditional desktop, of course, it would also be much larger and just not feasible to have on my desk without blocking my monitor or forcing me to move it forward on the desk and reduce the space I have for my mouse and keyboard. You might be thinking I can just put it on the floor, but then that would mean I can't use my standing desk without pulling on the cables and potentially breaking the ports on the PC, or I would need extra long cables that end up getting in the way.
A mini PC can sit on my desk without taking up a lot of space, and it's perfect for my needs because my setup is very busy. I have a Nintendo Switch and a capture card on my desk that I need for live streams, and I also usually keep my camera and phone on my desk, in addition to other things that might need to be rotated in when testing a product or something on another computer. My desk can be a mess at the best of times, but a mini PC makes everything much easier to manage overall.
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3 All the ports I need
Easier to use than a laptop
Despite their small size, most mini PCs come with a healthy supply of ports that makes them a great choice to be the centerpiece of any setup. In the case of the Mac Mini, there is a lack of USB Type-A ports, but adopting more modern Thunderbolt 4 and USB Type-C ports does have its benefits, too. For example, my monitor also supports a USB-C connection, so I can plug it in that way, and use the USB Type-A ports on the monitor itself to connect my mouse and keyboard (I prefer to use dongles rather than Bluetooth).
Plus, more modern devices are starting to use USB-C more. My webcam uses a USB-C connection by default, I have a portable SSD enclosure that also uses USB-C, and recently, I even bought a wireless lavalier microphone whose receiver also connects via USB-C to my Mac Mini. These ports have future-proofed me for most of my necessities going forward.
Of course, if you need a lot of USB Type-A ports, there are other mini PCs that might work better for you, but for me, the Mac Mini is nearly perfect. Especially because, for the ports I don't have...
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2 Easily expandable
A Mac Mini highlight
While the lack of USB Type-A ports isn't usually a problem for me, when I need to be streaming, I do find myself wanting an extra port for my capture card to connect to. Thankfully, because the Mac Mini is so popular (like everything else Apple makes), there are also dedicated accessories for it you wouldn't normally find for other mini PCs. The Satechi Stand & Hub I reviewed a while back is a perfect example. It's an accessory designed exclusively for the Mac Mini that adds some USB Type-A ports and an SD card reader, but unlike a typical hub, it just goes right under the Mac Mini itself and almost feels like a natural part of it. It only takes up a tiny bit of extra vertical space, but my desk is unaffected, and I get all the ports I need.
What's more, an accessory like this can also be used to expand the storage on the Mac Mini. The Satechi Stand & Hub, and a similar option like the Beelink Mate mini also include SSD slots you can use to get more storage that's basically as fast as the built-in SSD on the Mac Mini. These accessories, with their very integrated designs, only exist for the Mac Mini, and make it easier to keep my desk just as clean, even if I need more ports or storage.
1 Powerful, but efficient
It does everything I need
Like everyone else, I want a computer that can handle my workload quickly and effectively, but I also want something that's efficient. The idea of wasting energy (and consequently, money) by having much more powerful hardware than necessary isn't appealing to me, so a typical desktop would be overkill. Most mini PCs use laptop processors that have a TDP of 45W or lower, which means they're very efficient when it comes to power usage. That's even more true of the Mac Mini, thanks to the M4 processor being as powerful as it is while maxing out at around 40W during heavy loads.
That power is no joke, either. The base M4 Mac Mini can breeze through my main work tasks, but when it gets to my personal downtime and I want to live stream on my YouTube channel or edit video for it, it can also handle that absolutely gracefully. I'm not making videos with 10 video tracks and loads of effects, so even the base model can blitz through my edits smoothly, and I never feel slowed down by my machine. Videos that are 20 to 30 minutes long take about six to eight minutes to export, which is honestly pretty solid for a 1080p video at 60FPS.
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Even if I did need more power, the M4 Pro model of the Mac Mini is still very efficient, so I could rely on it to use very little power for most of my workloads, and only really go higher for these editing sessions so I can power through even more quickly.
Of course, these benefits may not all be quite the same on a Windows machine with Intel or AMD processors, but for the most part, you can get a very solid experience even without sending your energy bill skyrocketing.
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Mini PCs are perfect for my needs
Whether it's the Mac Mini or another machine, a mini PC is the perfect machine for my work setup. The space it saves on my desk, the low power usage of the processor, and the fact that it can easily handle everything I throw at it make it a no-brainer. Frankly, there's never a situation where I wish I had a more powerful or different computer.
That might be different if I were interested in PC gaming, but that's far from the case, so I have virtually no complaints about this form factor. If you have a similar workload or use case, I can't recommend mini PCs enough.
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