When the time comes to refresh your PC fleet, you might not need to refresh the monitors and the keyboards at the same time. If you opt to refresh just the PC, then why not go small? Mini PCs are smaller versions of desktops offering an attractive reduced footprint that's perfect for many offices.
These plucky little units benefit from the reduced space requirements that we've seen in PCs over time. Back in the day, we needed removable disk drives, hard drive bays, PCI slots, and modems. Today, those things are less important, and things like network interfaces are embedded on motherboards.
Mini PCs have been around since the mid-2000s, most notably with the Mac Mini, a small brick of a Mac for budget-minded consumers that first shipped in 2005. Since then, the mini PC format has expanded. In 2013, Intel officially launched the 4 x 4in Next Unit of Computing (NUC) format, beginning with low-powered Celeron chips that quickly evolved to more powerful Core processors. Intel stopped making NUCs in summer 2023, but ASUS will now be producing them under license. There are plenty of other non-NUC mini-PCs, too.
Mini PCs make great units for space-constrained offices, and can even be mounted behind many monitors. It isn't just their size that make them unobtrusive; they're often fanless, leading to silent operation. These properties make them excellent for customer-facing environments ranging from retail point of sale terminals to reception desks. They also make great compute and storage devices to power multimedia kiosks.
Fanless operation is often possible because of the average mini PCs low power draw. Many of them use energy efficient components that throw out less heat. This means that they often consume fewer watts than desktops. If you're deploying them at scale, that can reduce your energy usage substantially.
Mini PCs are also easily transportable for hybrid workers who can plug them into a dock at home and in the office.
A sufficiently-specced mini PC could even function as a server in some branch office scenarios, as long as the workload requirements were not too high. Many of them now sport Xeon processors, which Intel classes as server-grade, but in many cases a Core i7 chip could also suit non-critical workloads.
Before committing to a mini PC server, though, you need to look at memory, network throughput, and workload type. Simple file and print serving would be fine. Running intense media streams or processing engineering files will quickly bog many mini PCs down. Also, you'll need a way to manage the box, so ensure the CPU has Intel vPro or some variant built in.
Mini PCs aren't necessarily cheaper than their desktop or tower equivalent, and in many cases you'll pay a premium for jamming components tightly together in a small space. On the other hand, decoupling your PC refresh from your monitor might help offset that cost.
These natty little devices won't be appropriate in all situations, but with specifications varying to provide decent performance at the top end, they're able to satisfy more use cases than ever. They'll streamline your office and help you to squeeze some more life out of that keyboard and monitor. The best things often do come in small packages.