Reviews Of Desktop PCs, DIY PC Builds, All-In-Ones, And Small Form Factor PCs

Falcon Northwest FragBox SFF Gaming PC: $5,489 (As Tested) The Falcon Northwest FragBox takes the crown as the fastest pre-built PC we’ve tested to date, even with its relatively small and portable form factor. The fastest hardware money can buy Impressive thermal management Low noise levels Premium fit and…Read more…

Dell Precision 7865: As Configured – $15,840 The Dell Precision 7865 chews through workstation-class workloads with a 64-core AMD Threadripper Pro CPU and NVIDIA RTX A6000 GPU, while remaining cool and quiet. 64-Core AMD Threadripper CPU Performance 8-Channel DDR4 Memory Mostly Toolless Design For Servicing…Read more…

MAINGEAR MG-1 Gaming Desktop: Starting At $1499 The Maingear MG-1 is the fastest pre-built gaming PC we’ve ever tested. It also makes for a solid workstation, and it’s not hard to look at, either. Excellent Performance Massive Room For Expansion Attractive And Customizable Impressive Build Quality High-Quality…Read more…

Apple is rolling out the hits today. Fans of the company’s compact desktops have a new Mac Mini over which to salivate, and the portable crowd can “ooh” and “ah” at the new 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro units. Inside, you’ll find a new generation of Apple’s custom silicon in the form of the M2 Pro and M2 Max (above)…Read more…

The Raspberry Pi is by far the most well-known single-board computer kit thanks in part to its vast array of accessories. The first official add-on was the original camera module, launched in 2013. The foundation has released a few more cameras over the years, but it has been seven years since a new one has arrived…Read more…

After a lengthy legislative process, New York has become the first US state to enact a law protecting a consumer’s right to repair their own devices. Well, mostly. The law included some exemptions as passed by the state assembly, and governor Kathy Hochul has made additional alterations in an approval message. While…Read more…

Intel NUC 13 Extreme – Starting at $1179 ($1549 w/ Core i9-13900K) The new Intel NUC 13 Extreme is the fastest, most powerful NUC yet, but it’s also the largest. Ultra High Performance Relatively Quiet Supports 3-Slot GPUs Easier To Build Pushing The Limits Of SFF Price Premium Intel has consistently updated and upgraded its…Read more…

Minisforum HX90G Mini PC – Starting MSRP barebone $799, as tested $909 Minisforum’s latest Mini PC is an all-AMD mobile processor affair. It is a compact and portable unit that outperformed most gaming laptops using similar hardware, and at a compelling price. Solid 1080p Gaming Compact size Easy…Read more…

Pre-built gaming PCs have gained in popularity dramatically, as crypto demand and chip shortages drove graphics cards and other component prices through the roof. That said, regardless of current PC components price points (which are now drifting back to MSRP thank goodness), we’ve always seen the value in a quality pre-built for a myriad…Read more…

Machine learning is everywhere. It’s an integral part of our smartphones and smart home appliances, running customer service chat bots for big retailers, and hard at work recognizing people and actions in security systems, among numerous other applications. Neural networks are the backbone of the robotics and…Read more…

While it’s only been about six months since Apple introduced the M1 Pro and M1 Max SoCs that would power the 16-inch and 14-inch MacBook Pro, the architecture within those chips can trace its roots back another full year to the dawn of Apple Silicon in the Mac mini’s M1 processor. This is when Cupertino left Intel…Read more…

Back in the mid-90s, I recall sitting around with his friends at the school lunch table poring over glossy magazines like PC Gamer and the long-defunct PC Accelerator, as well as the immense, phone-book-like Computer Shopper. Sure, you had your Dells, and your Compaqs, and your smaller vendors too, like ZEOS, Quantex…Read more…

Dell recently reached out and offered a review unit of their newest XPS 8950 desktop. We initially said, “but we’ve already reviewed that one,” to which Dell replied “no, that was the 8940 Special Edition. We’ve since dropped the ‘Special Edition’, and updated the hardware. It’s got a 12th-gen CPU now, and we made its chassis larger to accommodate…Read more…

Origin PC has been building top-flight gaming rigs for over a decade now, and the attention to detail that the company demonstrates in its builds is right up there with the best of them. There was a time when Origin PC featured custom chassis designs, like the Genesis series of years past, which only Origin had in its…Read more…

When Intel introduced its first NUC systems featuring its Compute Element, it said the modular design would decrease the time to market for newer, more powerful small form factor systems. That certainly appears to be the case. Hot on the heels of our NUC 11 Extreme review from a few months back, we have the latest NUC…Read more…

We recently became aware of Gigabyte’s beautiful Aorus Project Stealth PC concept, with connectors and cable routing moved behind the motherboard deck, in what seemed to be a truly innovative gaming desktop design with better air flow and an easier build process. It appears, however, that Maingear patented the design…Read more…

We’re long-time proponents of big, bold and bodacious desktop systems around here. We’ve been evaluating the latest and greatest PC hardware for over two decades after all, and many of us have ben PC enthusiasts even longer than that. As much as we dig fully-loaded, high-end desktops though, there’s just something awesome…Read more…

Experimenting with SiFive’s HiFive Unmatched RISC-V development board over the last few weeks has felt a bit like stepping back in time. The experience left me feeling a bit nostalgic. Picture this. It’s 1997. I’m a high school sophomore. I head over to my friend’s house after class because a long-awaited CD with something called “Slackware…Read more…

It hasn’t been long since we last took a look at the 2021 version of the Falcon Northwest Talon, and found it to be impressive. However, it’s finally time for Intel’s Alder Lake 12th Gen Core processor launch and we all know what that means — a deluge of reviews with tons of charts and opinions for you to…Read more…

If there’s been one drawback to Alienware’s previous gen Aurora desktop series, it’s that the systems we’ve gotten in for review have made a bit of a racket at times. These systems have always been well-equipped with the latest hardware and turn in some great performance, but their noise floor has sometimes been a…Read more…

Apple may be on the precipice of releasing its latest processors, the M1 Max and M1 Pro, but that doesn’t stop Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger from counting Intel out. Apple is now moving to its second generation of M1 CPUs after transitioning away from Intel, following 15 years of partnership. In 2020 Apple announced its own…Read more…

We are no strangers to Alienware’s Aurora line of gaming PCs here at HotHardware. In fact, we have reviewed many Aurora systems over the years, and for good reason. Aurora desktops embody the essence of a powerful, mainstream prebuilt rig, with semi-custom, almost boutique styling, in a manner that makes them…Read more…