Web User - UK (2020-01-22)

22 22 Jan - 4 Feb 2020

O

neofthemostoff-puttingaspectsofgetting

a newdesktopPCforyourhomeis having

toaccommodatea huge,unsightlymachine

thatoccupiesacresofspacearoundyourmonitor

orencroachesonyourlegspaceif youstashit

underyourdesk.Butthereis a solution.If you’re

willingtosacrificea bitofcomputingpower,you

canhavea fullyfunctionaldesktopPCthat’sa

fractionofthesize.Choosetherightmodelandit

couldbea lotcheaper,too.Here,wecomparefive

ofthebestminiPCs.

The Raspberry Pi has been pushing the

boundaries of affordable mini computers since

it launched, but the Raspberry Pi 4 is the first

to truly approach the capability of a regular PC.

For £34, that’s simply phenomenal.

The device now has two mini-HDMI ports, so it

can be used to run two monitors at once. This

works best at Full HD resolution (1080p), which

supports a refresh rate of 60Hz, though it can

manage two 4K screens, too, but only at 30Hz.

The Pi also uses USB Type-C to power it.

The processor is a quad-core 1.5GHz

Broadcom BCM2711 and is by far the best

processor the series of Pi computers has had

to date. The basic £34 model only has 1GB of

memory, but 2GB (£44) and 4GB (£54) models

are also available. What you can’t do is buy a 1GB

model now and upgrade it later so, when

purchasing your Pi, we recommend you buy as

much memory as you can afford – particularly

if you’re aiming to run your Pi as a regular

computer.

We couldn’t test the device with our standard

suite of benchmark tests because the Pi doesn’t

run Windows, and there’s not much point anyway

because it’s never going to compare well with a

£300 Windows PC. However, it’s significantly

faster than the previous generations of

RaspberryPicomputers.

ThePi4 cangeta bithotif runningatfullpelt

soit’sworthspendinga littleextraona

compatiblepassiveheatsinkorminiaturefan,if

youintendtorunit continuouslywithdemanding

applications.Inreality,it canrunmostbasic

tasksrelativelysmoothly,butit’snicetobeable

to callona burstofpowerif a particular

applicationneedsit.It’snoticeablyslowerthan

Windows users will be accustomed to, though.

The Pi is now equipped with decent network

connections, including a built-in 802.11ac Wi-Fi

network adapter and a full-speed Gigabit

Ethernet port. It also has Bluetooth 5.0 and

it still boots from a microSD card.

Mini PCs

You don’t have to clear your entire desk to make room for a

computer. Instead, why not get a mini PC that hasall the benefits

of a desktop in a case that fits in the palm of your hand?

HOWWETESTED

4 is

estionably the

Raspberry Pi

Foundation’s

best ever

model. It has the

astestprocessor

peediest network,

iththe option to

l monitors, which

t anamazing

optionforthe price. Not

much has changed in how

this latest model operates

so, if you’re familiar with

an older Pi, you’ll find it

easy to get to grips with.

It’s just more powerful

than ever.

VERDICT

FEATURES+++++++++ PERFORMANCE++++++++ EASEOFUSE+++++++++ VALUEFORMONEY+++++++++ +++++

This Group Test covers a range

of PCs, two of which don’t run

Windows, so we couldn’t

employ our full suite of

benchmark tests to make direct

comparisons between them.

However, we still ran some

benchmarks, where we could,

to get a good idea of how

powerful each device is.

In the final analysis, with such

a wide range of prices and

operating systems, we’ve had

to use our own judgment to

weigh up which devices were

worthy of our awards.

Raspberry Pi 4 Model B | £34 | Buy from The Pi Hut: bit.ly/pi493

Group Test

We test and compare the latest products

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