With remote work becoming more and more common, it’s becoming increasingly popular to have a desktop PC at home rather than a portable laptop. But what is the best desktop PC you can buy?
In order to help find you the perfect desktop PC for your needs, we’ve assembled this list with the highest scoring products. We spend at least a week with every product, while conducting industry-standard benchmark testing to evaluate the performance.
Can’t find a desktop PC that takes your fancy right now? Then make sure to check back, as we’ll be updating this list everytime we publish a review of a top-scoring desktop PC.
And if you’re open to the idea of purchasing a laptop instead, check out our best laptop, best budget laptop, best student laptop and best gaming laptop roundups.
Best Desktop PC at a glance:
Best all-in-one PC: Apple iMac 2021 – check price Best value desktop PC: Raspberry Pi 400 – check price Best desktop PC for digital artists: Microsoft Surface Studio 2 – check price
How we test
Every desktop PC we review goes through a series of uniform checks designed to gauge key things including build quality, performance and screen quality where applicaable.
These include formal synthetic benchmarks and scripted tests, plus a series of real world checks, such as how well it runs the most frequently used apps.
We also make sure to use every desktop PC we review as our primary device for at least a week to ensure our review is as accurate as possible.
Fantastic design
Excellent webcam, speakers and microphones
Bright and sharp screen
No SD card slot
Can’t adjust the height
Simple all-in-one computer
Handles cooling well
GPIO port
No camera or display interface
iMac (2021, 24-inch)
Best all-in-one PC
Pros
Fantastic designExcellent webcam, speakers and microphonesBright and sharp screen
Cons
No SD card slotCan’t adjust the height
Buying the likes of a keyboard and monitor on top of a new computer can be an expensive outlay, which makes the idea of an all-in-one desktop PC significantly more appealing. The Apple iMac 2021 is the best desktop PC you can buy that fits into this category.
The latest iMac is powered by the M1 chip, which our benchmark tests show to offer fantastic speeds for basic productivity workloads, while also being competent enough to handle more complex tasks such as Photoshop work too.
Apple has also given it a lovely redesign for the latest iteration, with vibrant colour options and narrower bezels so your eyes are drawn to the screen. We think the 24-inch display is gorgeous too, with an ultra-sharp 4480 × 2520 resolution that provides top-notch detail to images and video.
You get both a keyboard and mouse bundled with the iMac, as well as an integrated webcam, ensuring you don’t need to buy any more accessories. The iMac 2021 is such a fantastic desktop PC that we’d even recommend it to those who don’t typically buy Apple products. And if you’d prefer a more portable device, then we recommend checking out the MacBook Air M2 and MacBook Pro.
Reviewer: Max Parker
Full Review: Apple iMac 2021 Review
Raspberry Pi 400
Best value desktop PC
Pros
Simple all-in-one computerHandles cooling wellGPIO port
Cons
No camera or display interface
The Raspberry Pi 400 may look like a keyboard, but remarkably, it actually has a computer built inside its tiny frame. Simply plug it into a power source and monitor, and you’re good to go.
This dinky desktop PC runs on Raspberry Pi OS rather than Windows, but lets you do all the basics such as surfing the web and catching up on your emails. Our testing shows that the Pi 400 isn’t particularly powerful, which is no surprise given it uses an Arm chip and 4GB of RAM. But again, you should be fine as long as you stick to simple workloads.
The device features ports for Gigabit Ethernet, USB-A, USB-C, HDMI and a microSD card slot. We also found the keyboard to be pretty good, although arguably doesn’t have good enough feedback for typing out large documents on a daily basis.
The main benefit of the Raspberry Pi 400 is undoubtedly the affordable cost, making it one of the best value all-in-one computers on the market and a great choice for children hoping to learn how to code.
Reviewer: David Ludlow
Full Review: Raspberry Pi 400 Review
Surface Studio 2
Best desktop PC for digital artists
Pros
Great displayExcellent screenGreat to draw on
Cons
Uses an old CPU
Microsoft’s Surface Studio 2 is a fairly unique desktop PC, allowing you to tilt the screen back and use it like a giant drawing tablet. This makes it a great option for digital artists that require more screen space and power than what a portable tablet will offer.
The screen itself is great too, with our tests showing it to have a high brightness of 500 nits and great contrast. The 4500 x 3000 pixel resolution also ensures on-screen pictures and videos look incredibly sharp with oodles of detail.
But since this desktop PC launched back in 2018, the specs do look outdated compared to the competition, with a 7th Gen Intel Core chip, and Nvidia’s 10-Series GPU. We reckon they’re still decent enough specs for basic video editing and the like, but our testing does show you can now find more powerful machines by spending less money.
The Surface Studio 2 is also difficult to find now, with Microsoft no longer selling it via the official website. But the desktop PC is still available via some third-party sellers. And since it still offers such unique functionality, we reckon it’s worth a shout if you can find it with a major discount. It’s also worth checking out the Surface Laptop Studio, which has the same concept, but in a portable form.
Reviewer: Alastair Stevenson
Full Review: Microsoft Surface Studio 2 Review
We also considered…
FAQs
It really depends on what kind of workloads you’ll give your PC. 8GB of RAM is speedy enough for a productibity PC, but you may want 16GB or higher for gaming or content creation.
The processor is one of the most important specs for any computer, while you’ll want to make sure your PC has a discrete PC (typically from AMD or Nvidia) if you want to play demanding games or engage with intensive content creation. RAM is also important for performance, while the storage space shouldn’t be ignored if you plan on saving lots of files on your PC.
It’s also worth looking out for all-in-one PCs if you want the entire setup in one package. But just be aware it will be more difficult to upgrade components in an all-in-one PC compared to a more conventional PC.
Specs compared
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