Best Mini PCs 2026: 15 Compared (28 Sources)

What are the best mini PCs in 2026?

Summary

The best mini PCs in 2026 split cleanly by what you need. For most people the Apple Mac mini M6 is the pick: Tom's Guide names it the best mini PC overall after measuring its M6 chip 44% faster than the M4 in multi-core, and Engadget calls it still the best mini desktop you can buy, though no longer the bargain the $599 M4 was, because it starts at $899 at Apple with the same 16GB of memory and 256GB SSD. [src1, src10, src13]

For Windows on a budget, the testing outlets agree on the shape of the answer but not on a single machine. TechRadar's top pick, the GMKtec NucBox M6 Ultra, is our value pick: NotebookCheck's review asks whether it is the best value for money and credits its strong price-performance ratio, and TechRadar's reviewer ran office apps, RAW photo edits and basic 4K video edits on it. Windows Central's budget pick, the Beelink EQR6, is our budget pick: a quiet office box with its power supply built in, though Beelink sold it only as a pre-order when we checked on 2026-10-11. [src2, src3, src8, src14, src15, src27]

Above that, the picks follow the job. The Minisforum G1 Pro puts a desktop-grade RTX 5060 in a 3.8-liter case and is the gaming pick at both Tom's Guide and PC Gamer; the ASUS ROG NUC (2025) with an RTX 5080 laptop GPU is TechRadar's gaming pick for anyone who wants more and can pay for it. The Geekom A9 Max (2025 Edition) is the Windows box for power users, the Framework Desktop the pick for running large AI models locally, and the Khadas Mind 2S the one you can carry in a pocket. [src1, src2, src4, src17, src18, src19, src22] Memory prices have risen across the category in 2026 — Tom's Guide and Engadget both call it "RAMaggedon". [src1, src10]

Top 15 Models Compared

Best for Each Use Case

Top Pick: Apple Mac mini M6 — Check price

The Mac mini M6 keeps the 5 x 5 x 2-inch case and internal power supply of the M4 model and moves to Apple's 2nm M6 chip with a 12-core CPU and 12-core GPU. Tom's Guide, which now names it the best mini PC overall, measured 4,708 single-core and 21,405 multi-core in Geekbench 6 — a 44% multi-core jump over the Mac mini M4 — and 56.9 fps in Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p; Engadget's unit ran the same game at an average of 55 fps at 1080p and never got loud in everyday work. It comes with 16GB of memory (up to 32GB) and a 256GB SSD, and Apple's N1 chip adds Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6, with 2.5 GbE now standard. [src1, src10, src13]

The catch is price. It starts at $899 at Apple, $300 more than the M4 did at launch ($499 with the education discount), with no more memory or storage (the table above shows the last price we observed at Amazon); Tom's Guide lists the small 256GB SSD and the bottom-mounted power button among its dislikes, and Engadget calls it "no longer the shockingly great deal that it used to be". Apple now sells the Mac mini with either the M6 or the M5 Pro (from $1,699, with Thunderbolt 5 instead of the M6's Thunderbolt 4). [src10, src13]

Best Value: GMKtec NucBox M6 Ultra — Check price

TechRadar's best mini PC overall is an AMD Ryzen 5 7640HS box with Radeon 760M graphics, DDR5 memory in two SO-DIMM slots (32GB in TechRadar's review unit, upgradeable to 128GB), a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD with room for a second, USB4 and dual 2.5GbE. TechRadar's reviewer ran Office, RAW photo edits in Photoshop and basic 4K edits in Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve, and played Hogwarts Legacy and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle at reduced settings; the verdict was "exceptional performance for an extremely balanced price", at $419 for the 32GB/1TB unit when it was reviewed. NotebookCheck's review, titled "Best value for money?", found that it "primarily impresses with its strong price-performance ratio" at $389. [src2, src14, src15]

The compromises: there is no discrete GPU, the fan is clearly audible under load (NotebookCheck called its fan control immature), and the case is mostly plastic. [src2, src14, src15]

Best Budget: Beelink EQR6 — Check price

Windows Central's best budget mini PC is a small office machine with its 85W power supply built in, so there is no brick on the cable. Windows Central recommends the Ryzen 5 6600U configuration with 24GB of LPDDR5 and a 500GB SSD, which it quoted at $399; its full review, of the top Ryzen 9 6900HX configuration, found it "pretty much near silent all of the time", with dual 2.5GbE LAN, dual HDMI 2.0 and four USB-A ports, though only one USB-C port, on the front, and that one carries no video. AndroidPCTV's review of the Ryzen 5 6600H model also found it efficient and compact. It is for office work, browsing and video calls, not gaming. [src3, src8, src16, src27]

Availability: when we checked on 2026-10-11, Beelink's own store offered the EQR6 only as a pre-order, as a Ryzen 5 6600H model with 24GB and 500GB at $459. [src27] Best you can buy today: the GMKtec NucBox M6 Ultra, our value pick above, which Amazon listed as in stock on 2026-10-11.

Best for Gaming: Minisforum G1 Pro — Check price

The G1 Pro is the rare mini PC with a desktop-grade graphics card: a low-profile RTX 5060 with 8GB, beside a 16-core Ryzen 9 8945HX, 32GB of DDR5 and a 1TB SSD, in a 3.8-liter case with the power supply inside. Tom's Guide, which names it the best gaming mini PC, found that it "outmuscles almost every rival in its class" and that you can add memory and storage and even swap the GPU; it measured 45.2 fps in Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p with ray tracing at Ultra. PC Gamer, whose best mini PC overall it is under the name AtomMan G1 Pro, measured 86 fps in Cyberpunk 2077 at 1440p with upscaling and medium ray tracing and scored it 86. The weaknesses: Tom's Guide found it gets loud in demanding games and short on ports, and PC Gamer says you will want a USB hub and that the CPU runs hot in heavy productivity work. [src1, src4, src18, src19]

Best High-End Gaming: ASUS ROG NUC (2025) — Check price

TechRadar's best mini PC for gaming packs an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX and an RTX 5080 laptop GPU with 16GB, 32GB of DDR5 and a 2TB SSD into a case smaller than a PS5; its reviewer called it "one of the best compact gaming PCs I've ever seen" and saw high frame rates at 1440p and even 4K, with DLSS needed in some games at 4K. NotebookCheck's review of the same configuration found it "masters even demanding games in Full HD and often also in QHD smoothly", criticised its high power draw and noted hardly any upgrade options. TechRadar quoted $3,199 for the RTX 5080 model and $2,599 for the base RTX 5070 Ti model at launch; the fans get noisy under load. [src2, src5, src17]

Best for Power Users: Geekom A9 Max (2025 Edition) — Check price

The 2025 A9 Max pairs AMD's Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 (12 cores, 24 threads) with Radeon 890M graphics and a 50 TOPS NPU, 32GB of DDR5-5600 in SO-DIMM slots (upgradeable to 128GB), a fast PCIe 4.0 SSD, four USB-A ports on the front, USB4, two HDMI 2.1 ports and dual 2.5GbE. Windows Central's review measured 61 fps in Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p medium with FSR balanced and ran a 20-billion-parameter language model on it, and concluded: "For most people, most of the time, this little box is all the PC they would ever need." It is very quiet in everyday use; it has no OCuLink port for an external GPU. [src3, src22]

Tom's Guide rates this 2025 Edition 4.5 stars and calls it the ideal mini PC for power users, but warns that it is one of the trickier mini PCs to open and upgrade. Its current power-user pick is the A9 Max 2026 Edition with a Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 — yet in its own tests the 2025 Edition was faster, because the 2026 Edition ships with a single 32GB memory stick instead of two. The listing this card links is the 2025 Edition with the HX 370. [src1]

Best for AI and Local LLMs: Framework Desktop — Check price

The Framework Desktop is a 4.5-liter Mini-ITX system built around AMD's Ryzen AI Max "Strix Halo" chips — the Max 385, or the Max+ 395 with 16 Zen 5 cores and Radeon 8060S graphics — with 32GB to 128GB of soldered LPDDR5x and a 400W FlexATX power supply. PC Gamer, which names it the best AI mini PC, ran OpenAI's gpt-oss-20b and gpt-oss-120b on its 128GB unit and measured gaming at roughly RTX 4060 level; its unit cost $3,954 as configured. Tom's Guide, which names it the best mini PC for customization, found it near silent and liked swapping the front expansion cards and tiles. The memory and chip cannot be upgraded, and Tom's Hardware, which rated it 3.5 out of 5, found it very expensive next to gaming PCs at the same price. It is built to order at frame.work. [src1, src4, src6]

Best for Portability: Khadas Mind 2S — Check price

The Mind 2S fits an Intel Core Ultra 7 255H, 64GB of LPDDR5X and a 2TB SSD into a case 0.79 inches thick that weighs under a pound, with Thunderbolt 4, USB4, HDMI 2.1, two USB-A ports, a free M.2 2230 slot and a 5.55Wh battery that keeps it in standby for up to 25 hours while you carry it between desks. Tom's Guide, which names it the best mini PC for portability, used it for ten months and calls it "the only mini PC that lets you carry this much power in your pocket"; TechRadar's review found the Core Ultra 7 "powers through almost anything". Both flag fan noise under load and the price: $1,599 for its only configuration in Tom's Guide's review. Khadas's own store listed the Mind 2S when we checked on 2026-10-11. [src1, src20, src21, src28]

128GB in a Small Box: GMKtec EVO-X2 AI — Check price

The EVO-X2 puts the same Ryzen AI Max+ 395 and Radeon 8060S as the Framework Desktop into a smaller, vertical-only case with an external 230W power brick and no VESA mount. Tom's Hardware rated it 4 out of 5 for "impressive horsepower and credible 1080p muscle" and called it arguably better value than the Framework Desktop; the 128GB configuration this card links can give up to 96GB to the GPU. [src9]

Strix Halo with 10GbE and a PCIe Slot: Minisforum MS-S1 Max — Check price

ServeTheHome calls the MS-S1 Max "our favorite Ryzen AI Max mini-PC to date": the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 with two 10GbE ports, USB4 v2 ports, an internal half-height PCIe slot and a 320W internal power supply. ServeTheHome tested the 128GB model; the listing this card links is the 64GB, 2TB model. [src7]

Compact Mid-Range: Geekom A8 Max — Check price

Windows Central's mid-range pick pairs a Ryzen 9 8945HS and Radeon 780M graphics with 32GB of DDR5 and a 1TB SSD in a small aluminium case; Windows Central notes the fan gets loud under load and there is a single M.2 slot. TechRadar rated it 4.75 out of 5, called it "exceptionally good value", edited 4K video in Premiere Pro on it and used its two USB4 ports for an external GPU when Hogwarts Legacy strained the integrated graphics. [src3, src12]

OCuLink for an External GPU: GMKtec NucBox K8 Plus — Check price

The K8 Plus pairs a Ryzen 7 8845HS and Radeon 780M graphics with 32GB of DDR5, and its front OCuLink PCIe 4.0 port is the draw: it lets you add an external GPU dock for gaming or heavier video work later. TechRadar rated it 4.5 out of 5 and called it "an absolute bargain" at its price, though it found the twist-off transparent top cheapened the look. [src11]

Built-In Microphones and Speakers: Beelink SER9 Pro — Check price

TechRadar's best mini PC for business has an all-metal case and an "AI voice kit": a microphone array and speakers that helped with dictation and with removing background noise on calls. TechRadar rated it 4.25 out of 5 on a Ryzen 7 H 255 model with 32GB of soldered LPDDR5X; the listing this card links is the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 model. [src2, src25]

Business Desktop with an RTX 5060 Card: Lenovo ThinkCentre neo Ultra Gen 2 — Check price

Lenovo's business mini PC fits an RTX 5060 graphics card into a 7.7 x 4.3 x 7.5-inch case. Consumer Reports tested it with an Intel Core Ultra 5 235, 16GB and 512GB and rated its performance excellent, among the fastest for demanding productivity, photo, video and 3D work, with room to change the graphics card; it says the machine is not suited to high-performance gaming. The link goes to Lenovo's page for the Core Ultra 7 265 configuration, built to order. [src24]

Previous-Generation Gaming: Minisforum AtomMan G7 Ti — Check price

A slim tower built around an Intel Core i9-14900HX and an RTX 4070 laptop GPU. PC Gamer scored it 71: it was the fastest mini PC PC Gamer had tested at the time (December 2024) and ran Cyberpunk 2077 at about 84 fps at 1440p with DLSS and frame generation, but its CPU throttled under load and its fans got loud at the 115W setting. [src23]

Key Market Trends (2026)

• Memory prices rose across the category: TechRadar points to a global shortage of RAM and SSDs, and Tom's Guide and Engadget call it "RAMaggedon" [src1, src2, src10]. The Mac mini M6 starts at $899 at Apple, $300 more than the M4 did, with the same 16GB and 256GB [src13], and Tom's Hardware reported GMKtec selling the 128GB, 2TB GMKtec EVO-X2 AI for $2,199 in February; compare its last observed price in the table above. [src9]
• Desktop graphics cards reach mini PCs: the Minisforum G1 Pro uses a low-profile desktop RTX 5060 rather than a laptop GPU, and the Lenovo ThinkCentre neo Ultra Gen 2 has an RTX 5060 card that Consumer Reports notes can be changed. [src1, src4, src18, src24]
• Strix Halo makes local AI practical on a desk: AMD's Ryzen AI Max+ 395 with up to 128GB of unified memory powers the Framework Desktop, GMKtec EVO-X2 AI and Minisforum MS-S1 Max; PC Gamer ran gpt-oss-120b on the Framework. [src4, src6, src7, src9]
• A newer edition is not always faster: Tom's Guide measured the Geekom A9 Max 2025 Edition ahead of the 2026 Edition, because the 2026 Edition ships with one memory stick instead of two. [src1]
• Intel's newest Core Ultra chips arrive: Tom's Guide names the Lenovo Yoga Mini (up to a Core Ultra X7 358H) its pick for quiet operation, and StorageReview ranks it the best consumer mini PC it has tested. [src1, src26]

Important Caveats

• Several products here were tested in a different configuration from the listing this card links: Windows Central reviewed the Beelink EQR6 with a Ryzen 9 6900HX and AndroidPCTV with a Ryzen 5 6600H, while the listing is the Ryzen 5 6600U model; TechRadar reviewed the Beelink SER9 Pro with a Ryzen 7 H 255, while the listing is the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 model; Consumer Reports tested the Lenovo ThinkCentre neo Ultra Gen 2 with a Core Ultra 5 235, while the link is the Core Ultra 7 265 configuration; ServeTheHome tested the 128GB Minisforum MS-S1 Max, while the listing is the 64GB model. [src7, src8, src16, src24, src25]
• Memory is soldered on the Mac mini M6, Framework Desktop, Khadas Mind 2S, Minisforum MS-S1 Max, GMKtec EVO-X2 AI, Beelink SER9 Pro and the Ryzen 5 versions of the Beelink EQR6. It is in slots on the GMKtec NucBox M6 Ultra, Geekom A9 Max, Minisforum G1 Pro and ASUS ROG NUC (2025). [src1, src5, src6, src7, src13, src14, src22, src25, src27]
• Laptop GPUs (the ROG NUC's RTX 5080, the AtomMan G7 Ti's RTX 4070) run below the desktop cards of the same name.
• The Mac mini M6's base 256GB SSD is small; Tom's Guide lists it among the model's dislikes. [src13]
• The Apple Mac mini M4 that earlier versions of this card recommended has left it: Apple now sells the Mac mini with the M6 or the M5 Pro. [src10, src13]
• The Framework Desktop is built to order at frame.work; the Lenovo ThinkCentre neo Ultra Gen 2 link goes to Lenovo's own page, where it is configured to order.
• Listings for direct-ship brands (Beelink, GMKtec, Geekom, Minisforum) change often; check the processor, memory and storage named on the listing before you buy.