Review roundup: Invasion of the ultrasmall desktop PCs

Look inside a desktop PC and you'll find processors, drives, random access memory, video and audio adapters, and more. Yet mostly these big boxes enclose air.

However, in many home and small offices, there is virtually no room to spare. So why devote so much precious space to bulky air-filled desktop PCs?

The latest generation of small computers can free up lots of space. These tiny computers are a fraction of the size of traditional PCs and can be tucked away on shelving or even placed unobtrusively on top of desks, perhaps as a base for a monitor. In contrast, actually putting an ordinary "desktop" computer on a desktop is unthinkable.

Shrinking electronic gear inevitably leads to trade-offs, and these small computers are no exception. For instance, vendors must find clever ways to vent air heated by processors and drives -- a task made more challenging because of the smaller fans used. Some vendors use one fan, which is quieter and cheaper, and others use two. Vendors also must decide whether to use standard hard and optical drives, which are larger but cheaper, or smaller and pricier laptop components.

Buyers must balance size and expandability. While much of the air in traditional desktops is devoted to expansion slots, there is no such space in small computers.

While older generations of ultrasmall computers, most notably the first Mac Minis, were criticized for being underpowered compared to full desktops, small computers now are often as powerful as their larger cousins -- at least in terms of their processors and hard drives, although they do often have fewer slots for RAM.

Older ultrasmall computers also got dinged for being expensive, but that's not as true now as it was then. Prices vary more widely than they do with standard desktops, but typically you'll pay only a small premium -- if any -- for smaller size.

And they offer other benefits besides their size. Some small computers are quieter than typical desktop models, which is important in cramped quarters. They're also portable -- which benefits both the IT staffers who must lug computers around and the users who might need all of their desktop computing resources for a meeting in a conference room.

A final benefit is that most vendors make their small computers environmentally friendly. Many are Energy Star-compliant, which bespeaks a frugal use of power. In addition, many small computers are highly rated by the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT), an organization that uses a standards-based approach for grading computers on 51 environmental criteria. Those criteria involve not just energy efficiency but also issues such as the use of environmentally sensitive materials.

To give you an idea of what to look for in ultrasmall computers and their benefits, we examined three units that are appropriate for small and medium-size offices and home offices. Two are recently released Windows Vista devices from Hewlett-Packard Co. and Lenovo Group. The third is Apple Inc.'s Mac Mini, arguably the first, or at least the most successful, ultrasmall computer.

Small computers are available from most PC vendors; our intention wasn't to be comprehensive, but rather to shine a light on three typical small computers from well-known vendors. Here's what we found.

Apple Mac Mini

At 6.5 in. wide and deep, two in. high and weighing less than three pounds, the Mac Mini is, by far, the tiniest of the three small computers we looked at. It's also, arguably, the most elegant-looking. While the other units look like shrunken desktop computers, the Mini is a sleek silver-and-white unit with rounded corners. There is nothing on the front panel except an optical drive slot and a tiny light showing whether the unit is turned on. Apple Mac Mini Apple's Mac Mini. Courtesy of Apple.

Its diminutive size means the Mini can be tucked into even smaller spaces than Windows-based small computers can. It's also far quieter than those computers in minute-to-minute operation; if the optical drive isn't running, you can't hear the Mac Mini unless you put your ear right next to it.

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Despite its small size and quiet operation, the Mini is as powerful as the Windows-based units. Our test unit had a 2-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo chip set, a 120GB hard drive and 1GB of RAM. The back of the mini sports four USB 2.0 ports and one FireWire 400 port, along with DVI video and Gigabit Ethernet adapters.

The Mac Mini would be a fairly good corporate citizen in Windows-centric organizations. For instance, while it doesn't come with a mouse and keyboard, it worked fine with leftover mice, keyboards and monitors from Windows PCs. That's important in Windows shops, where mice and keyboards seem to proliferate in storerooms.

More important, the Mini connected effortlessly to our small network via both its built-in Wi-Fi and Gigabit Ethernet port. It immediately saw the two other computers on the network -- both Windows XP boxes -- plus a network-attached storage device.

Also available to make the Mini a better citizen in a Windows office are products such as Boot Camp and Parallels Inc.'s Desktop, which enable you to install Windows XP or Vista on a Mac and use applications designed for those operating systems. However, you'll need a separate legal copy of Windows.

Besides being a good citizen in the office, the Mini is a reasonably good citizen in the world at large, receiving a silver rating from EPEAT.

One problem with the Mini is that it can't be remotely managed and secured, although malware developers have generally left the Mac OS alone, focusing instead on Windows. Another potential downside for IT managers is that, while Windows-based small computers can be easily opened -- to add RAM or replace a hard disk, for example -- getting at the innards of the Mac Mini is a much trickier process.

Macs have a reputation in some quarters of being pricey, but the Mini we looked at, while it doesn't come with a monitor, keyboard or mouse, cost just US$799. That's more expensive than the Lenovo small PC we examined but far less expensive than the HP unit. In fact, if you can live with less power, you can get a Mac Mini with a 1.83-GHZ Intel Core Duo processor and an 80GB hard drive for US$599 (or, at the high end, you can get the 2-GHz Mac Mini with 2GB of RAM and a 160GB hard drive for US$1,024).

If you need to use applications available only on the Mac, desire the elegant Mac OS or simply want the smallest, quietest computer possible, the Mac Mini is a strong choice for home and small offices.

Hewlett-Packard dc7800 Ultra-slim Desktop PC

This svelte enterprise-focused Windows Vista computer has a lot going for it, but we also found a snarl or two. On the plus side, the dc7800 uses hard and optical drives designed for laptops, making it the smaller of our two Windows-based computers; it is roughly, 10 in. wide, 10 in. deep and 2.6 in. high, and it weighs seven pounds. It fit quite comfortably on our desk, serving as a base for a 22-in. LCD monitor.

Despite its diminutive size, the dc7800 has almost everything you'd expect to find on the outside and the inside of a desktop computer except, of course, expansion slots. There are two USB ports on the front of the box as well as ports for a microphone and headphones. The backplane is particularly generous, with six more USB ports, VGA and DVI video ports, PS/2 mouse and keyboard ports, audio in and speaker jacks and a Gigabit Ethernet port. Our review unit also came with a built-in 802.11a/g adapter. HP Ultra-slim desktop. HP's dc7800 Ultra-slim desktop. Courtesy of HP.

Opening the case requires only turning a thumbscrew and pulling off the top. Once inside, you can replace virtually all of the components without tools. The dc7800 is Energy Star-compliant and boasts a silver EPEAT environmental rating.

This system is designed to work with Intel's Active Management Technology, which enables IT personnel to monitor the condition of the device and its operating system and even sometimes to repair it remotely. As befitting a computer aimed at IT-centric businesses, the dc7800 comes with a TPM (Trusted Platform Module) chip set to strengthen security and a suite of security and management applications.

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With two fans, the dc7800 was the noisiest of our three small computers, but it was still reasonably quiet. We compared it to two Dell Dimension desktops and subjectively found the dc7800 a bit louder than one and a bit quieter than the other.

In operation, the biggest drawback was that booting this computer was like watching paint dry; after pressing the power button, it took about three and a half minutes before the dc7800 was ready to use.

The dc7800 is pricey -- low-end units start at US$729 including mouse and keyboard. Our test unit, costing US$1,247, had a 2.66-GHz Core Duo CPU with 2MB of L2 cache and 1GB of RAM. A dizzying array of options are available, such as more RAM, that can drive the price even higher than that of our test unit.

However, IT managers know that the initial purchase price is typically not the most costly part of owning and managing a PC. With that in mind, the dc7800's strong built-in management and security capabilities make it a dependable choice for larger organizations with a scarcity of space.

Lenovo ThinkCentre A61e Ultrasmall Form Factor

The Lenovo ThinkCentre A61e is roughly an inch wider and higher than the HP unit. However, it's an inch less deep, so it's still tiny enough to easily tuck away out of sight. Beyond its slightly larger size, though, this eight-pound computer has a lot to offer and is quite inexpensive. The Lenovo ThinkCentre A61e. The Lenovo ThinkCentre A61e. Courtesy of Lenovo.

This ThinkCentre sports standard desktop-size DVD-RW and hard drives, which explain why it has both a slighter larger footprint and a lower price than the HP dc7800. Its single-fan design made it significantly quieter than the HP dc7800, although it's not as silent as the Mac Mini. It also received an EPEAT gold rating while the HP and Apple units got silver ratings.

The front of the A61e has two USB ports and plug-ins for a headphone and microphone, just like the HP dc7800. The A61's backplane is sparser than the HP unit's, however, with a Gigabit Ethernet port and only four USB ports. Nor are there PS/2 plug-ins for a mouse and keyboard -- you'll have to use two of the USB ports for those. Perhaps the most glaring omission is the lack of a DVI port, which is frequently used for LCD monitors. Instead, this ThinkCentre has only a traditional VGA port.

Our test unit came with a 2.1-GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual-core processor, 2GB of RAM and a 160GB hard drive. Unlike the seemingly endless boot sequence of the HP dc7800, the ThinkCentre A61e booted in about 1 minute, 25 seconds, a typical time for Windows Vista machines.

As with other small computers, there are no expansion slots in this ThinkCentre. But opening it up to add memory or replace components requires only pulling back a small slider button on the side of the box; the computer then opens like a book. As with the HP, replacing most components can be done without tools.

This ThinkCentre doesn't have a TPM security chip set and, because it uses an AMD processor, it doesn't support Intel's Active Management Technology. Still, IT shops will appreciate Lenovo's standard suite of security and management software -- roughly the same suite of software found on its ThinkPad laptops.

While larger than the HP and Apple units, the Lenovo A61e's solid, silent performance and strong environmental credentials make it an excellent fit in small and home offices. And, with prices starting at US$399 for a Windows XP machine with a low-end AMD Sempron LE 1150 processor (our test unit's configuration costs US$659), it's a strong value.