Connectivity And Expansion
Connectivity is a strength of the Desktop Mini PC as you can hook up three separate displays. This is useful in retail or office environments, which would benefit from a multi-monitor set-up.
Despite its compact design, the Desktop Mini PC includes two DisplayPort interfaces as well as VGA. There's no HDMI though, so you'll need to purchase an adaptor if you want to connect a HD display. It's also worth noting that the Desktop Mini PC requires an i5 or i7 processor in order to support three displays, with the entry-level i3 configuration limited to two displays.
There are 6 x USB 3 ports available for connecting peripherals. Because the EliteDesk doesn't have Bluetooth connectivity, two of these are likely to be permanently occupied by the mouse and keyboard (supplied) unless you invest in wireless accessories with a dongle.
Four of the USB connections are cramped together on the back of the unit so chunky USB memory sticks will cause issues. Fortunately, the remaining two USB ports are located on the front of the unit for easy access. There are headphone and microphone sockets on the front as well, with an additional line-out for external speakers on the back.
There's also a Gigabit Ethernet interface on the back for wired networks, so the device doesn't have to rely on Wi-Fi.
Performance
Our review unit was equipped with a top of the range quad-core Core i7 processor running at 2GHz, 8GB of memory and 256GB SSD, so we expected strong performance.
The Desktop Mini PC produced a strong overall score of 90 per cent in our benchmark tests. It had consistent scores across the responsiveness, multimedia and multitasking parts of the test, showing it's a good all-round machine. Performance is comparable to workstation laptops we've tested like the Dell Precision M3800.