The 7 Best Budget PCs in 2021

Best Overall: Acer Aspire TC-895-UA91

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The Acer Aspire series of desktops all aim to give you serious bang for your buck, and the TC895 here is no exception. It is almost as big as the classic tower desktops you’re used to but brings a really interesting design language with it. The upward angle it sits at, paired with the bronzed down arrow at the top, gives it a look that sits somewhere between a gaming computer and a premium speaker. That’s a good thing because it is more than a foot tall, so you will certainly notice it in your office setup—and it will look pretty striking in this case.

Under the hood, the Aspire balances power with affordability really nicely (the main reason we’re giving it the Best Overall nod). The 10th-gen Intel Core i3, quad-core processor hums with a max speed over 4GHz, offering plenty of primary power. Bolstering that power is the 2666MHz DDR4 memory, but in this particular configuration, you’re only getting 8GB. If you do lots of video work or need to have several programs running at once, we’d recommend considering a higher RAM count of at least 16GB. You are getting a 512GB solid-state hard drive, which will do well at calling up programs and booting up the device. There’s 802.11ax Wi-Fi 6 on-board for modern speeds and Bluetooth 5.0 for wireless peripherals. There’s 1 USB type-C port for your higher-speed needs, several full-sized USB ports for expandability, audio ins and outs, an Ethernet port capable of 1000Mbps of transfer speeds, plus an SD card slot on the front. The whole unit runs on Windows 10 home and even supports surround-sound functionality. This makes it a great, family-friendly, consumer-centric PC that will give you the ability to step up to some professional use-cases as well

Best Dell: Dell Inspiron Desktop

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The Dell Inspiron series—both for laptops and desktops—is the brand’s mid-level, meat-and-potatoes offering, and the latest generation of the Inspiron Desktop is a true standout for those who want a great PC for well under $500. Dell claims the new Inspirons are 16% smaller than the previous gen, and they now feature a 10th-generation Intel Core processor (specifically the Core i3-10100 with speeds up to 4.3GHz). This fact alone is a huge selling point if performance is a concern for you at this price point. The 8GB of DDR4 2666MHz RAM is more than enough for average or business-focused work, but will show its limitation in video and production work. There's also a spacious terabyte of HDD storage, and for $49 more you can step up to a model that includes a snappy 256GB SSD as well.

To fill out the rest of the physical package, you’ll get 4 USB-3 ports, 4 USB-2 ports, an audio jack, as well as an HDMI and a VGA port for video versatility. And, while visually this PC isn’t the flashiest option out there, Dell has brought in a carbon fiber-esque pattern on the front that gives the desktop a bit of noteable look, rather than going for an all-business design.

Best Apple: Apple Mac mini (M1, 2020)

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For Mac users, finding a budget desktop might be difficult, but you're not entirely without options. The base configuration of the Mac mini comes with 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD storage, and it's powered by the M1 chip with its octa-core CPU, octa-core GPU, and 16-core Neural Engine. That's plenty of power for most people when it comes to browsing, productivity, and multimedia. Performance is impressive, with our reviewer showing solid benchmark tests not just for productivity tasks, but also gaming. With Rosetta 2, the Mac mini can play any game designed to run in macOS on an Intel machine.

The design is sleek and attractive machined aluminum and the back panel features a Ethernet port, two USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 ports, an HDMI port, two USB type A ports, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. That's enough connectivity options for you to connect one or two monitors, a keyboard, mouse, speakers, and a dock if you need it. For the operating system, power, and versatility, the M1-powered Mac mini is one of the best budget desktops on the market.

Best Chrome OS: Acer Chromebox CXI3

4.2

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Chrome OS has long been pigeon-holed into the budget laptop space, but you might not realize how much bang for your buck you can get for a desktop version of Google’s light OS. This Acer Chromebox provides a nice balance between higher-end specs and the sub-$500 price point you’d expect from a non-Windows device. The unit itself is intentionally tiny, measuring just about 6 x 6 inches, meaning it won’t take up much more space than an Apple TV. This means that it’s great for sitting on your desk (flat or stood up), but can also be mounted to the back of a large monitor or TV and used to run your entertainment setup. While the size is tiny, Acer hasn’t skimped on the I/O. You’ll get a whopping five USB 3 (type-A sized) ports for connecting devices, one USB type-C for modern hookups, an HDMI as your main monitor out, and even a micro SD card slot. It’s really quite impressive what Acer has managed to include in such a small footprint.

The size also doesn’t speak to a lack of processing power. At its core is an 8th-gen Intel Core i3 processor with average speeds of 2.2 GHz (boostable to 3.4GHz) as well as 8GB of DDR4 memory. This isn’t the most recent generation of Intel’s chipset, and 8GB of RAM can be limiting for heavier work—though it is important to note that Chrome OS’s lighter software footprint doesn’t hog nearly as much RAM as Windows 10. There’s a 64GB SSD, which is pretty small for a desktop device, though it’s nice to see the high-speed memory at play here. Connectivity comes through an 802.11ac Wi-Fi card, a standard Gigabit Ethernet port, and Bluetooth 4.2. Again, the more modern Bluetooth 5.0 would have been better, but these are the trade-offs you’ll make for the price. And that price of just over $400 is really compelling because with all that power running Chrome OS, you’ll really have to throw a lot at this thing to choke it up.

Best Compact: Lenovo ThinkCentre M90n

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The Lenovo ThinkCentre M90n is a total beast of a desktop PC in an almost astonishingly thin package. That package is about 7 inches measured horizontally (not opting for the pocket size of some other PCs), but because it’s less than an inch thick, it’s possibly one of the thinnest, non-laptop PCs out there. That thickness does end up being pretty limiting for inputs and outputs, as expected, giving you two USB-A ports and one USB-C port on the front (plus the headphones jack) and a matching trio on the back, alongside the Ethernet port and a DisplayPort. Oddly, HDMI is missing here, meaning you’ll most likely need an adapter for your monitor.

However, the power and performance offered here will likely make up for the middle-of-the-road I/Os. You’re getting an Intel Core i5 processor with boosted speeds up to 3.9 GHz (impressive for this sub-$500 price point) as well as 8GB of DDR4 2666MHz RAM. The graphics are handled by an integrated Intel UHD Graphics 620 card, and all of your data is stored on a super-fast 512GB NVMe solid-state drive. This is an impressive lineup for something that is no thicker than the average journal. Windows 10 Pro (64 bits) is running the show here, and that’s also a big plus at this price point, as it will let you more efficiently run pro apps (whether you’re a creative or a business professional). This particular package comes with some accessories bundled, and will only run you about $499 at the time of this writing.

Best Mini: Intel NUC 8 Mainstream Kit

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The Intel NUC 8 Mainstream Kit NUC8i7BEH is a project PC kit aimed at the entertainment-minded. Why is that? Well because its size better resembles an Apple TV or Amazon Fire TV, it would be perfectly at home sitting in your living room as an entertainment system. That’s also true because this thing doesn’t have any memory built in. Instead of including a hard drive or RAM, Intel has kept the price of this unit down, so you can insert your own, building the file system yourself, using the OS you want, and outfitting it with only the RAM you need. There are specs to consider here. There’s an M.2 22x42/80 slot for NVMe or SATA SSD—the most standard port, but one that gives you flexibility on the physical connection. There are dual-channel DDR4 2400 RAM slots which will accommodate up to 32GB of RAM. So, if you want to use this unit for gaming on your TV, then you’ll be fine.

What you do get here is a really impressive processor, that is ready for you to build whatever system you want. There’s an 8th-gen Intel Core i7 here and an integrated 655 Intel Graphics card. At its core, that’s all an entertainment-based PC will need, provided you give it enough storage and enough RAM. You are only getting four USB-A ports, an HDMI out, one thunderbolt port (a true plus for an entertainment PC) and a fast ethernet port here. Plus, with Bluetooth and WiFi included, you’re getting solid connectivity. And, because this is truly a project kit, the top of the chassis pops off easily, giving you access to the necessary ports.