The system is enclosed in an oddly wedge-shaped enclosure that is designed to sit on the desk rather than to be mounted on the rear of a monitor. If you don't know the hotkey for your computer, you can look and see if a message comes up during POST, telling you what key to press or you can try hitting one of the 12 function keys, the DEL key, the Enter key or the ESC key since it is always one of those. You may have to try a few times to determine which one it is. In our research, DEL and F2 were, by far, the most common. BIOS Keys by Manufacturer

This NUC doesn’t have many ports, but those soon get used up when considering the internal M.2, SATA port, Gigabit LAN and USB ports. However, there should have been enough to make the M.2 port NVMe spec, and that never happened. Some Mini PCs are designed to lay flat under a desk while others have a unique vertical design that allows them to be placed on top of your desk next to your monitor and within arm's reach. You can also completely conceal them behind your monitor if they come with VESA mounting holes. GMKtec has a reputation for making good quality small systems that won’t break the bank, and the NucBox M2 is a prime example of precisely that. Combining better bandwidth with DRR5 memory, a more power-efficient processor, a superior GPU and a PCIe 4.0 infrastructure, the AS 6 has almost everything going for it. If it has weaknesses, these include a noisy cooling system, all-plastic construction and the same Asus-designed interior layout where the motherboard is in two parts connected by a flexible ribbon cable. The highlights of this design are its metal case, easy access to the interior and relatively straightforward upgrades to memory and storage. It even has a spare M.2 2042 slot for adding additional space above that available through the main M.2 2280 slot.

Accessories

When choosing which mini PC is best for you, there are several factors to consider - but first, it's important to be sure a mini PC is right for your needs. What could have been better was the USB ports that are all blue in colour, though one is a USB 2.0, and both USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports are on the front and both Type-A ports. That the only USB-C port is Gen 1 was a definite oversight.

As such, selecting a mini PC is no easy task. First, we had to filter them based on size. We started from the tiniest ones, the thumb drive-sized PCs, up to the palm-sized devices, then moving to the TV-box-sized machines. In each size jump, we looked for the usage scenarios for each based on the capabilities of the CPU and amount of RAM and included ports, then we weeded out the ones with sub-par specs; this removed several dozen entries with the same Celeron CPUs and low RAM. We've tested thousands of devices, from the best laptops for photo editing to best business computers, alongside small-form PCs. This odd layout suggests that this machine was made almost exclusively for monitor mounting because, placed on a desktop, it’s not obvious which way to orientate it. The Intel NUC 13 Pro might not be the cheapest option for compact computing devices, but it is from a highly trusted source and offers the absolute cutting edge in NUC technology.Even with that modest silicon, the U59 performs well at basic tasks and has potential as a small office machine or for embedded applications. For 8GB customers, the RAM can be upgraded to 16GB, along with the M.2 SATA storage. There is also a bay inside for a 2.5-inch drive for even more storage options. There is a lot of variety when it comes to Mini PCs: various sizes are available and they are designed for various use cases.