How quickly things change. Two years ago we barely mentioned PCs’ running costs; now they’re an important factor in a buying decision. Even with price caps, a power-guzzling PC could cost you well over £100 a year to run. We print the idle and peak power consumption in the graphs on p93, along with an estimated annual running cost based on the October price cap of 52p per kWh.
SIZE VERSUS SPACE
We review two “mini PCs” this month: the Chillblast WAP Ultimate and HP’s Z2 Mini G9 workstation. And most PC makers offer similar machines. While they tend not to come with the most powerful components, which need plenty of cooling, both are fast enough to be used as daily systems. If you currently use a laptop, a new mini PC will probably be faster.
A mini PC will also likely use less electricity than a beast of a PC, and you may even be able to attach it to the
