Based on our pick list, we've reviewed an impressive variety of the best desktops, right? We don't deny that a laptop or tablet is a better choice for people who engage in business travel or whose computing consists mostly of basic surfing and typing from the living room couch. However, desktops are often the best choice and provide the best value for small offices, families, creative professionals, gamers, and tech enthusiasts.

While desktops don't come in as many distinct forms as laptops, you'll find lots of variation in computing power and room for upgrades and expansion. The key is to spend as little as possible to get exactly what you want from your next desktop computer, whether that's a budget buy or a high-performance PC.

You might be able to excuse a relative lack of input and output ports on a sleek AIO. The screen and speakers are built-in, and you'll likely use a wireless keyboard and mouse anyway. However, mini PCs and desktop towers require a suitable selection of ports. At a minimum, they'll have to connect to a display, speakers or headphones, and a power source.

On all but the absolute tiniest mini PCs, look for at least three USB 3.0 (or higher) ports, with at least one being the newer, oval-shaped Type-C variety, if you have any compatible peripherals that plug directly into this type of port. Future-proofers will want to seek out USB4 or Thunderbolt 4 options, which both use the Type-C standard with increased speeds and bandwidth. Expect to see the even faster Thunderbolt 5 standard appear more frequently in the future, as Apple's Macs have already adopted it in their desktops featuring M4 Pro or M4 Max chips.

You'll also typically find an HDMI output (and perhaps another video output or two, such as DisplayPort or VGA), a 3.5mm audio jack, a connector for an external Wi-Fi antenna, and a receptacle for a physical lock. Note that some mini PCs use scaled-down "mini" versions of HDMI or DisplayPort, which require a different kind of input cable or a dongle. Ensure the machine's video outputs are compatible with your display and its corresponding cabling.

Larger tower PCs will have many more ports, providing support for pretty much any peripheral you need to connect. Expect six or more USB ports, for starters. On larger towers, one or two of these should support Thunderbolt over USB-C. Also, a given: an Ethernet jack for wired networking and multiple DisplayPort and HDMI jacks on the dedicated GPU for connecting one or more external monitors. A tower with a graphics card may also have video outputs that originate from the motherboard; however, you should only use the video outputs on the GPU. 

Many towers will also have multiple audio ports, including possibly an optical output and ports for individual speaker channels in a surround-sound setup. Ensure that these match up with any existing gear you may have; the number of surround-sound jacks can vary depending on the PC and its motherboard. Note that Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, while reliably present on even the cheapest laptops and many smaller desktops, are not a given on larger towers.

High-end workstations and gaming desktops often feature a second Ethernet port, allowing for doubled network bandwidth or always-connected redundancy. In contrast, business desktops may include legacy connectors such as VGA video outputs, PS/2 peripheral ports, or serial ports. The throwback-style ports are included for individuals who still require them to use older, specialized hardware, such as point-of-sale scanners or industrial equipment. Of course, you can purchase dongles and adapters to meet these special port needs, but the possibility of having them built in is a key benefit of choosing a desktop over a laptop.

When evaluating a desktop, also consider the ports' location. Are they easily accessible? Towers tend to have a few commonly used ports on the top or front (usually a headphone jack and a few USB ports). Some AIOs, in contrast, have some of their key ports hidden behind the stand in hard-to-reach places. 

Armed with all of the knowledge and decision points, you're almost ready to shop. The final consideration is how well a desktop PC performs. We review dozens of PCs every year, evaluating their features and testing their performance against peers in their respective categories. That way, you'll know which are best suited for gaming, which is our favorite general-purpose all-in-one, and which is the best if all you need is a small, powerful system you can get up and running quickly.

Still can't find anything that looks right for you? Check out the full feed of all of our latest desktop reviews, as well as our narrower-focused guides to our favorite all-in-one PCs, business desktops, and gaming desktops.