Lab

Business PCs

Last month's business laptops Labs may have seen your office decked out with fancy new mobile kit, but there's still more value to be found in the trusty desktop PC. True, it can't be packed in a bag and taken out of the office (although with a few of these tiny chassis that isn't entirely unfeasible), but for sheer power and security a desktop is hard to beat.

We asked the six major business PC manufacturers to send us their latest affordable models, and there were some notable trends. It's no surprise to see Intel chips dominating, with all six using Core 2 Duos and the latest Q35 Express chipset; this also means they meet the requirements of Intel's vPro platform, and five out of the six support it. Among other time- and cost-saving benefits, vPro includes Active Management Technology (AMT), which allows administrators to access, over the network, machines that are switched off or where the OS has crashed.

Another component found in all six of this month's systems is the TPM (Trusted Platform Module), which allows for the storing of encryption and network keys directly in hardware. With passwords (and the human factor) the biggest weak spot in security, these chips can provide that much-needed extra layer of protection.

These business PCs are all suitably powerful, but we were impressed to find exactly how much could be crammed into these tiny form factors. If future expansion potential is more important, we also have standard tower cases, but regardless of size all of the models here feature innovative design touches that differentiate them from your average home PC.