The number of ultra-small PCs arriving on the market is a sign of the times. The industry is slowly-but-surely making the transition to petite, efficient devices that are more capable than ever before, and if chip giant Intel has a say in things, the PC of tomorrow will be no bigger than a box of chocolates.

It's telling that a few of the HEXUS staff are now more intrigued by these little systems than they are by the big behemoths that typically cross our path. So much so, in fact, that a couple of our team have already downsized from full-tower machines to NUCs or something of a similar size.

But what this area of the market really needs is choice, and lots of it. Anyone building a traditional tower has a smorgasbord of components to choose from - that's half the fun - however if you want something that's significantly smaller, your options are limited. This should become less of a problem in 2014 as more manufacturers make the move to small-form-factor (SFF), but right now the mini PC continues to be championed by a select few.