Start with the price band, not the sticker
Across the desktops and mini PCs in our data, prices run €96.46 to €8,768.75. That spread is wide, and the cheapest box and the best box are rarely the same machine, so decide your budget before you read any spec sheet.
Hardware is bought in one payment rather than on a subscription, so treat every price here as a one-off cost. GEEKOM lists its mini PCs from $219, a figure that sits towards the lower end of the category band. Scan's store shows entry prices from £48.98 on its monitor listings, which is a separate range from its computers.
The practical move is to pick a spend level, then read upwards from it. If you only need browsing, documents and video calls, the floor of the band is enough. If you want to edit video or play demanding games, budget well above the floor. Our Desktops and mini PCs ranking groups the category so you can see where each brand sits before you open a single product page.
Build to order or ready to go
All of these brands offer build to order, which means you can choose the processor, memory and graphics rather than accepting a fixed configuration.
That choice has a cost in time. A build to order machine arrives configured to your specification, while a ready-made unit ships sooner. Ask yourself how much of the specification you actually know. If you only know the games you want to play or the apps you need, a ready-made configuration is often the safer buy.
CyberPowerPC builds to order as its main route into the market, and the CyberPowerPC review is worth reading for how its systems are put together. Scan also builds to order, and GEEKOM does the same for its mini PCs.
Match the form factor to your desk
Form factor decides more about daily comfort than most buyers expect. A mini PC is small, quiet and often sits behind a monitor, but it may be harder to open and upgrade. A full desktop is bigger, easier to service and usually roomier inside.
Scan covers the widest set of shapes, with laptop, gaming laptop and desktop all in one place. That makes it easy to move between a laptop, a desktop and a mini PC while staying with one seller. GEEKOM keeps a tighter focus, with mini pc and laptop in its range.
Graphics is the next filter. Scan and CyberPowerPC list nvidia, amd and intel graphics options, so a discrete card from a major gaming brand is available. GEEKOM lists amd and intel graphics instead, which points at compact machines aimed at office work, media and light gaming rather than heavy rendering loads.
Memory and the upgrade ceiling
Memory is the spec people most often under-budget. Check the maximum a model supports, not just the amount it ships with, because the ceiling tells you how long the machine can stay useful.
GEEKOM is a clear example of a brand built for compact, dense machines: its maximum memory figure is 256 GB across the range. A high ceiling costs nothing on day one, but it tells you a memory-heavy workload years from now is not a dead end.
The reverse also matters. A large maximum does not guarantee every model reaches it, so read the memory figure on the exact product rather than the range headline. The GEEKOM review covers the machines in detail.
Operating system and where it ships
Both GEEKOM and Scan list Windows and Linux, so you can pick Windows for general use or Linux if you prefer an open system. Decide this before you shop, because it changes which software and which support answers you can expect.
Where a machine ships matters for after-sales. GEEKOM sells into the US, GB, DE, FR, ES, IT, AU, CA and JP, and its legal entity is Shenzhen Geekom Electronic Technology Co., Ltd., registered in China. Scan sells in a single market, the United Kingdom, under Scan Computers International Ltd.
If you are outside a brand's selling markets, add the likely cost of returns to your total before buying. A cheaper machine plus an awkward return policy is often more expensive than a slightly dearer one.
Support, returns and warranty
Support is where budget builders and established retailers differ most. Scan offers email, chat and phone, so you can reach a person by phone or live chat as well as email. GEEKOM offers email, help centre and community, with a help centre and a community forum instead.
Returns windows sit close together. Scan gives 14 days, and GEEKOM gives 30 days. A longer window gives you more time to live with a machine before deciding, which is worth more than it sounds on a purchase you will keep for years.
Warranty is the other part of the picture. Scan and GEEKOM both list 3 years of cover, and both offer an extended warranty option. Read what the warranty covers and who handles a claim, because a long term with lots of exclusions is worth less than a shorter clear one.
Which one to shortlist
Age gives a rough sense of stability. Scan was founded in 1986, CyberPowerPC in 1998 and GEEKOM in 2003, so all of them have a long record in computing.
Put the trade-offs together and the choice narrows fast. Want a broad range of shapes, phone support and a return window you can live with, and Scan is the one to shortlist. Want a compact machine with a high memory ceiling and a longer returns window, and look at GEEKOM. Want a full desktop with discrete graphics choices, and start with CyberPowerPC.
Whichever you pick, compare the same things on every product page: the starting price, the memory ceiling, the graphics option and the warranty length. The Scan, CyberPowerPC and GEEKOM reviews sit alongside our Desktops and mini PCs ranking so you can check each brand against the category before you commit.