20.7L MINI ITX / BUILT IN SCOTLAND

It has less air inside it to work with, so cooling has to be designed rather than assumed. That is the actual difference. In a full tower you can put almost any cooler next to almost any graphics card and get away with it; in 20.7 litres the cooler, the card and the airflow paths are one decision rather than three, and we make that decision before the machine is built rather than leaving you to find out.

It can be, and small machines built carelessly usually are — smaller fans moving the same air have to spin faster to do it. The answer is airflow design rather than more fans, which is why the intake and exhaust paths matter as much as the cooler does. Where you put it matters too: a compact PC shut inside a cupboard will be loud no matter how it was built.

Not in the class of hardware. The Pandora takes full desktop processors and desktop graphics cards, not laptop parts in a desktop case. What you give up is the very top of the graphics range, where the cards are physically too large or produce more heat than this chassis can reasonably move. If you need that top tier, one of our larger gaming PCs is the better answer and we will say so.

The configurator only lists cards that physically fit and that we are willing to cool in this chassis, so the list you see when you configure a Pandora is the current answer. We would rather point you there than print a model number on a page, because the catalogue stays up to date and a page does not.

The starting price is on the two platform cards further up this page, and it buys a complete machine: built, cabled, tested under load, with the operating system installed and the warranty and support included. From there the configurator adds or subtracts as you change parts, so the figure you see in the basket is the figure you pay.

Yes, within what Mini ITX allows: one graphics card, two memory slots, and NVMe storage. That is worth understanding before you buy rather than two years afterwards. Tell us what you think you might want to add later and we will factor it into the build now, which usually costs nothing and saves a lot.

435 mm tall, 181 mm wide and 263 mm deep. The footprint it occupies on a desk is smaller than a sheet of A4 paper, because it uses height rather than width. Leave the top and the intakes clear and it will sit happily beside a monitor rather than under the desk.

That is a large part of the point. At 20.7 litres it is roughly the volume of a cabin bag and goes in a car without a conversation beforehand. Pack it properly rather than putting it loose in a boot — it is still a desktop PC, and the graphics card is still the heaviest thing in it.

Fully built, tested and packed, by insured courier, anywhere in the UK. It arrives set up the way it left the workshop with nothing to assemble at your end. Being compact genuinely helps here: there is less mass and less leverage inside the case than there is in a full tower, which is one of the quieter advantages of a small machine.

Every machine is built and tested to order rather than picked off a shelf, and working inside a compact chassis takes longer than working inside a tower. Once your specification is agreed we will give you a realistic window and keep you updated as it progresses.

Our labour is covered by a 10 Year Labour Warranty, and technical support does not expire. Phone us before you take a panel off — that call is free, and most owners send the machine back to Kilmarnock rather than working inside it, which is exactly what we would recommend.

Same class of hardware, dramatically less of your room. The Pandora is the answer when the machine has to fit somewhere a tower will not, or travel, or share a space you also live in. If none of that applies to you, our other gaming PCs give you more headroom at the top of the graphics range and more room to upgrade later.