The ASRock DeskMini GTX 1060 is a serious tool with serious power—the brushed aluminum and matte black of its exterior would be at home in any modern office, while its small size makes it ideal for any living-room entertainment center. Unlike the clearly gaming inspired appearances of other small form factor competitors, the ASRock DeskMini GTX 1060 would not garner negative attention in even the most formal of business meetings. ASRock's aggressive adherence to a minimalist design has led to a product that will fit in almost anywhere without sacrificing the hardware capacity for productivity or gaming.

The M.2 form factor has played a large role in the ASRock DeskMini GTX 1060's success, as allowing up to three drives to be mounted flush with the motherboard offers unquestionable spatial benefits over even 2.5" SATA options. Along with M.2, the efficiency of modern NVIDIA graphics as well as the epic performance of Intel Coffee Lake play leading roles in delivering a tiny, fierce machine. Of course, there are always compromises, and the ASRock DeskMini GTX 1060 is no exception. The STX form factor is a wonder of modern miniaturization, but the limitations on cooling it imposes cannot be ignored. The fans, especially the GPU fan, can be distractingly noisy under heavy load, and the entire system gets more than a little toasty once the heatsinks are saturated.

Ultimately, I think ASRock has done a masterful job in engineering the DeskMini GTX/RX line. The heat saturation and noise under heavy load are unavoidable consequences of the aggressively small form factor. The tiny 2.7 liter footprint of the DeskMini GTX/RX and the impressive performance numbers it delivers make the ASRock DeskMini GTX 1060 a solid choice for anyone in the market for a small form factor machine.