From gaming to advanced workstations: 5 impressive portable PCs unveiled at CES 2019

CES 2019 was special in more ways than one. Apart from thinner, smarter televisions and innovative smartphones, computer peripherals stood out at the electronics exhibition. PC-makers focussed on going small this time, rather than going big.

With peripheral manufacturers flaunting desktop hardware small and light enough to fit into a laptop, here's a list of five of the most compact portable desktops unveiled at CES 2019.

Powerful and stylish, the Asus ProArt PA 90 is a portable powerhouse designed for content creators. This Mini PC is powered by an Intel 8th generation Core desktop-grade processors and is equipped with an NVIDIA Quadro graphics card. The mini PC offers stunning visuals and excellent computing performance. The ProArt PA90 boasts Intel Optane technology which brings low latency and accelerated performance to heavy workload.

The Zotac Mek Mini is a portable, powerful PC which weighs approximately 3 kg and measures roughly 10x10x5 inches. But as in most PCs, it is what’s on the inside that counts and the Mek Mini doesn't disappoint. With a powerful Intel Core i7 processor coupled with an Nvidia RTX 2070 GPU and 16GB of DDR4 RAM, the portable PC is a beast. For cooling, Mek Mini features 270 degrees of ventilation and air intakes on the sides and bottom, not to mention exhaust vents at the top and rear. Zotac's excellent ventilation system for the Mek Mini's case will help maintain temperature levels inside the desktop and prevent it from overheating.

The CyberPowerPC Syber Cube is a portable desktop PC that looks like the Tesseract from Avengers. The Cube series is easily one of the most appealing desktops with its unique design. This Tesseract-shaped desktop doesn't house an Infinity Stone, but does offer loads of power to enhance gaming experience. An Intel Core i9-9900K processor paired with Nvidia's RTX 2080 will deliver all the power you need to run the latest titles on max settings at 4K resolution with up to 90 FPS depending on what game you're playing.

The new Corsair One Pro series of small form factor desktops pack in tons of power. The desktop series consists PCs ranging from high-end gaming machines to powerful workstations. The new Corsair One series takes advantage of the company's know-how; in making cases with good ventilation, producing SFF PSUs, custom liquid cooling tech, and other components. The new One series packs the latest generation of Intel’s Core processor with hyperthreading and Nvidia’s latest RTX 2080 and RTX 2080Ti GPUs. The Corsair One Pro i180 is based on ASRock’s X299E-ITX/ac motherboard, Intel’s 12-core Core i9-9920X processor and NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 2080 Ti graphics card.

The list of portable PCs would remain incomplete without this innovative prototype from Origin. This new cube-shaped PC offers a gaming desktop in a small form factor without skimping on performance. The Origin Cube can be configured with a full-sized graphics card, liquid cooled processor, and plenty of storage bays for expansion.