Sometimes something small can have a major impact.

I recently found myself in the middle of one of the worst crises I have ever faced; my PC melted. I don't even like to talk about it, the memories are too painful. Let's just say you never want a burning smell to be coming out of your motherboard and leave it at that.

Once I had stopped sobbing, banging my head against the table and asking, "Why? Why? Why me? What have I done to deserve this?" I realised the full gravity of the situation. I no longer had access to the 1550 albums in my music library or the 35GB of family photos dating back to 2001.

Luckily, I had a PC on a Stick.

 

If you haven't come across one before, it's hard to get your head around how something smaller than a smart phone could function anything like a desktop computer. I'm here to tell you Intel's PC on a Stick definitely delivers.

The concept is simple enough; plug a half decent processor into any display and you're well on your way to no-frills home computing. Of course, while the device itself isn't much bigger than a couple of match boxes, in reality you will need a few other bits and pieces to make it work.

Computers don't just magically control themselves (well, except in the Terminator movies and that goes badly for us humans) So some kind of mouse and keyboard arrangement will be required. The PC on a Stick will run on any monitor or TV with an HDMI port and is bluetooth and wifi enabled which means you can connect whatever controller you like. I decided to plug mine into the TV in my lounge, so I figured a wireless keyboard and mouse was the way to go.

I was surprised to find a full-sized USB 3.0 port and 2 micro USB 2.0 ports on such a small device. It even ships with a micro-to-full-size USB adapter to make life easier still. Of course, like any computer, there's nothing stopping you connecting a USB hub for even more connectivity.

The PC on a Stick runs the full desktop version of Windows 10 pretty seamlessly. On paper, it may appear a little under-powered with only 2GB of ram available, but the quad-core Intel processor helps speed things up. Sure I found running too many programs at once did cause a slight memory traffic jam although in saying that, I was still able to create multiple user profiles and switch between them without too much delay.

I had no issues installing common programs like Office and iTunes and these functioned exactly as they should.

What really blew me away was how I was able to access all my old files from my smoking PC. 

I know it may sound old-fashioned, but I still keep all my photos and music on hard drive. This is not because of some fuddy-duddy, superstitious fear of cloud storage. It's simply because that's the way I've always done it and I can't be bothered changing.

In truth, I actually do a bit of both - a kind of belt-and-suspenders approach that will hopefully prevent me ever losing anything truly precious. The point is, I wanted to access my library of sound and vision which was still sitting there on a 4TB hard drive.

Turns out, not a problem. I simply plugged that hard drive into a SATA docking station and presto! The PC on a Stick went from having a mere 32GB of storage to 4 terabytes. The transfer rate was totally adequate and I found I was even able to access my existing iTunes library, smart playlists and all, with no problem whatsoever.

This meant I was able to use the PC on a Stick as a temporary portal to my old cyber life while I researched up a new computer.

It's possible I would have considered not even replacing my old, melted box at all, if it wasn't for the fact my youngest monster considers herself an online gaming expert who requires a dedicated graphics card and enough processing grunt to drive it.

While it's true you won't be running Doom or Skyrim with only 2GB of ram, I had absolutely no complaints about playing video, either stored locally or online. That makes the PC on a Stick a genuine alternative to something like Chromecast, with the added functionality of being able to browse the net, check your emails and update your social media streams.

As I was using it on a 42inch telly in the lounge, I had to adjust some of the graphics settings so I could still see text and other objects from the comfort of my couch across the room. This did lead to some limitations when certain windows appeared too large for the display and I couldn't access all the buttons or links I wanted to.

Perhaps not the ideal family computing solution, Intel's PC on a Stick certainly stepped up to the plate in a temporary capacity and priced below $250, it wouldn't be a crazy idea to have one on standby, just in case.

I think it would be ideally suited to someone who works out of various offices in different locations and wants to take their own desktop experience on the road with them. A fraction of the size of a laptop and virtually weightless, the PC on a Stick could revolutionise the way we move our computing needs from place to place.

Click here for full specifications and pricing information on the Intel PC on a Stick II