Polywell Computers has been designing and building PCs in the U.S. since 1987. Though the company primarily serves business and government, it has consumer offerings aplenty, like its new Z590L2-i7 mini desktop. The system’s diminutive size conceals an Intel Z590 motherboard and an eight-core Core i7-11700 “Rocket Lake” processor that makes it an excellent all-around performer. The model we’re testing also includes 16GB of memory, a 500GB PCI Express 4.0 solid-state drive, Windows 10 Pro, and a commendable three-year parts and five-year labor warranty, all for a very reasonable $899. The Z590L2-i7 gets additional points for its quality metal build, but its obnoxiously loud cooling fan gets in the way of an overall recommendation. The HP Z2 Mini G5 and the Dell Precision 3240 Compact, rival small systems, are quieter and offer the dedicated GPUs the Polywell lacks, while Dell’s OptiPlex 7090 Micro and Intel’s NUC 11 Pro Kit are fine alternatives if you don’t need maximum CPU power or workstation capabilities.
Smaller Than a Game Console
At 2.6 by 8 by 8 inches (HWD), the Z590L2-i7 is smaller than an Xbox Series X (12 by 6 by 6 inches). It fits easily on a desk, and Polywell offers VESA mounting options if you want to stash it under a desk or behind a monitor. Either way, you’ll need to find a place to hide its sizable 240-watt external power supply.
An internal power supply would have streamlined the setup, but it’s hard to fault Polywell for going the external route. Since the case is just large enough to accommodate an industry-standard mini-ITX motherboard, finding room for an internal power supply would have required a larger chassis or a smaller, possibly proprietary, motherboard.
Though it may not qualify as chic, the Z590L2-i7 looks objective and professional enough to fit into almost any environment (except for ones where quiet matters; more on that in a moment).
Its case design is largely unchanged from Polywell’s Z390L2-i9 from 2019. Cooling cutouts in its top and side panels make it vaguely resemble a cheese grater. Its hairline brushed aluminum panels feel supremely solid and have a quality look, especially in daylight.
Above-Average Connectivity
Physical connectivity for the Z590L2-i7 starts up front with a pair of USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports.
Ideally, however, you’ll connect devices around back to keep cables out of the way. There, you’ll find five more USB-A ports (four version 3.2 Gen 2 and one legacy 2.0), a USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 Type-C port, and three audio jacks (line-in, line-out, and microphone).
The stubby external wireless antennas belong to the motherboard’s Intel AX210 wireless card, which supports the new Wi-Fi 6E standard and Bluetooth 5. Gigabit and 2.5Gbps Ethernet ports provide wired networking. There are only two video outputs, HDMI 2.0b and DisplayPort 1.4; at least one more would have been nice for native triple-monitor support. (That said, with the right hardware, you could daisy-chain multiple monitors using DisplayPort.) The power adapter also connects back here.
Simple Interior Access
Accessing the Polywell’s innards requires removing the four Philips screws that secure the top panel, a simple enough task.
The mini-ITX motherboard is an ASRock Z590M-ITX/ax. Its two slots for desktop-style DDR4-3200 memory are both occupied in our test unit. It also has two M.2 Type 2280 slots for PCI Express solid-state storage. One of them supports PCI Express 4.0 (populated in this unit by an excellent Samsung 980 Pro), while the other supports PCIe 3.0. Conveniently, a heatsink covers both to keep drive temperatures in check.
A metal support bracket, also secured by four screws, must be removed to access the memory and M.2 slots.
Height and space limitations prevent using the motherboard’s PCI Express x16 slot, so it’s not possible to add a dedicated graphics card to this system.
The cooling fan that you see inside is the sole reason we’re not recommending the Z590L2-i7. Though its noise level is acceptably low at minimum speed, the fan ramps up frequently and is far from quiet. It creates more noise than a full-size gaming desktop, to the point where I left the room while running benchmarks. The extreme noise practically limits this little desktop to being used in environments where sound is a non-issue, such as a warehouse or production floor.
Little ‘Rocket Lake’: Testing the Polywell Z590L2-i7
As mentioned, the Z590L2-i7 is a good value at $899 considering its potent 65-watt Core i7-11700 processor (with 2.5GHz base and 4.9GHz turbo clock speeds), 16GB of RAM, 500GB SSD, and Windows 10 Pro, not to mention its three-year parts/five-year labor warranty.
That’s a lot less than the HP Z2 Mini G5 ($1,274 similarly configured, albeit with an older Core i7-10700) and Dell Precision 3240 Compact ($1,219 for a comparable model). Those two also offer standard three-year warranties, but can (for higher prices) be bolstered with discrete Nvidia GPUs, while the Polywell’s only option is its Intel UHD 750 integrated graphics.
If you don’t need workstation-grade features, the Z590L2-i7 is still less expensive than the Dell OptiPlex 7090 Micro, which I configured online for $1,373. (See our review of the earlier OptiPlex 7080 Micro.) The Intel NUC 11 Pro Kit can undercut the Polywell’s price depending on the components you choose, but its 28-watt mobile CPU options are considerably less powerful than the Z590L2-i7’s full-desktop-strength Rocket Lake chip.
It’s testing time. I benchmarked the Z590L2-i7 against four other mini desktops whose basic specs appear in the table below. The only one I haven’t already introduced is the ASRock DeskMini X300, an inexpensive compact tower that uses an AMD processor.
The closest comparisons to the Polywell here will be the HP, with its potent 95-watt Core i7-10700K “Comet Lake’ chip, and to a lesser extent the OptiPlex 7080 Micro, which uses a special 35-watt Core i7-10700T. Those are the only two units with dedicated graphics cards. (See more about how we test desktops.)
Storage, Media, and CPU Tests
Our first test is UL’s PCMark 10, a general performance suite that simulates different real-world productivity and content-creation workflows. We use it to assess overall system performance for office-centric tasks such as word processing, spreadsheeting, web browsing, and videoconferencing. The Z590L2-i7 didn’t disappoint, posting an impressively high score for a system without a dedicated GPU. It also won PCMark 8’s storage subtest by a few ticks, even though that exercise doesn’t take advantage of its PCIe 4.0 storage drive.
Next up are two CPU-crunching tests: Cinebench R15 stresses all available processor cores and threads while rendering a complex image, while in our Handbrake test, we put a stopwatch on systems as they transcode a 12-minute video clip from 4K to 1080p resolution.
Impressively, the Polywell matched the Z2 Mini G5 and its older but higher-wattage Core i7 processor in Cinebench R15. The other desktops’ lower-wattage CPUs weren’t in the same league. The ASRock and Intel also have fewer processor cores.
The final test in this section is photo editing. We use an early 2018 release of Adobe Photoshop Creative Cloud to apply 10 complex filters and effects to a standard JPEG image, timing each operation and adding up the total. This test is not as CPU-focused as Cinebench or Handbrake, bringing the performance of the storage subsystem, memory, and GPU into play.
The Z590L2-i7’s time of 115 seconds is one of the lowest we’ve seen from a mini desktop. Its Rocket Lake chip has especially strong single-core performance, which is paramount to a low time in this test.
Graphics Tests
Next, we use two gaming simulations to measure a PC’s graphics performance potential. In UL’s 3DMark, we run two DirectX 11 tests, Sky Diver (lightweight, capable of running on integrated graphics) and Fire Strike (more demanding, for high-end gaming PCs). Our other benchmark, Unigine Corp.’s Superposition, uses a different rendering engine to produce a complex 3D scene.
As you’d expect, the newer Iris Xe integrated graphics of the Intel NUC 11 Pro Kit outperformed the UHD Graphics 750 silicon of the Z590L2-i7. The DeskMini’s AMD Radeon integrated graphics proved stronger than both, but the top honors went to the HP workstation and its dedicated Nvidia Quadro T2000 graphics card. Since the Polywell isn’t available with a discrete GPU, it’s not ideal for 3D-focused tasks beyond simple wireframe modeling and esports gaming with reduced settings. It’s all about the raw CPU grunt.
Too Loud to Earn Laurels
The Polywell Z590L2-i7 performs at a level that few mini desktops can match, thanks to its 65-watt true-desktop-style Core i7 CPU. It also delivers good expansion capability, built-in Wi-Fi 6E, a sturdy metal design, and an excellent warranty for a reasonable price. What prevents it from getting more than a passing recommendation is its exceptionally noisy cooling fan, which almost disqualifies it for office settings. We’re more apt to endorse a different mini desktop pick, especially the Dell Precision 3240 Compact or HP Z2 Mini G5 if processing performance is what you’re after.
