CES 2025 First Look: ASRock’s One-Cable Mars PC & DeskMini B860 Are Tiny Titans

LAS VEGAS—ASRock showed off two new mini PCs at CES, each with unique traits to help them compete in the small form factor (SFF) PC market. Which of these systems might be a better mini-PC fit will be a matter of opinion, with the new ASRock DeskMini B860 driving top-notch performance in a highly confined package, and the ASRock Mars 1335U providing a slim PC that can be fully run off a single cable. See them in action above, and read on for more details, starting with our brief trip to Mars.

The Mars 1335U: A Single-Line Connection to the Red Planet

The tiny Mars 1335U PC that ASRock designed measures just 194 by 150 by 26 millimeters, giving it an internal volume of just 0.7 liters. That’s exceedingly small, but desktops this size aren’t unheard of in the SFF market.

(Credit: John Burek)

Its specs are also fairly conventional: It has an Intel Core i5-1335U laptop-class CPU that gives the system its name, 16GB of Kinston Fury Impact DDR5 5,600MHz memory in a dual-channel configuration, and a 1TB Solidigm P42 PCIe 4.0 SSD.

(Credit: John Burek)

None of that makes this system stand out. The Mars’ big appeal, instead, is that it was designed to run off of a single cable. Using a USB Type-C cable and running DisplayPort Alt mode, this PC can connect to a monitor via one cable that will send a video signal to the monitor and provide all the power the PC needs to run. The cable can also handle data transfer simultaneously, enabling you to run everything off this one connection.

(Credit: John Burek)

In addition to being downright nifty, this makes it quick and easy to connect the PC for initial use, or to transfer it between monitors. The significant reduction in cabling is also a big plus, helping to keep down the clutter on and around your computer.

(Credit: John Burek)

The system features additional USB ports, an SD card slot, an Ethernet jack, and additional video connections should you need them. But that’s not as cool or as convenient as doing everything with one slim wire.

DeskMini B860: Socketed ‘Arrow Lake,’ as Small as Possible

The other desktop ASRock showed off is the latest version of its long-running DeskMini SFF PCs. The DeskMini B860 is one of the few modern PCs to persist using Intel’s Mini-STX form factor, which uses perfectly square 5-by-5-inch motherboards. Though not quite as small as the Mars 1335U, this system provides far more power and performance.

(Credit: John Burek)

This design’s benefit is that it supports standard desktop processors in an exceptionally compact space. This particular model has an ASRock B860M-STX motherboard with Intel’s brand-new B860 chipset that supports socketed desktop Intel “Arrow Lake” Core Ultra 200S processors with a TDP of 65 watts or lower. Yes, that’s Socket 1851 on a 5-inch-square motherboard.

(Credit: John Burek)

(Credit: John Burek)

The motherboard lacks any PCI Express slots, of course, but otherwise has features akin to what you’d see on a decent Mini-ITX motherboard, including two M.2 PCIe slots (one PCIe 5.0, one PCIe 4.0), 2.5Gbit Ethernet, and Thunderbolt 4 support.

Due to the tight enclosure, the DeskMini B860 doesn’t use standard DDR5 RAM like you’d use on most desktop PCs. It instead relies on SO-DIMM DDR5 memory like you’d find in a laptop.

(Credit: John Burek)

On top of that, this DeskMini supports CSO-DIMMs, for enhanced memory speeds under XMP profiles, as you can see here…

(Credit: John Burek)

That’s great, since you’ll be relying on the Arrow Lake integrated graphics processor (IGP), and faster memory can help IGP performance. Indeed, despite the laptop-memory reliance, it’s hard to find another PC this size that can pack quite so much power.

(Credit: John Burek)

ASRock expects the DeskMini to be a hit with education and AI-minded buyers due to the NPU in Arrow Lake. We don’t know when the DeskMini B860 or the Mars 1335U will be available for sale or how much they will cost, but if you’re interested in either, stay tuned for additional updates.

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About John Burek

Executive Editor and PC Labs Director

I have been a technology journalist for 30-plus years and have covered just about every kind of computer gear—from the 386SX to 64-core processors—in my long tenure as an editor, a writer, and an advice columnist. For almost a quarter-century, I worked on the seminal, gigantic Computer Shopper magazine (and later, its digital counterpart), aka the phone book for PC buyers, and the nemesis of every postal delivery person. I was Computer Shopper’s editor in chief for its final nine years, after which much of its digital content was folded into PCMag.com. I also served, briefly, as the editor in chief of the well-known hard-core tech site Tom’s Hardware.

During that time, I’ve built and torn down enough desktop PCs to equip a city block’s worth of internet cafes. Under race conditions, I’ve built PCs from bare-board to bootup in under 5 minutes.

In my early career, I worked as an editor of scholarly science books, and as an editor of “Dummies”-style computer guidebooks for Brady Books (now, BradyGames). I’m a lifetime New Yorker, a graduate of New York University’s journalism program, and a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

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About Michael Justin Allen Sexton

Analyst

For as long as I can remember, I’ve had love of all things tech, spurred on, in part, by a love of gaming. I began working on computers owned by immediate family members and relatives when I was around 10 years old. I’ve always sought to learn as much as possible about anything PC, leading to a well-rounded grasp on all things tech today. In my role at PCMag, I greatly enjoy the opportunity to share what I know.

I wrote for the well-known tech site Tom’s Hardware for three years before I joined PCMag in 2018. In that time, I’ve reviewed desktops, PC cases, and motherboards as a freelancer, while also producing deals content for the site and its sibling ExtremeTech. Now, as a full-time PCMag analyst, I’m focusing on reviewing processors and graphics cards while dabbling in all other things PC-related.

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