Small form factor computers have been growing in popularity recently with the introduction of Atom-based nettops. These low cost systems have proven very compelling options for consumers with budget and space constraints, but for the most part are limited to basic computing tasks such as web browsing, document processing and some audio / video playback.

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Looks great - even had my interest until I saw the pricetag. They need to adjust that to compete with the MacMini. No way a stripped down version should be $1,000.

I gave my son a box built in an Antec ATX Mid Tower case.

That way, if he ever decides to get his POS Mac Mini fixed......he can use the Antec for a stand.

Oh, and adding to what LNCPapa mentioned, is $1000.00 for a half of a PC a "constrained budget purchase"?

All this, (and this, "Fujitsu unveils Celsius Ultra gaming rig" @ http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic133212.html ), makes me suspicious that Fujitsu , as a corporation, is suffering from "paranoid delusions of grandeur".

That really looks amazing, too bad about the price.

Suddenly a Mac Mini seems in the right price range...

Even though it really isn't. I just got one for the office 2 weeks ago - total after taxes, applecare, and RAM was $899. Kind of hurt a bit to spend that much (didn't even upgrade the processor) on it and ruins the idea of a $500 HTPC.

At least things are going in the right direction with regard to form factor etc but I couldn't agree more that the price is out of line.

I want my HTPC to be as lightweight as possible in that I have all of my content on another "beefy" computer and rip music/do video processing on that machine as well. Currently using an Xbox as a media extender but no easy way to stream Hulu and no Pandora and switching between media center and xbox has too many steps for some family members.

What I'm looking for is an HTPC with HDMI so I can hook it to my receiver either in a pre-built package or if I can find specs will build myself. Here what I think makes sense:

- small form factor - similar to what we see here
- blu-ray
- windows 7 (will use media center to get content from beefy machine)
- quiet (maybe with no fan?)
- minimal RAM, Disk, processor speed - just enough to use media center and play blu-ray disks
- media center remote control and remote KB/Mouse
- use on-board graphics (?) to use less power, heat, cost
- ethernet, HDMI and a couple of USB ports

Does anyone know of such a package - plans or pre-built?

Thanks in advance.

nice,apart from the graphics that is(intel)