TuxRunner

How much would you pay for this ultra-small PC? This is a very small desktop that I’ve speced out. It’s essentially targeted at people that want a small basic computer to browse the web with, use email, chat, online music streaming, Youtube videos, documents, finance software, printing…just basic computing that most people do on average. This is what you’d buy your mom, aunt, grandparents, or any other folks that might not be quite so tech-savvy that need something to work with.

Just to compare how small it really is. This image shows the size of Dell’s smallest Inspiron desktop PC…the Inspiron 530. Compared with the Mini PC shown here, there’s quite a difference in size (it’s about a quarter of the size of the Dell). This thing is so small, you wouldn’t need a special desk for it. You could literally just put it on a book shelf upright…or hide it under your mail basket. It can go on your desk in any space about the size of a small hardcover novel.

Most of the time when you go into a computer store, the sales associates are selling you WAY more hardware than you need. Dual-Core, 4 GB of RAM, 1 Terabyte of storage. You don’t need this stuff to trade stocks and shop on QVC.com! The people that need those kinds of computers are gamers, or people doing intense video editing/DVD authoring, or 3D Graphics modeling, or running many many applications all at once.

If you’re like most of my relatives and friends outside of the technology industry, you probably don’t do most of that stuff. So why drop lots of money on a huge tower PC with way more power than you’ll ever use for your daily basic Internet usage?

MINI PC

Size: 20cm (w) x 5.4cm x 24cm
Processor: Integrated Intel® Celeron® processor 215 @ 1.33 Ghz with a 533 MHz system bus
Memory:

• One 240-pin DDR2 SDRAM Dual Inline Memory Module (DIMM) sockets
• Support for DDR2 533 MHz and DDR2 400 MHz DIMMs
• Support for up to 1 GB of system memory

Chipset: SiS SiS662
Storage: Maxtor 40GB 40.0GB EIDE 5400Rpm 2MB Buffer 8.9ms
Audio: ADI AD1888 audio codec
Video: Integrated SiS Mirage 1 graphic engine
I/O Control: Winbond W83627DHG-B based Legacy I/O controller for hardware management, serial, parallel, and PS/2* ports
LAN Support: 10/100 Mbits/sec LAN subsystem using the Broadcom LAN adapter device
Peripheral Interfaces:

• Six USB 2.0 ports
• One parallel ATA IDE interface with UDMA 33, ATA-66/100/133 support
• One S-Video output port (optional)
• One serial port
• One parallel port
• PS/2* keyboard and mouse ports

Expansion Capabilities: One PCI Conventional bus connector