On the face of it this PC is pretty normal netbook fare with a 1.6GHz Intel Atom 330 dual-core, between 2Gb and 4Gb of Ram, a 160Gb to 500Gb hard disk and on board graphics.

Externally there’s the now customary HDMI port and support for wireless 802.11n networking.  But what is it that will give this media centre it’s unique selling point?

 I have a small media centre under my TV through which I experience all of my television, video and music.  It’s a small Acer that’s pre-netbooks and, thus considerably more powerful than this HTPC and probably just as quiet (at least from across the room).  It’s about the same size too and most importantly wasn’t too expensive.  So what’s my point?  While I can easily see the market for large screen all-in-one HTPCs, this I feel will be a bit of a gimmick and owned only by a few people who feel it will be cool to have a lime green computer in their life, Bridget Jones springs immediately to mind.  :)

It’s a truly lovely piece of design though, nice and simple all round and easy on the eye.  In fact it’s not what I’d expect a PC to look like at all so on that score it’s going to win.  Should it make to Europe and the Americas though it’ll all come down to price on whether this one’s a winner.

Aspire Revo Gets Dual Core And Windows 7

Aspire Revo has gotten a new boost in power and is powered by the Atom N330 along with the ION chipset. So now it can do HD video and some basic 3D games. The price is up too though, to $350.

KND Pine Trail Devices Spotted, The K1850 Nettop Looks Good

Although Intel’s Pine trail – the next generation of Atom CPUs – is not officially out yet, there are signs of its coming soon. Several new models featuring the Pine Trail D510 processor have been spotted, including the K1850 nettop. That actually makes the K1850 the first Pine Trail nettop. It comes with an 18.6inch display, 2GB of RAM, 250GB storage and a DVD drive.

Asus 1501 ION Packing Eee Box Spotted Again

The elusive Asus 1501 Eee Box has been spotted again, and everyone agrees – it looks pretty good. The build quality looks good, the slot loading drive looks great and the angled mount is a nice touch. Too bad it will start resembling spaghetti as soon as you start connecting all the wire to it.

The Best Ones To Get Right Now

These are all Dual Core Atom 330 models (Except the Mac MINI and FitPC2) with NVIDIA ION providing graphics muscle for crunching HD video.

MSI Wind Nettop CS120

The MSI Wind CS120 is selling for around $330 and it has everything you need for basic computing tasks and watching HD videos. In fact, the slim, vertical box is perfect for setting down beside your HDTV, especially with the 7.1 channel audio out. Plus I like the fact that it has a slot loading DVD drive.

ASROCK ION 330

This one has 5.1 channel HD Audio output, DDR2 800MHz RAM (up to 4GB) and a very compact form factor. It uses a 2.5” laptop HDD but gives you 320GB of storage. But here’s the best part – it has built in software overclocking with absolutely no stability issues. So you can crank the Atom 330 all the way up to 2.0GHz. Also, there is something called the ASRock Instant Boot, which is like a super-low power sleep mode that lets you boot to an Internet surfing state in about 3-4 seconds. Pretty cool huh? This one sells for about $350 before rebates. There is also a Blu-ray version if you want to make it your HTPC.

Shuttle X27D

Selling for about $390, this nettop has won a lot of accolades from all quarters including an editor’s choice award from CNET in April this year. You can easily get the barebone model for about $190 and build it up with components of your choice. It accepts DDR2 533 RAM, 2.5” HDD and has a volume of only 3liters.

Mac Mini (Older models)

If you want the goodness of Apple’s OS X and want something more powerful than your average Atom-based nettop, this is a really great thing to have. You can get Core 2 Duo machines with 1 to 2GB of RAM for under $300 if you look around. The only problem is that these older models ship with smaller HDDs. But with HDDs prices going so low these days, you can buy a large HDD for the Mac Mini and still stay around $350.

Pssst – just saw one going for $273 at compclasse.

FitPC2

This one’s all about the size. If you want something that is smaller than a CD and runs in absolute silence, the FitPC2 models are varied but they use the Z series Atom processors and the Poulsbo chipset to decode HD video at, what they claim, has only 20% CPU usage. You can get one for between $250 and just over $400, depending on the configuration. It comes in Linux and Windows versions and there’s one where you can put in your own HDD. If you are planning on a hideaway HTPC or a carpc, this is the perfect way to go. In fact, these nettops are in great favor with car modders.