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The Best Nettops Around Right Now

Shailpik
Oct 18, 2009
Updated • Dec 1, 2012
Hardware
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3

Nettops are all the rage right now, and with good reason too! For around $330-$400 you can get desktops that will do all the basic things you want to do and they will playback HD videos for you. Here’s news of the latest in nettops plus a roundup of the best nettops that you can get right now.

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

knd_k1850_intel_pine_trail_nettop-540x404

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

Asus-Eee-Box-PC-EB1501-Ion-Nettop-with-integrated-DVD-Burner

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

msi_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

ASRock-ION-330-BD-Nettop

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

Shuttle_X27D_2

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)

mac_mini

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

fit-pc2

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.

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Comments

  1. angel said on October 19, 2009 at 10:41 am
    Reply

    i have th asrock and i am very satisfied!
    i installed windows seven and it works very well…also with HD contents

  2. Taco said on October 19, 2009 at 4:24 am
    Reply

    Does anyone know how quiet or loud any of these are?

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