nytimes.com — Shuttle makes small PC’s for small spaces. Its latest, the XPC X100, could fit into a cereal box. The X100 is two inches thick and about the width and length of a standard sheet of paper. It is designed to look more like a home entertainment system than a computer, and its black case with metallic accents helps to camouflage its PC pedigree.
Sep 3, 2006 View in Crawl 4
blankypooSep 4, 2006
That'd go perfectly with the bookshelf PC <a class="user" href="http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/23/asus-shows-modular-concept-pc/">http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/23/asus-shows-modular-concept-pc/</a>
rickcarsonSep 4, 2006
@alwaysmc2Be nice. Shuttle even has a product page where they do a comparison with the mini themselves! (Of course... they did conveniently forget to leave off the prices...*)You've got to remember that there is all this pent up fanboy frustration from being bashed over the head with the mini being compared (on price alone) to bargain basement full sized towers with crappy components. Now we finally see someone digging an article about a small form factor pc... well... now you have an Oranges to Oranges comparison.At parent: note it does not include a TV tuner, but they offer an external TV tuner for $95. Set your expectations accordingly.Question to wider audience: the cheaper model seems pretty low specced. But if I just wanted a 'home entertainment/media center pc' mainly for the TV tuner - would the faster CPU and more memory actually help or are they just chrome?* Actually, they shouldn't have left off the prices, since if you bump the RAM to match (1GB) and hard drive (still only half the size at 128GB) the Apple is $1024 and the Shuttle $999. ($25 difference)Now lets bump up the XPC to have all the optional extras the mini has...XPC 100: $1162Mac mini: $1024The XPC is $138 more expensive (13.5% more).**But, for your money you get:A much bigger hard driveA mid range graphics cardA 4:1 card readerA couple more ports, including one extra USB 2.0 portA worse front side bus (533 vs 667)**Since the mac mini charges more for RAM and some other accessories, you could probably claw this back if you went hog wild and added all the extras.If I was looking for an el-cheapo 'gaming' computer, I'd consider the graphics card and hard drive to be the most important things on that list. Because it uses a full size hard drive bay the XPC can go up to 500 gigs.But then using it like that as a desktop instead of just a media center invites a comparison not with the mac mini, but with the iMac... one that I think the XPC would lose. On the other hand, I can't really picture an iMac sitting next to a TV, doesn't really look like it goes in the living room to me.I was surprised by the TV tuner being external, and optional, in something they say is " a potentially worthwhile addition to the living room entertainment array", I'd think that would be a standard accessory, not optional. Especially when as soon as you step outside of the living room, there are better options.But then inside the living room I'd want to compare it to an XBox 360. Or rather, since I know next to nothing about the XBox I'd want someone else to do the comparison. :D
Closed AccountSep 4, 2006
Never understood why small desktops were so amazing. My macbook pro blows that away spec wise and is an inch thick, and that's with a screen and keyboard.
meursaultSep 4, 2006
I can't get excited about any potential media center pc that does not have CableCard support, which means I can't get excited for a while yet.
rickcarsonSep 4, 2006
@alwaysmc2I think the XPC X100's power supply is internal.The main advantage of having a mac mini is that women like it. They think that it is cute.*A secondary advantage of having a mac mini is that it is semi-portable... so you can take it to where the women are... :D In my case that happened to be in another country. Going through customs was interesting, I thought that they were going to give me a hard time, and the boarding calls had already started... so when they said "so is that a DVD player?" I just said "yes, yes it is". And they let me through. There are times and places to have the Mac vs PC debate, and that was neither the time nor the place :D* Seriously. Which is a good thing, since it helps get over that whole "oh so you're one of those weirdo-pinko-hippy-commie mac users" thing. :DActually, most of the non-IT people I've showed it to really love it. The mini just oozes this pseudo-lunchbox cuteness factor. For most of those people I think there was always this nagging feeling that they'd not got the best bargain, that if they'd shopped around more they could have gotten the same deal for $100 off somewhere else. Rebates and coupons don't help. Of course, if they bought macs, they would have a different nagging feeling, that maybe they should wait a couple of weeks/months for the next version with even more iProductness. :DSo if you want something to just blend in with your stereo and VCR, then the XPC is probably the way to go. Or, as you say, go for the uber PC (I hear Mac Pros are cheap ;-) somewhere else, and just network to the media centre from there.
alwaysmc2Sep 4, 2006
@ rickcarsonBah, if I want "semi-portable" I'd just go all the way and buy a laptop. Because not only would I have to transport my uber-small computer, but also a keyboard, mouse, and monitor. (plus, I wouldn't be able to use any of it on the plane.)So I just don't quite get the idea. A media center, maybe... but neither one supports TV out of the box.Yeah, that's right. I dugg you. :P
ericspeerSep 4, 2006
Wow this is exciting news! oh I mean it was when Apple released the mini a year and a half ago! Just another example of Apple innovating and the rest of the industry trailing behind.
larrywsmSep 4, 2006
About the same size and idea of the Australian designed Microbee of the 1980/1990's. Though it ,the Mictobee, was a CP/M machine with a whopping 64KB of memory