Entertainment and gaming desktops that come with built-in Blu-ray drive aren’t rare these days, but nettops—usually low-priced, low-power PCs that offer basic entertainment and productivity capabilities—traditionally never bothered with the high-end optical drive. Zotac just bucked the trend on their two new ZBOX Mini-PCs though; while they’re still powered by Intel Atom processors, they also come with a Blu-ray drive that turns them into full-blown (but still small) HD-playing Home Theater PCs.
Sorry if it confused your brain-grapes, but that slim, diamond-shaped thing in front of the keyboard isn’t an oddly-shaped flatscreen display. It’s a whole nettop PC by eMachines, actually. Called the Mini-e, this is the first system sold in the US to rock AMD’s new low-power Athlon II Neo processor. Probably not the most powerful nettop around (which should be fine, since if you’re buying a nettop, power shouldn’t be one of your top concerns), but it does look cool, considering what they managed to pack into it.
Lenovo has just announced two new systems that run on Intel’s 2nd-gen Atom platforms highlighted by the IdeaPad S10-3s, a 10-inch netbook that features a slim profile that measures under an inch thick (0.63 inches to be exact).
That’s not an external optical drive you’re looking at. It’s actually Shuttle’s upcoming Windows-based nettop that runs on Intel’s Atom D510 dual core processor. The fact that it measures only 3.3cm? That’s not what makes it awesome (although the size does add to its overall awesome-factor)—it’s that this small desktop kit comes with Nvidia’s ION2 graphics, making for a really compact desktop kit that can handle HD videos and streaming 3D.
MSI has announced that they will be showing off several new desktops on the CES showroom floor in January. Three models have been announced: the Wind Top AP1920, an All-in-one PC built around an 18.5-inch touchscreen display, and two Wind Box Mini PCs, the DE220 and DC500.
