Are you really supposed to put thermal compound on with a trowel like that?

Between CPU and heatblock, no, but the fit between the groove in the panels and the heatpipes, are much less precise fit, and I can see why more would be better than less. Really, the proof is in the cooling, which is very good.

Going fanless is so extreme and cool, but utterly useless. A Mac mini with much faster hardware and better equipment goes for less, takes much less space, looks better and doesn't sound bad either. Not mentioning the DIY route...

Love the SSD and the blu-ray on that new Mac Mini!

yeah buying a mac mini is like tossing my dick in a meat grinder.

ouch

Anyways, it looks like a nifty system. I'm impressed that you could go 2.0ghz quad core and 4 gigs. I like how you can option out of SSD.

I duno what one would do with a 32gb hd???? windows 7 and like 32gb... I mean you have your OS, you have your 2 programs. Have a nice day? Media files and such are what you want on this. I guess one could have a wireless NAS located in the house somewhere and just keep a small SSD. maybe that's the point of the miniscule HD for such machines.

Cant they put a 32nm in there and get better results?

lol seriously I agree!! Apple sucks

If you get a NAS, Synology makes great NAS products. Their web based software that you use to manage your NAS is excellent. I have the DS1010+ and I am extremely happy with it

The 16 GB SSD is hardly worth 420$, and this fanless pc has NO optical drive at all... sorry, did I miss your point, or was it simply some easy and plain Apple-bashing?
BTW, I didn't say the Mini is "the solution", but simply that even an overpriced piece of hardware like that is more conveniente than Solidlogic's creation. I bet one could build a fanless i3 (undervolted) pc using a M350 case for half that much.

I'm sure the Mac Mini does indeed serve its purpose for many people, as does many other nettops. And it was mentioned in the article itself that the SSD is terrible value, and can be optioned out. I assume that there is no optical drive because the computer is designed somewhat more for industrial/specialist use, where they have need for a computer without moving parts.

Personally I can't wait to see some reviews of the new ASRock Vision nettop, but with Nehalem laptop components, slot-in Blu-ray and whathaveyou, I'm afraid it'll at least equal that Solidlogic setup in price Which is too bad, since unless they somehow managed to make it noisy, it'd be my dream HTPC/browser box.

Yes, that was sarcasm. I forgot the tags. [sarcasm]sorry[/sarcasm]

It was apple bashing. What is the point of having a nice 1080p TV with dolby surround if you are stuck with illegal MKV HD rips and DVDs? Steve Jobs might call it a bag of hurt but I would say that having blu-ray is essential to an HTPC.

I can guarantee you that even undervolted, you will be hard pressed to put a fanless i3 in a case that size. The Clarkdale i3 line has a 73W TDP - even undervolted you're looking at 65W at 100% load. Where do you plan to dissipate that heat?

I never understood this. Yes, you want Blu-Ray, but it's not like you can't buy a standalone Blu-Ray player. Unless you can live with a 17" notebook screen, your 1080P display isn't going to be built into your HTPC. Your surround sound speakers aren't going to be built into the HTPC. Why does the Blu-Ray player have to be built into the HTPC? HTPC gives me a lot of advantages over standalone devices for internet streaming and downloaded content, but what advantage does using a PC to play your Blu-Rays give you over a decent standalone?

Unified playback.

Sure, you could have a blu-ray player, and a dvd-audio player, and a media streamer, and maybe a set-top box as well - or you can have an HTPC with them all built in. Controlled from one remote instead of, say, 4.

One device which runs idle most of the time, is on when you need it, and has all of your media served from a common interface. If you have a selection of all your movies to browse through on the streamer the last thing you want to do is turn on the blu-ray player, switch inputs on the remote, and plug your disk in. Why go through the hassle? HTPCs are about a simplified interface.