
The article first appeared in Tom's Hard News email newsletter .
Time to junk those obsolete, elephant-like desktops! From the five-and-dime around the corner to Circuit City all the way to K-Mart, almost every merchant has been pushing the latest PC systems still cloaked in the passé fashions of the 90's. Meanwhile, it appears that a new trend is slowly captivating the PC market - ultra compact PC cases from Southeast Asia offer a taste of what the immediate future might have in store. Their message is clear, and by no means new - get rid of that boring, enormous, hospital gray box, and get yourself a chic, lightweight compact case. And by the way, a system built on one of these cases most certainly fulfills all the functions required by the average user.

It doesn't get any more compact than this! PC technology is reduced to a minimum: a board with graphics, sound, network capability, FireWire, and room for a 1100 MHz CPU and 1024 MB RAM.

Fully equipped board with all the components and cables.
- A Home-Grown Mini-PC: Tough Competition For Desktops & Notebooks
- A Home-Grown Mini-PC: Tough Competition For Desktops & Notebooks, Continued
- Package Contents: Case, Board, Power Supply And Miscellaneous Hardware
- Flex-ATX: Basis For Ultra Compact PCs
- Chipset: VIA/S3 Pro Savage PL133
- Processor And RAM: Max. 1100 MHz And 1024 MB
- Installing A DVD Drive Or A CD/RW Burner
- Hard Drive: 100 GB Is Enough
- Limitations: No Powerful 3D Graphics
- Conclusion: The New PC Style - Not Maxi But Mini!