| OK, I found the FIC Crusader slimline barebones unit at Fry's for $329, with a GeForce2 MX200 installed. i845D, P4 Socket 478 to 2.2 GHz, one 3.5" internal bay, one 3.5" floppy bay, one 5.25" CDROM bay, 2 firewire, 2 USB, 1 optical (perhaps for entertainment hookup?), 1 10/100 Ethernet, 1 PCMCIA, 1 mini-AGP (occupied by GeForce2), 3 mini-PCI. All of this in the same form-factor as the FIC Sabre (I'm feeling very stupid that I bought the Shuttle SV-24 less than a month ago).
The specs of this unit utterly destroy the X-Box, albeit at a slightly higher price point. The build quality is 3x that of the X-box, and it uses standard peripherals, too.
Cons: No TV out, no internal IR keyboard or IrDA, DDR-only? (TBD), and full-height PCI cards like the Phobos P430 4-port 10/100 will not fit. | |
