Everex gPC mini == PC-ified Mac mini, without Winders

I've been reading all the comments on the gPC and some of the other pcs on the site you posted. WOW! That site is full of some Mac/OS X haters!!!!! Very angry group of hackers.

I think its a pretty cool machine, I'd probably buy it if I was looking for a new PC.

I like the guy on that page ranting about "mac people and all their dongles"

I don't even know where my dongles are

Haha, me too. I mean, I've got my keyboard and mouse, the external hard drive and... a USB extension cable -- for the camera or flash drive or media reader, etc as needed, like any normal user. Dongles? Where? I've seen plenty of PC users who stick extra USB cards in their machines because they need more ports and already have a couple hubs attached.

I've got my iBook too. Built-in WiFi. I don't use BlueTooth for anything but the keyboard for my mini. The only thing that is plugged into the iBook 99.9% of the time something actually is plugged in is the AC adapter.

The guy was probably referring to how we have to use a dongle for VGA out on most Apple laptops, however, I think most people use the built in display. And if you use an external, well, you probably leave the dongle on the monitor when you go...
I guess some people just have to find something to complain about.

I find myself wishing that someone would introduce machines at about this price point that used a form factor more similar to, say, a DVD Player or cable box, rather then these too-tiny squares which seem to be the result of some sort of manufacturing pissing contest as to who can cram the most laptop components into the least practical enclosure. Then you use the extra space to house *real* hard disks, possibly even a pair of them, instead of laptop drives, and maybe a bit of sound insulation to boot. That could provide substantially more "bang for the buck" as a media center machine and it'd actually be easier to integrate into your stack of A/V components.

(Yeah, you can buy those Shuttle or whoever "breadbox" machines or cobble together a low profile box yourself, but they tend to be *loud*.)

Comparing this to the Mac Mini, well... The $599 Mac Mini has twice the RAM but only 2/3rds the hard disk space and has a Combo drive instead of a burner. Looking at the Apple Store website you can't actually option up the 1.83 Ghz model to a burner, so really you have to compare this to the $799 model. Add $50 of RAM to the Everex so they match and you come down to $549 vs $799 for the same computer other then a bit of CPU speed. Retail price of OS X is $129, iLife is $79. That means the real price difference between the two is about $40, which probably about covers the CPU speed difference. Seems like the value equation is about a wash to me. If OS X and iLife is worth $210 to you buy the Mini. Otherwise, well, don't.

Amazing how wound up people get about these things.

--Peace