Digital Home Thoughts: Acer Aspire X1200 Series Crams Oodles of Features into Small Package

"If you gotta go the desktop route, Acer's got three mini-PCs packed heavy with ports that don't take up a ton of space. Measuring 10.6" x 4" x 14.4", about the same as a hardcover book, the X1200s have an HDMI port-like Dell's leaked mini, aka the green PC, but unlike the smaller Asus Eee Box, which only has DVI-plus two PCIes, nine(!!) USBs, FireWire, front and back audio jacks, a DVD SuperMulti drive and a 14-in-1 card reader. Under the hood, it comes standard with 4GB RAM, the better to power the AMD dual-core processor with Nvidia GeForce 8200 integrated graphics to run Vista (now with SP1!). The PCs are out now for $450 to $700, a config which includes a 500GB drive and 22" LCD monitor. Check out the press release after the jump."

I've never owned an Acer PC, but this might be my first: this little box, only 10.6 inches tall, packs more ports than your average desktop PC (nine USB ports!?). The native HDMI, and small size, makes this especially appealing for my digital wall project - I need something unobtrusive with on-board HDMI. If the pricing in Canada is in line with the US pricing, my search might just be over before it really began.