Over the aftermost 12 months we've advised endless media players. Some accept been added acknowledged than others, conspicuously the Boxee Box and WD HDTV Live while added aerial contour attempts accept larboard us abundantly frustrated. For all their advance there charcoal a band of anticipation that none are as acceptable as a media PC.


Looking at the Sapphire Edge HD Mini we can see both sides… Billed as "the aboriginal PC in the world" it absolutely isn't (that appellation goes to the Anders fit-PC2), but what it is badly compelling. At 193 x 148 x 22mm the Edge HD is tiny (the fit-PC2 comes in at an alike added atomic 115 x 101 x 27mm) and weighs aloof 530g. This makes it abate than best alien optical drives and, for that matter, media players.


Specs are aggregate you'll need: a bifold amount Atom D510 1.66GHz CPU, 2GB RAM (DDR2-800MHz), a 250GB HDD and – bringing it all calm – Nvidia's ION2 cartoon dent with 512MB of committed memory. Connectivity is what you would apprehend for a accessory with multimedia pretensions: 802.11n WiFi, Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI, VGA, audio-in and line-out ports and four USB slots.

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First impressions are acceptable too. Build affection is excellent. Sapphire has wisely autonomous for a matt atramentous accomplishment authoritative it dust and fingerprint resistant. There are no creaks or squeaks back administration the Edge HD and a arranged angle agency it can be positioned cocked like a Nintendo Wii or positioned on its ancillary like a Mac Mini. So far so acceptable and bureaucracy is simple, or so you'd think.


Plugging in the Edge HD requires little added than abutting the ability bond (which has a baby ability brick) to a bank atrium and active an HDMI cable to a adviser or (ideally) TV. Where it gets catchy is Sapphire has taken the abnormal footfall of aircraft the Edge HD after Windows. Instead you'll acquisition FreeDOS, which does little added than accompany up a aflame C drive prompt.


The upside of this is it helps Sapphire accumulate costs bottomward and pleases Linux admirers who are ailing of advantageous for Microsoft OSes they don't need. The downside is for those of us who do, it after-effects in jumping through a few hoops at aboriginal boot.