miniQ / mini ITX systems

what are these new MiniQ/Mini ITX systems that i have been seeing lately? what are they good for etc. ?

Really small systems, usually with everything integrated, designed for stuff like sitting in the living room on top of the TV and pretending to be a Tivo recorder/Mp3 player. Basically, Underpowered, non-upgradable crap (IMHO).

That's my understanding, anyway.

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Are we talkin about something like those shuttle pc's, one problem with those shuttle things, if for some strange reason god descides to stop the one and only fan on that thing you could probaly say good buy to your AMD, seen as i have only seen AMD powerd ones then yeah, Not everything is intergrated, it does have a AGP slot, as far as i can see though. Umm another thing is if for instance you wish to upgrade you memory this is the sequence you would experince.
1. Take cover off
2. Take out Power supply / CPU fansink
3. Take out CD-ROM drive and HDD (on same bracket i think)
4. Take out Stiffy Drive
5. Admire the "Cuteness" of this what they call a PC in front of you
6. Put in memory
7. Put back together

So then 2 Hours, 3 cups of coffee and your mothers intire cookie jar later you have upgraded from 256 to 512

So ye me myself and I prefer the good old ATX Boards and cases.

Maximus.

PS: this is from what ive seen of these things. if im wrong please correct me.

Imagine your worst upgrading nightmares come true: You need a second PCI card, but there is only 1 PCI slot...you need a second hard drive, but if you dare mount one, it will overheat...you would like to do CD to CD coppies, but with only 1 CD bay, you have no option but to add even more boxes to your cluttered desk. You'd like to use it as a set top box, but find that it's too tall to put in your VCR slot on your entertainment system...so you put it on your desk, and find out it's wider than your full tower was...

<font color=blue>Watts mean squat if you don't have quality!</font color=blue>