I'm looking for a Windows box with a very small form factor. Like, the kind of size that can fit behind a wall-mounted TV (not flush-mounted, of course).

My preference is for a computer running Windows 7, with enough oomph to run video calling applications like Go To Meeting. I suppose Atom CPUs are out because I'd like to be able to have it do HD video (at least, my Atom-powered netbook is incapable of handling HD Youtube). It should also be able to drive a TV, so HDMI is good.

I guess what I'm hoping for is the successor to the Acer Aspire Revo. Is there such a thing? Didn't Intel have some sort of platform they launched recently?

Okay, I answered my last question. I was thinking of the Intel NUC. Has anyone played with one of those?

The Zotac ZBOX line of mini-PCs predate the NUCs, and have been filling that niche for many years.

The CPU is not that important so long as the graphics chipset is capable. So a ZBOX with an Atom is fine so long as it is paired with a discrete NVIDIA GPU chip. In the case of the all-Intel NUC thingies, the CPU and graphics are the same chip, so it matters more there.

No direct experience with a NUC here, but I have set up many, many ZBOX machines as combined MythTV frontend/backend PVRs, and they have zero issues with playback of pretty much anything. A NUC running Windows will probably be just as capable if not more so.

Cheers

Depends on what you want to do with it. PVR? Streaming? Games? Skype?

Are you planning on running Windows MCE? Plex? XBMC?

The new NUCs are slightly larger (and uglier IMHO), but can use a standard 2.5" drive and use the newer, more energy efficient Haswell processors.

The previous generation require a mSATA drive, which can get pricey in a hurry. Here's a great price on a previous gen Core i3 NUC

Gigabyte also has their Brix range.

Mac Mini with the wireless mini keyboard and mouse? Can even boot that into Win7 if you want.

You want to mount it behind the TV because there is no HDMI cable to feed the TV from elsewhere?

Does the power brick also need to fit back there?

How much space do you have to work with?

What about fan noise? Fan-less a requirement?

I have recently bought a NUC D54250WYKH with win8.1 to replace my girlfriends old winXP machine. 8GB RAM, 120GB mSATA HD.

Nice looking little box, seems fast enough for her needs (MS office, web browsing, emails, Google Earth mainly), can be VESA mounted (assuming the monitor's stand does not take up the mount already), dead silent, runs cool (although nothing she does is stressing it). Four USB 3.0 ports (more would always be nice!). I feel it would look cleaner if all the ports were at the rear but not a big deal, especially if VESA mounted.

Pity about the win8.1 POS UI (fixed by Classic Shell)! Actually, once you do that, win8.1 is not too bad. Fast to boot up and shut down, quite snappy response in use and much like win7. Also, all of the older programs from XP that we needed will still work despite the upgrade advisor (or whatever it is called) deeming them incompatible.

I had a Zotac ID41 in the living room until I realised I could actually achieve everything I needed with a Roku streaming stick and the Plex app. Now it's a test client machine for a project I'm working on. Nice machine, it would happily play all the HD stuff I could throw at it.

I've been using 4 NUCs at home (HTPC) and in the office for various projects. I am very, very pleased with them. If I can help with anything specific, I'll be happy to. They definitely do all you mention in your very first post.

when i thought my old sff pc had died i got a zotac. it *was* dead, but the one i had was fine, and then i retired it anyway, but the zotac stuff looks quite nice given the size and the price. are the nucs actually capable of HD video? might have to revisit this for some applications soon, tho at this point a single mac mini is handling everything at home