6. In The Other Corner - Shuttle SB61G2, Continued

With Intel's 865G supporting hyperthreading, a 200 MHz FSB and dual-channel DDR, the mini PC's specifications far overshadow those of any notebook. The notebook's 2.1 GB/s of memory bandwidth, for example, are dwarfed by the desktop's maximum of 6.4 GB/s (DDR 400 / dual channel). The Shuttle's processor system bus of 6.4 GB/s is twice as large as that of the portable. And to add insult to injury, the desktop sports a 7200-rpm hard drive and a graphics core with a clock speed of 266 MHz - twice as fast as its counterpart that has an 852GM notebook chipset.

The mini PC is indeed a boon to port junkies, with a broad array of connectors studding the front and rear of the machine.

The front of the computer has ports for line-in, microphone, headphones, 2x USB 2.0, and Mini FireWire.

The back is adorned with SPDIF in/out (top right) and a VGA port, serial connectors, mouse and keyboard jacks, 4 USB ports, a network port and a FireWire connector.

The mini PC lands yet another blow to the notebook with its admittedly limited expandability-an AGP slot and a PCI slot leave the door open for upgrades.

But the fat lady has not yet sung - let's take a look at the benchmarks.