Palm-sized mini PC steps up to Intel Haswell CPUs

These are quite attractive, but for general deployment they are a bit pricey.

In the UK these barebones units cost from 144GBP (Celeron to 440GBP (i7).

This compares to Acer Revo systems with 4GiB, HDD, FreeDOS, etc. at 180GBP (Celeron) to 280GBP (i3).

What I have always found missing from these small systems are LCD monitors with a built in 19V DC power output suitable for VESA mounted boxes.

I find that the manufacturers making a lot of these devices are missing the point.

The PI is attractive because of the price point. It isn't the most powerful but because it is cheap you can mess around with it and if it breaks you can get a new one.

When you get to the £150 mark then you may as well go that extra distance and buy a budget laptop.

I think that this is targeted at a different audience than the Rapberry Pi. This isn't really for experimentation; it's for building a moderately to fairly powerful HTPC with very predictable results, i.e., the same results you'd get with a much bigger desktop machine. They are a bit expensive, though, considering they come with no memory and no storage. Also, any tuner has to be external. Still, if they fit your plans, you may find them worth it.