Digital Home Thoughts: Dell Joins Nettop Craze

"Dell just dropped the new tiny-tower OptiPlex 160 for businesses and educational markets looking to save space and "go green." This 1.85-inch thick machine packs the usual assortment of ports, and an integrated power supply (no brick!), but unfortunately forgoes the integrated disc drive. The $563 base model incorporates a single-core Intel Atom processor, 80GB HDD, 1GB RAM, integrated video, and Vista Home Basic SP1 -- most of which reminds us of the Eee Box, other than the extra two Benjamins Dell's asking for. "

I remember the time when Nettops weren't called Nettops, but just really expensive, tiny desktop PCs. The first one that comes to mind for me is the Compaq iPaq Desktop, which came out sometime in 2001. With the Dell joining the recent Nettop explosion, it does suggest that it is now a serious market. The Optiplex is definately targeted towards the business segment, and the space freed up and power savings combined makes this quite attractive. It's still a tempting purchase for home as well since all its benefits still apply for home use, especially for somewhere like the kitchen, where it can be mounted to the back of a monitor.