The new Mini Barebone System, produced by Shuttle, has got a touch screen in the front wall of the case. The user can control the computer without external mouse, keyboard or screen, so it can replace e.g. a HiFi system.

With its Intel G31-Express-Chipset, the mainboard can be equipped with modern Intel-Core-2-Duo-Processors and up to 4 GB DDR2-Memory. There are SATA2 interfaces for HDDs and PCI-Express slots for TV tuners. The system is available at around 300€ (US$ 450) without CPU and RAM.

Equipped with a HDMI interface and Blu-Ray drive, it would be a quite cool machine for the living room, I think. You could watch movies in Full-HD quality, listen to internet radio or all your music stored on a big hard drive, or play even games on a big 52 inch flatscreen. I’m not quite sure whether you can add one of the new graphics cards to it, since it only has a PCI-Express 1.0 slot.