For me at least, the appeal of SFF desktops is in the small footprint. That means size/power draw/temperature/noise. For that, I'd be willing to pay a small premium (though probably not as much as a mac mini involves). As far as the comparison to laptops, I thought you laid it out pretty well. But c...

Thanks for the replies. The M350 specs say it can handle cooling up to a 65W TDP CPU with just the CPU fan, and I've heard of people using the i3-2100 in M350s, but I have no experience when it comes to dealing with enclosures that small. The x-bit labs review of the A8-3800 indicates a system power...

Do you think the 65W Llano A8-3800 (once it's released along with a mini-ITX FM1 motherboard) would work with Minibox M350 + 150W PicoPSU ? My main concerns are the thermal characteristics and the case height. I'm worried that the heat spreaders on a lot of DDR3-1600 memory sticks might be too tall ...