AOpen MiniPC Duo MP945-VXR review

You access the chassis by popping off the plastic top of the case, then removing four tiny screws that hold the DVD burner in place. It's harder to get inside than many other small-form-factor cases we've looked at, but once you remove the optical drive, you can then add your own hard drive, RAM, and Socket M 479 CPU. You'll need laptop versions of these parts--in this case a single SO-DIMM and a 2.5-inch PATA hard drive. Being a bare-bones system, as opposed to just a case, the AOpen MiniPC Duo MP945-VXR already has a motherboard (a standard Intel 945GM chipset), a power supply, and a CPU heat sink and fan built in.

Unlike the latest Apple iMacs, the current round of Mac Minis do not support Core 2 Duo CPUs (just Core Duo), so DIY types who want the very latest CPUs in their ultra-small-form-factor system can, for a change, have a clone that's even more powerful than the original.