Smaller than a CD drive and selling for $440, the Linutop 2 is powered by a 500-MHz AMD Geode LX800 processor. The system comes with 512MB of system memory and 1GB of flash memory storage, of which 400MB is available for use. Without a fan, it is eerily quiet to use, but the system keeps its cool. Minimalist in the extreme, the Linutop 2 doesn't come with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or an optical drive. There's room to add a 2.5-in. hard drive inside, but the only item that's really meant to be upgraded is system memory; it can hold up to 1GB. The whole thing weighs just 1.25 pounds, allowing you to do something that few other PCs can: Velcro it to the back of a LCD monitor or, with Linutop's $55 adapter, screw it in place.

On the upside, the T5254 is relatively power efficient. Its 2.1-GHz AMD Athlon BE-2350 processor has a 45-watt rating, consuming as little energy as a laptop does. When idle (powered on but with no activity), it consumes only about 50 watts as measured with the P3 International Kill-a-Watt meter, significantly lower than the 80W idle readings of other mainstream systems we've seen. Similarly, the T5246 consumed only about 82W of energy while under strenuous use during CineBench R10 testing. That's well below the 130W to 150W power ratings of other mainstream systems we've tested.

* NVIDIA nForce 780a SLI chipset * Supports up to AMD Phenom X4 Quad Core processor * NVIDIA GeForce 8200 * 2x DDR2 1066 (For AM2+ CPU) / 800 / 667, up to 4GB * Gigabit LAN, 6x USB 2.0 * HDMI / HDCP and full HD experience * 1x PCI-E x16 Gen 2.0, 1x PCI * Supports DirectX 10 * 7.1 HD audio * 80 PLUS PFC power supply