MSI Announces Power-Efficient Wind Box Nettops

It seems that the recent launches of graphics cards are not all that Micro-Star International (MSI) has been working on recently. While its two Lightning Series graphics adapters are busy catering to the needs of enthusiasts and overclockers, the hardware and PC maker has also put together a pair of mini PCs for those consumers in need of a space-efficiency desktop with only the necessary entry-level capabilities. The two models now revealed by the company are the Wind box DE220 and the DC220 mini PCs, otherwise known as Wind Box nettops.

The two devices are not all that different from each other when it comes to performance specifications. In fact, besides the differing graphics and video-output capabilities, their components are very much the same. Measuring 297 x 223 x 60.2 mm, they are powered by the Intel Pine Trail platform and use the Intel NM10 Express Chipset as a base.

Computing power is provided by either the Intel Atom 510 or the Atom 410 CPU, which have a clock frequency of 1.66Ghz. The PCs also boast a 3.5-inch 7200RPM hard drive with a storage space of 160GB and both nettops have up to 4GB DDR2 memory and run the Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Operating system.

The difference between the Wind Box DE220 and the DC220 is that the former comes with a Discrete ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4300 Series graphics solution with 256MB, whereas the latter uses the graphics capabilities inside the Integrated Intel NM10 Express Chipset (224MB). The DE220 also features an HDMI output.

As far as connectivity and I/O options are concerned, both products boast 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, a 6-in-1 card reader, a VGA connector, the same number of USB ports, mic-in and audio-out, as well as eSATA connectors. Unfortunately, the company did not mention anything regarding the product prices and availability.