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AOpen has announced its new "Pandora" mini PC. This ultra-small-form-factor PC should look very familiar to anyone who recognizes Apple's Mac Mini: On the left above is the AOpen Pandora. On the right is the Apple Mac Mini. While there's a definite "copycat" factor here, it does show that Apple's not the only one who can produce a small, stylish little box.
 
Separated at Birth? AOpen's Pandora (left) and Apple's Mac Mini (right)
When fully configured, the Pandora looks like this: 
According to an article on CNet News.com, the specs for the Pandora are as follows: - Intel 945G and 945P chipsets (the general features of those chipsets - which may or may not make it into the AOpen box - include: support for 800MHz bus Pentium D CPUs, four DDR2 DIMM sockets that support up to 4GB of memory, one PCI Express x16 slot, Gigabit LAN, 6-channel 5.1 audio or 8-channel 7.1 audio, and one PCI Express x1 connector)
- Pentium D processors (LGA775 socket, 533MHz or 800MHz system bus)
- Slot-loading CD drive
- Front-mounted lighted power button
- 3 USB 2.0 ports
- Serial port
- PS/2 keyboard port
- Internal wireless networking connectors
Compare these to the specs of Apple's Mac Mini, which is priced "starting at $499": - 1.42 GHz G4 CPU
- Up to 1GB RAM (512MB DDR SDRAM standard)
- Dedicated graphics processor (ATI Radeon 9200 with 32MB DDR SDRAM)
- DVI connector plus VGA adapter
- Slot-loading Combo Drive (DVD/CD-R) or optional SuperDrive
- 40GB or 80GB hard drive (laptop-style mechanism)
- Built-in Gigabit Ethernet
- Optional wireless (Airport and Bluetooth)
- 2 USB 2.0 ports
- 1 Firewire 400 port
- Optional modem
The AOpen box offers (arguably) faster processors, a higher capacity for RAM, DDR2 RAM versus Apple's DDR RAM, PCI Express x16 video (likely to be more than a 32MB card!), a PS/2 port, and an extra USB port. Apple's only advantages (if you can call them that) are the Superdrive and Firewire. Since the motherboard in the Pandora theoretically may contain a PCI Express x1 slot, you could add a Firewire card to it fairly cheaply if that was a deal-breaker for you, and still come out (in the Linux configuration at least) cheaper than a Mini. Pricing for the AOpen Pandora is estimated to be $399 for a Linux configuration and $499 for a Windows configuration when the box is released "in time for the holiday shopping season" this year.
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