Don't waste time and money. The Mac Mini is a better machine in terms of form factor, functionality, and value for money. No competition! Just buy the finished product and get on with life.

On what planet does Mac Mini beat this box?

Up to three hard-drives, vs. MM's one.

PCIx card for graphics vs. MM's one monitor output

Expandability vs. MM's - um - none.

Decent heatsink capabilities vs. MM's dual role as a toaster and/or space-heater.

Yes, the Mac Mini is 'convenient'. That doesn't mean it's good.

"I was unimpressed by the rather basic Shuttle [Windows] driver CD as it doesn't ..... include the AMD dual-core CPU driver"

WTH?! You need a _driver_ for a _CPU_? How the Muddy Mildred does that work?

Another reason why I'm glad I use Linux.

Even though this Shuttle barebone can hold 3 hard drives doesn't mean it will be stable. Expect that it will not be stable [overheat] and you'll have to call Shuttle Tech support who make $9 an hour, the same as a Starbucks worker. Shuttle Tech will tell you to use 2 drives at most and NO RAID! Configuring any Shuttle computer in RAID will VOID the warranty. Why? Because Shuttle knows it won't be stable in RAID and will crash.

To the poster refering to a CPU driver. What he/she meant is with some Shuttle's that support dual-core CPU's, users had to 1st install a single core CPU [hopefully you have one to use] and flash the BIOS before installing the dual-core CPU. Their SFF's are junk. Get the Mini Mac or an iMac, or a Dell or HP SFF.