I’ve found the Mac Mini’s evil twin! The Nexus Psile 10. It’s got the looks of the Mac Mini… perhaps even a little nicer. It’s skin-able. It’s supposedly very quiet being lined with noise absorption material and smartly laid-out innards. It runs Windows Media Center (or even Vista if you’re a daredevil). However it ain’t cheap… the one US seller has them for $1599. Guess you have to pay a premium to get a copy-cat interface wrapped in a wanna-be Mac package.

Usually Macs are nowhere near the cheaper alternative. I’ve been using a Mac Mini, and LaCie Mini Hard Drive as my transport feeding the Hagerman Chime DAC. The musical combination of the Mac Mini and iTunes with Apple Lossless ripped music feeding the Chime DAC via USB stands up very well to stand-alone CD players I’ve auditioned upwards of $3500. The Mac Mini costs $600, the LaCie drive $200 and the Chime DAC $1750 (total system: $2550). The convenience and flexibility of a hard-drive based music system is unbeatable… and in this case WAY cheaper than an aesthetically comparable PC. Is the Psile sticking its tongue out at us?