So I've been looking more seriously at the GIGABYTE BRIX GB-XM14-1037, not as my HTPC replacement, but as a small VESA mount machine to replace one of our other full-size desktops.
The price ($170) is pretty good for what you get, especially given the size and USA availability. But reading reviews of the other BRIX models, they universally get complaints for only having
two USB ports. So if you plug in a keyboard and mouse, that's it - you're done! If you need a printer, an optical drive, a USB stick, an IR receiver, a portable hard drive, a SD-card reader, or anything else... you're pretty much
guaranteed to need a USB hub. :\
One solution to this would be to use a bluetooth keyboard/mouse... but that still takes a USB port for the bluetooth adapter, leaving only one free. GIGABYTE must have recognized this problem, as the newer BRIX models have
four USB ports as well as a 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi / Bluetooth 4.0/3.0 Combo Mini PCIe card... but the first-gen BRIX only have a 802.11n Wi-Fi card.
So I would pretty much have to budget another $30-35 to replace the Wi-Fi card with a combo card, and might still need a USB hub after that too. Bummer.
BRIX GB-XM14-1037:
BRIX GB-BXCE-2955 (Celeron 2955U, not yet available):