blckgrffn: No offense taken. Not unless you're suggesting that I should play in the kiddie pool with the mac mini.
Give me a mac mini that can do lightroom duty as good as this build and I'll take it in a heartbeat. I might as well build a mini-ITX i5 box if that's the case.
Not today. Perhaps in 5-7 years time frame, as its performance goes up (and my expectation/demand goes down).
Actually as long as you only need 1 expansion card (GPU) an ITX build isn't a bad idea.
Even Micro ATX can have some pretty small solutions, and Asus has been selling 1366 and 2011 mobo's for those builds. Newegg can be sorted by form factors. Take a look at the growing ITX and Micro ATX selections. You can build some pretty kick ass systems, as long as you don't mind integrating as much as possible.
I have been looking at a mobile A8 SG05 gaming box for about $450, that I can add 1 slotter video card in a year or two from now, that could do quite a lot of regular work and still be able to play games. I could go all out and go with a Sg08 or something, and get a pretty decent 2600k 7950 z68 system built up. Would almost triple the cost but only add another 10% to the size of the computer.
Also look at cases like the FT03 and RV03. For every HAF X, Cosmos II, 800D sold there are probly 3 912, 400Rs, 690IIA, and so on, and maybe just a little bit less SG's and other ITX cases as the big guys. Most cases that are a "waste of space" are that way because people desire them. People who get them for a feature set you just can't get on the smaller cases, for their flexibility, for its easy of use.
If I get a 912, a SG05, or ay other build specific case. I am getting it because its small, easy to move, and fits that particular system and components. I bought my HAF X, because not only was this getting sizable components. I wanted to make sure it supported intermediate updates (unlimited HDD's, extra burner, and any unforeseen expansion cards). I also buy for my main system a larger case so that I can use it for at least 1 more from the ground up build. My Antec 1040 had a Thunderbird and Palomino transition in it. My current system in a Antec P160, has had a Athlon64 X2 and Phenom X4 setup in it. My HAF X will have a 2011, and in 3-5 years will probably get another system built up into it. But since I bought the Antec 1040B, I have purchased about a dozen smaller cases including a shuttle system. All but my sonata has gone to someone else, as the replacement for that job wouldn't work, or its specific task was retired.
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