MSI Wind barebones desktop now available to order

This one looks to have actually slipped into availability a few days ago but, for those that don't make visits to Newegg.com part of their daily routine, you may be interested to know that the barebones version of MSI's Wind desktop PC is now available to order for the low, low price of $139.99. That'll get you the ever-present 1.6GHz Atom processor, along with Intel GMA 950 integrated graphics, 8-channel audio, a generous six USB ports, a 4-in-1 media card reader, a CF card slot, and VGA output, but no hard drive, RAM, or optical drive. Unlike the forthcoming full-fledged Wind desktop, this one also looks to only be available in basic black, but it does at least come with a stand that'll let you use it upright.

[Via Computer Monger]

[Rudiger @ Aug 20th 2008 6:04PM]

My interset already knows, but thanks for the heads up.

[Lowest Ranked @ Aug 20th 2008 6:25PM]

+1

[Hellaphunt @ Aug 20th 2008 6:28PM]

My visits to Newegg doesn't part my daily routine either...

[BigD145 @ Aug 20th 2008 6:06PM]

This thing is pretty big considering it has an external power brick. The CF card slot is internal.

[Alex @ Aug 20th 2008 6:07PM]

Do we really care about a barebone?

[Lowest Ranked @ Aug 20th 2008 6:33PM]

Whats the difference between a porcupine and a BMW ?

[jabber @ Aug 20th 2008 6:58PM]

90% of all egotistical middle-management types don't have a porcupine?

[phanbouy @ Aug 20th 2008 7:08PM]

with porcupine the pricks are on the outside.

(sorry to steal your punchline) xD

[Lowest Ranked @ Aug 20th 2008 7:11PM]

On the porcupine the pricks are on the outside...

[Alex @ Aug 21st 2008 1:42AM]

Oh screw you guys.

[dvsbstrd @ Aug 21st 2008 2:56AM]

I don't have a BMW in my garage.

[its me @ Aug 20th 2008 6:11PM]

Donald, please get a spellchecker.

[Flashpoint @ Aug 20th 2008 6:25PM]

I think it would be worth a $150 if they put in a VGA adapter and a TV coaxial out. Then anyone could easily buy it and hook it to a TV if they are broke. Built in Wifi/ethernet and 56K would be nice too.

[Dan Halen @ Aug 20th 2008 11:38PM]

Broke people don't buy HTPCs.

[Eric @ Aug 20th 2008 6:27PM]

Is that a subliminal ad for Newegg there? Or did you just "borrow" the image from their web store?

[Lowest Ranked @ Aug 20th 2008 6:31PM]

That would be their watermark. Have you never been to Newegg, or any site for that matter?

[Rob @ Aug 20th 2008 6:39PM]

Newegg watermarks all their pictures. So, Engadget just copied and pasted the picture, which is 100% legal as long as the watermark is not removed.

[puhsitch @ Aug 20th 2008 7:16PM]

Well, the "Read" link is a redirect through a commission-sharing site. It looks like someone is making a few bucks from newegg via this article.

[Billy Fiul @ Aug 20th 2008 7:27PM]

I always knew Engadget was in Newegg's pants.

Oh, and you clearly have no knowledge of copyright law whatsoever, Rob.

[The Dude @ Aug 20th 2008 6:32PM]

"Ride Like the Wind." Boooo, they ripped off "Break Like the Wind."

[Sebastian @ Aug 20th 2008 6:34PM]

Seems to be a perfect Hackint0sh Media Center :-)

[Bahndit @ Aug 20th 2008 6:42PM]

Screw Hackint0sh, get a 2GB USB stick and boot up XBMC Linux.

[wootman @ Aug 20th 2008 7:59PM]

screw linux, im running XP.

[Jason @ Aug 21st 2008 1:04AM]

Seems wootman is finally back from his trip to the Mojave, confused, delirious and a bit of a chip on his shoulder.

[Adrian Williams @ Aug 21st 2008 1:42AM]

I was thinking of running WHS with 640GB HDD and 1GB of ram

[Chris @ Aug 20th 2008 6:39PM]

If I made a computer called Wind, this would be the complete opposite of it.

[sean @ Aug 20th 2008 6:45PM]

Breaking: Wind?

[Jason @ Aug 20th 2008 8:08PM]

+ 1 for a classic made original.

[sodakar @ Aug 20th 2008 6:59PM]

It's reasonably big, and from the reviews, the build quality seems average, or below average.

The one major upside to a barebones is that it makes part-plentiful people like me happy, since I already have spare DIMMs, and 3.5"/5.25" drives... Sure, the Eee Box is a slicker solution, but for $139 and random parts sitting around, it's a lot cheaper than having to shell out $349 for the Eee Box.

[DrewN @ Aug 20th 2008 7:47PM]

Cool, another beautiful Taiwanese product...

[MickeyMoo @ Aug 20th 2008 7:49PM]

CPU/NB/SB/GMA950 chipset is the same as the Wind Netbook - so it should be a one button Hackintosh with the PB WindOSX86 ISO, no onboard audio support in OSX - desktop has no internal speakers, USB audio dongle required ($10)

Plays 720p iTMS/Trailer videos no problem - Hulu no prob (Flash10 Beta) - Handbrake took 7 hours to rip a B&W DVD to .M4V singlepass (a 700mhz G4 iMac takes 24h+, an 8core 3ghz tower 28m)

wind+spare ram+22xDVDburner+250GB 16MBcache SataDrive+tax+ship=$260
-G4iMac sold on CL -$200=$60.00=happy

performance comparable to 1st Gen C2Solo macmini +/-

[Jason @ Aug 20th 2008 8:15PM]

More like a short-lived zephyr (vapor?):

'We have found 0 items that match your search criteria "MSI Wind barebones desktop".'

[Sourabh @ Aug 20th 2008 8:43PM]

Seriously, no member of Engadget's editorial team will change the "Read" link? It's a CJ tracking link! How hard is it to get a clean URL from newegg.com?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856167032

[TRAFFICBLOWS @ Aug 20th 2008 9:05PM]

Atom 1.6GHz vs Celeron 420... what's better for a Windows Home Server box?

OBVIOUSLY, the TDP is 4W vs 35W. Otherwise, for WHS, what's better? I have a Celeron 420 lying around to build a box, but this MSI barebones would come with GbE and 2 SATA2, so it appears promising.

[Ruben @ Aug 20th 2008 10:40PM]

This does look like a decent setup to have a quiet WHS setup. The only thing that keeps me away from it is the lack of PCI-E slots, for the addition of a 4 SATA card. It would be a much better idea to build a WHS box that can take at least 4 hard drives, or even 8, so you can just slip them into the box as you get them (or as you upgrade your PC's hard drives).

With this, you still might need a power supply to power the extra drives, depending on how many watts the PS on this unit provides.

$250 gets you a dirt cheap celeron, G31 MB, and 1 Gig of ram with a decent case (with PS) that has 10 external 5.25 bays. You can, in the future, convert those to hot swap bays, and pick up another PCI-e card for another 4 SATA ports for a total of 8. Thats the route i would take. If they make Atom MB's with PCI-E expansion slots on a mini-atx board, then i would probably opt for the latter solution.

[digitallysick @ Aug 20th 2008 9:13PM]

if its like the msi wind, then it should run leopard flawlessly. You could put in a cheap hd, ram and dvd-rw for under 100 bux, so 239.00 desktop that runs leopard, = win

[dangerouslaser @ Aug 20th 2008 9:16PM]

but does it run crysis?

[linuxamp @ Aug 20th 2008 10:07PM]

Too bad there's no expansion slots. At least 1 free PCI or PCI-E would be nice, even a MiniPCI would have benefit.

[mickeymoo @ Aug 20th 2008 11:04PM]

It has an internal CF slot on the IDE bus that supports booting in Bios and a Mini PCIExpress

Processor
- Intel® AtomTM processor 1.6 GHz on-board (TDP Max 4 W)
FSB
- CMOS, 533 MHz, 32-bit address
Chipset
- North Bridge: Intel® 945GC chipset
- South Bridge: Intel® ICH7 chipset
Memory
- DDR2 400/ 533 SDRAM (200-Pin/ 1.8 V)
- 1 DDR2 SO-DIMM slot (2 GB Max) (Non-ECC)
LAN
- Supports Gigabit Ethernet Controller for PCI ExpressTM Applications
by Realtek® RTL8111C
- Supports ACPI Power Management
- Compliant with PCI 2.2
Audio
- Chip integrated by Realtek® ALC888
- Flexible 8-channel audio with jack sensing
- Compliant with Azalia 1.0 spec and Microsoft® Windows® Vista
Premium spec
SATA
- 2 SATAII ports by Intel® ICH7, support two SATA devices
- Supports storage and data transfers up to 3 Gb/s
On-Board Slot
- 1 mini-PCI express slot (for WiFi card or TV tuner card)
- 1 CF card slot (for CF card)

[Craig @ Aug 20th 2008 10:18PM]

Judging from the specs I can safely say this Wind won't be blowing anyone away.

(I'm here all week - try the veal!)

[eric cumbee @ Aug 20th 2008 10:36PM]

that could be ideal for a low cost web server farm for a small ASP. i wouldn't want to run my database off of it, but for someone running a niche application as a ASP i bet they would serve up html and php quiet nicely. i priced one out with a gig of ram and 40gb hard drive for 207usd. for the price of a basic intel 1u dell server that would provide a good bit of failover.

[tiuk @ Aug 21st 2008 12:07AM]

I'd like to see them just drop the 5.25" bay.

[Gary @ Aug 21st 2008 12:14AM]

MIght make a good Asterisk box. Do they make mini PCIe POTS adapter cards?

How does this compare to a Mini-ITX setup? Is there anything available that's comparable in price?

[cbp @ Aug 21st 2008 12:40AM]

So is there room for both a HDD and an optical drive?

[crsh @ Aug 21st 2008 6:41PM]

This thing looks way too boxy to be called "Wind"; dunno what the deal is anyway, if you want a light & basic desktop computer, the Eee Box's design kinda makes sense, this Wind Box doesn't (yeah it can accomodate an optical drive, so what).

[Rico-San @ Aug 21st 2008 9:36PM]

Hmm, the price seems to have gone up to $149... Odd. Still won't stop me from buying one of these. Makes for a cheap Hackintosh and file/backup server that won't take up too much space on the countertop by the router & AP.

[vito0001 @ Aug 24th 2008 8:43AM]

nice looking UMPC or Netbooks AV Docks with 80gb DVR , pizza oven, remote and wireless keyboard using Media Center extension for $299 could out sell this thing.

[Michael J. Ryan @ Aug 26th 2008 2:13AM]

I just wrote up my use of one of these with XBMC + ubuntu.. and some general comments on my blog http://frugalcoder.us/ works well.