MSI officially launches the touchscreen Wind Top AE1900

We caught sight of MSI's Wind Top AE1900 back at Cebit, and now it's been officially launched. The nettop boasts a 19-inch 16:9 LCD, an Intel Atom 230 CPU, up to 2GB of RAM and a 160GB hard drive. It's also got a DVD burner, a 1.3 megapixel webcam, WiFi, four USB ports, and a 4-in-1 card reader. MSI claims that the AE1900 uses only about "45 watts of power while in full operation," which, if true, would indeed make it one of the more energy efficient PCs on the market. We'll just have to wait and see on that though, as there's no word yet on availability or pricing.

[Stevenfb @ Mar 31st 2009 5:15PM]

Better be under $800 or it wont be worth my time. You could get a laptop touchscreen for anything near that price.

[Dan Fruzzetti @ Mar 31st 2009 5:15PM]

Is it likely to be adopted by companies for simple workstations? By schools for classroom computers? That's where a LOT of the energy waste is nowadays...

[coffee @ Mar 31st 2009 5:16PM]

Buy.com has a placeholder for it at $584.99, not sure how accurate that would be.

[Mknapper1 @ Mar 31st 2009 5:18PM]

Since this thing is using an atom processor does that mean it could run OSX86?

[TVGenius @ Mar 31st 2009 5:16PM]

Wow, what a novel design. I hated how those things lean back. Too much glare.

[AVG @ Mar 31st 2009 6:12PM]

Gonna be fun when you try to use a non-tilted touchscreen. Just stand your keyboard on it's edge and type for a quick sample of that joy.

[arkweld @ Mar 31st 2009 5:16PM]

so that's what happened to all those old Apple Cinema Displays!

[Eric @ Mar 31st 2009 5:44PM]

Exactly what I was thinking... not that that's a bad thing. They were good-looking monitors.

[Johnny @ Mar 31st 2009 5:53PM]

Still got a 23" and 17" on my desk. The bevel on these things are freakin' HUGE! At least MSI reduced it and the legs slightly.

[Calpa @ Mar 31st 2009 5:18PM]

Hmm.. flashback..
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8c/22acd.jpg

[zzebi @ Mar 31st 2009 5:19PM]

Looks exactly like the plastic Apple Cinema Displays introduced in 1999.

[devldog @ Mar 31st 2009 7:58PM]

Yeah it looks almost identical in design

[Boards of Canada @ Mar 31st 2009 9:27PM]

Actually it look a bit better.

[iGO @ Mar 31st 2009 5:19PM]

"Touchscreen Desktops" will never take to the masses. Yes for nitch applications uses, never to replace a fulltime desktop.

To confirm for yourself: Try working on a touchscreen at your local best buy/computer store.

I challenge you to continue to work on said touchscreen editing pictures or even navigating the web for 10 minutes....just a brief ten minutes and your arms will be killing you.

Go ahead, try it and report back to yourselves, with you results.

[Joseph @ Mar 31st 2009 5:25PM]

It will have a keyboard and mouse still.

I imagine you'd still mainly be using keyboard + mouse combo and use your fingers to launch apps ... bit of a waste really.

Unless you can lay these down at like a 30 degree angle that would make things easier.

[Ninbrendo @ Mar 31st 2009 5:26PM]

My thoughts exactly. Handy for tablets, Catholic school punishment for desktops.

[coffee @ Mar 31st 2009 5:27PM]

they're good for basic tasks like music selection, viewing photos/videos, other multimedia apps, but otherwise not much use for me.

HP did a good job with their custom overlay on their touchsmart machines, pretty much emphasizes what is useful for touchscreens and what isn't.

[Fanfoot @ Apr 1st 2009 12:11AM]

I don't want it to replace a desktop. I want a CHEAP kitchen touchscreen computer.

Manage shared calendars. Quick traffic and weather lookup. Recipes. Watch video or stream music while in the kitchen, podcasts too. A sticky notes function for leaving each other messages.

Stuff like that. But it CANNOT be expensive or it will fail. Just like a netbook, nobody is going to buy an EXTRA computer if it is expensive.

[Mr. Ford @ Mar 31st 2009 5:21PM]

All acrylic means its from the future.

[pita @ Mar 31st 2009 5:22PM]

Worth going back in time :) I miss the old mac looks

[John Sullivan @ Mar 31st 2009 5:27PM]

45 watts in full operation... except when using the DVD burner, I'll bet.

[Wwhat @ Mar 31st 2009 5:44PM]

I once heard say that your brain only uses 25Watt (with GWB being the ATOM 1Watt model I guess). so we got some way to go.

[ksiriphong @ Mar 31st 2009 5:46PM]

$500 I'd love it.

[Visionep @ Mar 31st 2009 5:51PM]

Seems like this would be a good home automation interface computer. Just install in a wall or in a nook in a hallway to control heating, lighting, audio, security, etc.

Otherwise touchscreen on a desktop seems pretty useless.

[rob @ Mar 31st 2009 6:47PM]

That's exactly what I was thinking. Squeezecenter and Insteon interface. I'm looking for something like this to replace the kitchen whiteboard.

[Giroro @ Mar 31st 2009 5:52PM]

nettop = Netbook + laptop?

[lawyer bird @ Mar 31st 2009 6:08PM]

no, nettop = netbook + desktop

[KilgoreTrout @ Mar 31st 2009 5:52PM]

I will (almost) surely buy one of those as soon as they bring them to Scandinavia (unless the price is ridiculous) but for the use I intend to make of it a remote control would be much more useful than a touch screen.

[SlaterGS @ Mar 31st 2009 6:01PM]

I would rather the Shuttle X50 because it has a dual core 330 atom and it is $499. I want this, because the larger screen and DVD player, but I wish they would pony up and put a dual core in. Oh well.... I guess I will have to wait...

[Sredlums @ Mar 31st 2009 6:43PM]

Haven't tested it, but according to Apple the newest Mac mini is WAY more energy-efficient: "Mac mini is the world’s most energy-efficient desktop computer.* When it’s idle, Mac mini uses less than 13 watts — that’s 45 percent less energy than ever before.". That's what it says on their website...quite a big difference!
I'll be buying the new Mac mini (to replace my old Mac mini), and I am still trying to get it to wake up over LAN (the mini supports it, but my router blocks the port I need), but with usage this low I guess I maybe shouldn't really bother and just leave it on all the time :-/

[SlaterGS @ Mar 31st 2009 8:05PM]

Except that this is EVERYTHING. Not just the pc components, it has the monitor included. So while the new mac mini is very energy efficient, it does not include a 19" monitor.

[Aj @ Mar 31st 2009 7:00PM]

anyone have an idea if this would be useful as a sketching tablet.. maybe an alternative to this: http://www.wacom.com/cintiq/cintiq-21ux.php
?

[MaxSMoke @ Mar 31st 2009 9:48PM]

Is there a VESA mount on the back? I'd love to put one of these on an arm. Or two! Could actually achieve my dream of left and right views in DOOM! Now to find a copy of Doom 1.6.

[Onetrack @ Apr 1st 2009 12:22AM]

Wow..
http://www.susiecool.com/images/cinemadisplay.gif

[sweet greggo @ Apr 20th 2009 1:31PM]

You figure that out all by yourself, Corky?