The good: Attractive, compact design; better basic Windows Vista performance than we anticipated; more features than the previous model.

The bad: Disappointing overall performance compared to that of similar systems; no HD optical drive option; opening the box voids the warranty, discouraging DIY upgrades (although the interior is tough to navigate).

The bottom line: Shuttle's updated supersmall home theater PC introduces a few new features to bring it inline with similar diminutive living room PCs. It also came to us with Windows Vista Home Premium. If you're in it for the looks (and you don't want HD video), you'll find a system to like here, but we think you'll be able to find more capable PCs on the market soon.

Shuttle XPC X200M
Windows Vista Home Premium; 1.66GHz Intel T2300 Core 2 Duo; 1,024MB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 256MB (shared) Intel 950 GMA graphics chip; 250GB 7,200rpm Seagate Barracuda hard drive