my iMac has found a new home ...
the eldest daughter who is learning filming with a small company producing H&S films for local councils across the UK
needs something with a little more grunt then her mac mini, so she inherits the iMac

so i have to build/buy a new system for myself
i have decided on a mini shuttle build running Xubuntu

spec
Shuttle XS35-702
1.66 intel atom (2 cores, 4 threads)
160 GB HDD, cd/dvd rw combo, 2GB DDR2 800MHz
intel gma 3150 onboard GPU
and uses less then <40W of energy

running the above Linux OS

the system arrives monday with a total cost of £120

i will post again to let you know how things are running
it feels good to get back to Linux, looking forward to it ...

the new system is up and running
had to install Xubuntu to get wireless
im just not good enough with pure debian

the only thing not working is the USB speakers which is strange
but will find an answer for that later ...

ps. speakers now working
the whole system is fully up and running ...

How are you finding the performance of the Atom?

I was tempted by the Lenovo Q180 with the Atom D2700 (@ 2.13GHz) but I feared that the Atom just isn't up to much.

IMO it's not up to much. My wife's Atom powered netbook drives me insane with how slow it is to do anything.
Still, that's a single core Atom, maybe the multipul core ones are better. Pity you couldn't get one with a Pentium in. Still a budget CPU, but much better.

I've never had any issues with my wife's single core atom. Admittedly nothing more than browsing and watching video, but it does that effortlessly.

My gf is happy with her Atom powered netbook. She only really surfs so it is fine for her, and watching movies is also adequate. I personally need a bit more grunt but as a balance between the two of us the machines we have are suitable.

My dual core 330 was nicer to use than the single core it replaced because it was responsive in multitasking, but the single core was still impressively perky. The main thing was simply to have enough memory for what you use it for, then you really don't need more processing power for most jobs.

Remember, they're faster than the fastest fast thing was not so many years ago!

Never had any problems with my netbook for what it was designed for

this little shuttle is running just fine
not at the speed of the iMac but is doing everything i require

its not bad, a little better then my first computer (sarcasm)
but this little shuttle system is upgradeable completely
mobo psu cpu ram hdd etc etc etc

this will be a most interesting project ...

after updating the Shuttles BIOS and the Intel NM10 chipset to the latest and last available
i have just ordered some upgrades for my little shuttle

500GB Seagate momentus xt HDD
4GB DDR2 800 SODIMM RAM (single stick)
Liteon DVD/CD RW external USB combo drive (black)

total cost of parts £148

i will install the new parts next week and report back ...

well the upgrades arrived and have been installed and this little system is just flying along
done a complete new install of Ubuntu 12.10 with a few added libs all is working very well

i cant do any more upgrades to this little system but i think it will do me for awhile, more then happy with it ...

installed virtual box and then installed XP SP3
even with this little shuttle system its running XP in virtual box very well ...

the new hard disk drive bay arrived with the new HDD controller
total cost £7.99 plus postage of £4.95

installed and then inserted the old 160GB HDD
formatted FAT32 and now used as 'storage' for backups etc.

so a 500GB hybrid HDD and a 160GB HDD are both up and running ...

The multi core ones are
I got one of the first gen ION systems and it can handle Windows 7 with Media Centre with a DVB-S card plugged in recording a tv stream while watching something pre-recorded, it's a bit sluggish at times but still incredibly reasonable for a system the size of a DVD season box set and a power draw that is less than a lot of TVs

the power consumption stats for this little shuttle system are ...