Neither cheap nor beautiful, MSI’s Atom powered nettop is sadly second among equals.

The EVO PC is the smallest barebones in the 'shoebox' form factor we tested this month. It weighs in at the ridiculously low 2.2kg with power supply, but without the Pentium 4 heatsink.

The Iwill ZPC is the smallest PC case we've seen to date, measuring a tiny 184mm x 54mm x 263mm. If you're after the ultimate in super compact computing, look no further than this unit.

Looking more like a corporate slimline desktop than a barebones system, this unit features a Mini ITX motherboard while the large form allows for good component layout. Minimal overlap between the motherboard and optical drives allows for free working space even around the CPU and RAM.

Synonymous with the barebones market, Shuttle has carved a niche by providing enthusiasts exactly what they crave, but in mini form factored systems.

The XPC SS51G is the cheapest of the Shuttle offerings this month. Again, the ease of hardware installation makes this product fantastically user friendly, given the ability to just pop out the optical storage bay, insert your drive and floppy and whack it back in. No mess, no fuss.

Our Labs Winner this month represents what a mini barebones PC should be: it's small yet easily accessible; it's attractive, but has a quality build; and it has all the features you need for a full PC or a media centre.

Swiping the hardware from the PC Authority test bench, we went about putting together our Shuttle XPC. Immediately we were confronted by one of the idiosyncrasies of small form factor PCs: squeezing all the hardware in the tiny space inside.

One of the more difficult units to navigate whilst installing hardware, ABIT's DigiDice barebones was one of only two submitted systems to feature bay real estate to accommodate more than a single optical drive, the other system being the Soltek Qbic EQ-3401M.

The QDI 5968L is another system decked out in clear Perspex and solid silver panels. Side panels allow for easy access, although the large handle mounted on the top of the chassis does nothing but inhibit peripheral installation and replacement.

One of only a handful of non-Intel chipsets we received, AOpen's XCube EZ18 features an NVIDIA nForce2 chipset with support for 266 and 333MHz AMD processors.