SlashGear

Dinky little Atom-powered nettops aren’t anything new these days, but the majority still creak along with Intel’s 1.6GHz single-core N270 processor.  Even ASUS’ recently-announced Eee Box B204 and B206 pack the single-core CPU in along with their HD pretensions.  Thankfully Japanese retailer Clevery has seen sense and is offering a dual-core Atom 330 system, the ST8 Mini, at a reasonable price.

You get more for your money than most nettops, too, with 2GB of RAM, 500GB of 7,200rpm SATA hard-drive and the Intel 945GC Express chipset.  The casing is slightly larger than that of the Eee Box, true, but that does leave room for an optical drive or extra storage.  It’s priced at 34,800 Yen ($375).

Of course, the ST8 Mini is unlikely to make an appearance outside of Japan, but it does throw down the gauntlet to US and European manufacturers.  There’s obviously a market for sturdy little boxes – economical media PCs, a cheap second system for the kids to use – so where are all the dual-core Atom offerings?

[via Akihabara]