MSI barebones PC manages to be attractive and reasonably specified

I imagine there are a lot of people out there with laptops who don't really need them, but who simply picked that over a traditional desktop PC because they look nicer.  Which isn't a bad reason, per se, but it can be an expensive one.  MSI would like to offer such fashion-focused people another choice, with their all-in-one barebones PC, the Crystal 945.

Now barebones – where you add your own processor, RAM and hard-drive among other things to a preselected motherboard and case – isn't a new concept, and neither is the all-in-one PC, but it can be touch and go as to whether you get something that manages to be both attractive and reasonably powerful.  And thankfully MSI have left some sensible options open; the motherboard can take a dual-core Intel processor, there's room for 2gb of RAM, and it comes with gigabit ethernet as standard.  The 17" TFT screen is a decent size, too.  I'm sure there's someone out there saying "damn, I shouldn't have bought this exploding laptop" now.

MSI Crystal 945 [via ShinyShiny]