VoodooPC Mimics Mac Mini With Puny PC

A second PC vendor hoping to cash in on mimicking the success of Apple Computer's Mac mini introduced an ultra-small machine Thursday.

VoodooPC, best known for high-end, high-performance gaming PCs, unveiled the Idol Mini PC, a 6.5-inch square box that's sold sans keyboard, mouse, and monitor, like the diminutive Mac.

The Calgary, Alberta, Canada-based manufacturer, however, takes a different tack on pricing; its Idol costs $899, nearly double the $499 of the least-expensive Mac mini.

AOPen, part of Acer, earlier this year announced its own PC Mini, a 6-inch square chassis that like the Idol, is powered by a Pentium M processor. AOPen's machine, however, will be sold for $399 loaded with Linux, $499 with Windows, when it releases this fall.

It's impossible to tell how well Apple's Mac Mini has been selling, since Apple doesn't break out desktop product lines in its financial statements. Overall desktop sales for the fourth quarter, however, were up 56 percent compared to the same quarter in 2004.

Apple lumps its Mac mini, iMac, eMac, PowerMac, and Xserve lines under the "desktop" umbrella in quarterly statements.