Outside the box
The mPC has a bit of subtle aesthetic flair, combining a matte black outer skin with grey accents and a glossy black face that looks ripe for a little tic tac toe.

Of course, you'll need a white dry erase pen to play—pr maybe you won't. As sleek as the mPC's face looks, it's a magnet for fingerprints that can easily be streaked into Xs and Os. You'll want to keep a soft cloth handy for buffing those out after each game, or any time you actually touch the front of the system.

Since it's possible to activate the power and optical drive eject buttons without creating much of a smudge, you shouldn't need to polish the mPC too often. Interestingly, the eject button merely triggers the operating system's eject feature, so it's not physically tied to the drive. That removes any potential for drive incompatibility with the complex internal mechanics that would be necessary to trigger an optical drive's eject button manually, but it limits the button's functionality to Windows. You can always flip down the stealth drive bay door manually and hit the eject button yourself, though.

Speaking of manual doors, depressing a trigger point on the lower half of the mPC's face reveals a bevy of expansion ports and an integrated memory card reader. You won't find a floppy drive here, but one really isn't needed. The nForce 430 gets along just fine with Windows XP's installation routine, and since the system only supports a single hard drive, there's no need to worry about RAID configurations requiring auxiliary drivers.

Without a floppy drive crowding the front, there's plenty of room for the 7-in-1 card reader. Users should also appreciate the digital S/PDIF input and analog headphone and mic ports. The headphone and mic ports are designed for the AC'97 spec rather than "Azalia" HD audio, so they don't work with Realtek's generic HD audio drivers. Instead, you need to use a set of modified drivers bundled with the board. Those drivers are based on an older 1.34 version of Realtek's generic drivers, which are now at version 1.51.

In addition to the card reader and audio connectivity, MSI consolidates both of the mPC's Firewire ports up front. That's surely a more convenient location for those looking to connect digital video cameras, but it's somewhat less ideal for more permanent connections that one might prefer to have at the back of the system.

There's just enough extra room for a single Firewire port at the rear of the mPC, too, but not for much more. In addition to offering a quartet of video output options, the mPC's port cluster is stacked with audio outputs, USB ports, and an Ethernet jack. Our system also came equipped with an optional Mini PCI Wi-Fi adapter whose antenna plugs directly into the rear of the system.

While we're around back, I should point out a couple of the mPC's cooling fans. In the top left corner we have a 70mm fan responsible for cooling the power supply, while an 80mm unit sits in the center to cool the rest of the system. Unfortunately, both fans feature beefy grills that will not only impede air flow, but potentially increase noise levels.

Obstructive fan grills aside, I love the mPC's PCI card retention mechanism. Most small form factor systems still rely on tiny screws to hold each PCI card in place, but the mPC can secure both cards with a single thumbscrew—no tools required.