Asus' new Nova P20 is the latest in a line of alternatives to the Mac Mini and at first glance it ticks all the right boxes for a small form-factor PC: It's tiny, it's very, very quiet, and it's not beige.

You can position it in vertical or horizontal orientations and it has touch-sensitive power and optical drive eject buttons, which help to keep the front looking uncluttered. 'Round the back there are four USB ports and three audio jacks that support surround sound. It also has a DVI port, but you can always use an adapter if you fancy turning that into HDMI. As expected, the P20's specs are in line with those of the Mac Mini. It uses an Intel 2160 1.8GHz CPU, 1GB of RAM, a 120GB hard drive, and a DVD rewriter drive, as well as a built-in speaker and integrated Intel graphics. Games are pretty much out of the question, but that's not what this thing's about.

Asus reckons it'll cost somewhere in the region of 450 pounds (about $886)--which is about the same as you'd pay for a Mac Mini of the same spec. It's available in black or white (the white version looks the sexier of the two) and should be available later this year.