gdgt

I have only had this about 1 week and found it on Craigslist as a new/unopened item. My cost was $230, same as Dell's site for this configuration. I immediately replaced Vista Basic with 7 Home Premium. So far, it plays standard DVD discs nicely on my 47" LG LCD. I notice it struggles/stutters when playing HD podcasts inside of iTunes and this is annoying since it's one use I wanted it for. I have notice, however, that playing those same podcasts via Windows Media Center is just fine. (CPU usage pegs 100% in both applications but WMP is very smooth playback.)

I use it to stream my iTunes library to my iPhone via Simplify Media and this works perfectly.

I like the style of the device, the included eSata port, HDMI and it doesn't seem to generate much heat. While I believe my previous Mac Mini was more capable in terms of media playback, this Dell Zino at $230 is also far less expensive than the Mini and I'm ok with it for now. I would say it's a good effort from Dell but when you ramp up the config to be similar to the Mini, you should get the Mac.