AOPEN has unveiled an Intel-based competitor to the Apple Mac Mini desktop, at press time called the Mini PC MP-915. At 2×5.9×5.9 inches, the Mini PC is slightly smaller than the 2×6.5×6.5 Mac Mini, and it has a similar whiteand-silver housing.

Taiwan-based AOpen, an affiliate of PC maker Acer Group, serves mostly as a contract manufacturer for other companies. It is expected to sell bare-bones Mini PC systems starting around September, possibly under a different name.

At press time, depending on the configuration, pricing was planned to begin at $499, like the Mac Mini, and go up to $699. (Bare-bones PCs usually sell without RAM or hard drives preinstalled.)

The Mini PC uses the new ATX Pentium M i915Ga-HFS, a hybrid motherboard based on a Socket 479 Pentium M
(Dothan) CPU, Intel’s 915G desktop chipset, and ICH6 I/O controller. It’s the first ATX Pentium M motherboard, according to AOpen.

The system offers VGA, DVI, S-Video, and componentvideo outputs, two USB ports, and built-in 802.11a/b/g wireless networking. It will have an option for a DVD burner, DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo drive, or DVD-ROM drive, as well as Bluetooth support, depending on the configuration.

The new design lets Intel take another run at the entertainment PC, heralded at the Consumer Electronics Show in 2004. The first generation didn’t sell well. This year, Donald MacDonald, a vice president of Intel’s digital home group, has said that future living-room units will be smaller, more stylish, and likely less costly.

As for the Mini PC’s resemblance to the Mac Mini, AOpen says it has been developing small-form-factor desktops for more than two years, before Apple’s launch earlier this year of its tiny computer.