If you want to impress your friends and colleagues with your technological know-how, mention small-form-factor PCs. If you want to make them slack-jawed with wonder, buy one. Small-form-factor PCs are a fraction of the size of traditional ones but they're still fully functional computers. You can see them in next issue's group test but in the meantime, here's one to tempt you.

The Hoojum Cubit 3 is a case into which you put your own components, building your own computer in the process. The most striking things about the Cubit 3 are its size and weight. Barely bigger than a sliced loaf, the case is machined from a single block of aluminium, so there are no seams. Ours was turquoise but it's available in 11 other colours and all are anodised rather than painted. At £170, it's hardly cheap but it's so gorgeous that it makes most of the style PCs in issue 111's group test look like wheelie bins.

The Cubit 3's diminutive size is down to the fact that it uses a specific type of motherboard known as Mini-ITX. Made by VIA, these motherboards have built-in everything - USB 2, FireWire, networking, 5.1 audio and graphics. They even have a built-in VIA processor but these aren't quite in the same league as Intel and AMD's offerings when it comes to performance. Since they have just one PCI slot, they also lack any real expansion capability but since everything most people need is already built in, this is not likely to be a problem.

To build your own Mini-ITX PC, you'll need to add some memory, a hard disk and a CD-ROM drive, as well as a monitor, keyboard and mouse. If you can recycle some old components, you can save yourself some money but even buying new, most of these components aren't particularly expensive. Unfortunately, the Cubit 3 does limit your choice of CD-ROM drive, since it can only use a slimline, slot-loading notebook drive. The Mini-ITX store has a CD-RW/DVD combo model for £140. The Cubit case does have a built-in memory card reader though, so that's one less thing to buy.

We fitted the Cubit 3 with an EPIA Nehemiah M10000 motherboard with a 1GHz processor (the fastest available), 256Mb of memory, 40Gb hard disk and the aforementioned combo drive, giving a total of £543. You'll need to add a copy of Windows on top of that but there's nothing (aside from technical nous) to stop you using a free version of Linux.

Putting this lot together is simplified by the Cubit 3's clever slide-out tray design, but cramming everything back into the case is fiddly. The result is a real work of art that you'll want to show off in your living room and, thanks to the whisper-quiet operation, there's no reason you can't. What you won't have, however, is a powerful PC - even the 1GHz Mini-ITX motherboard we used only performs like a (now defunct) 1GHz Intel Celeron and the built-in graphics aren't up to 3D games. For day-to-day Windows tasks though, it's more than enough for most people and you can always fit a PCI graphics card if need be.

You might be able to get much more performance elsewhere for your money but the Cubit 3 is a beautiful computer, not a beige plastic monstrosity.

Contact: Mini-itx.com Online orders only
www.mini-itx.com

Price details
Hoojum Cubit 3 (case only) - £170
PC as built - £543