MSI’s WindBox DE200 has undergone some serious changes in the last couple of months. According to the gang over at TechConnect Magazine the new box has shed the Celeron CPU and nVidia graphics and gone for the more traditional “net” hardware of a single core Atom, and 945GC board.

No word on why this has happened but the changes should be the final version and what well will see at its Computex 2009 launch.

In addition to the hardware changes the physical design seems to have been adjusted and is not as sleek as the previous version shown at CeBit.

Seen below in its new form, the nettop seems less sleek than the first iteration but is still quite compact and it no longer uses a Celeron CPU, or an Nvidia GeForce 9400 motherboard, but an Atom 230 (single-core, 1.6GHz) and a 945GC board.

The DE200 also boasts less RAM than the CeBIT version – 1GB, and has an 160GB hard drive, WiFi, Ethernet, D-Sub and HDMI outputs and one of four funky colors – black, white, blue and red. Expect more details, like the release date, next week at Computex.

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nVidia is jumping on the AMD bandwagon, well sort of. As of right now nVidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang is saying that Intel is using anti-competitive pricing to prevent ION from entering the market.

Speaking at the Reuters Technology Summit Huang said that nVidia was not planning any legal action yet but that they “have to do whatever we have to do when the time comes”. It seems pretty clear that this is a direct threat and not a simple statement.

Make no mistake the timing of this is not a coincidence either, this coming on the heels of the $1.45 Billion fine that Intel just receive shows that Huang feels this threat will motivate Intel to act differently towards ION.

But once again all this skates over the fact that rebates and incentives are part of doing business. How many of you have been offered a couple months free HBO if you stay with your current cable company after all…

According to NVIDIA, Intel sells an Atom processor typically for US $45 a piece, while in a bundle with Intel’s own chipset consisting of an i945-class northbridge and ICH7-class southbridge for just $25, that’s $25 for the processor and Intel chipset. This is driving away motherboard manufacturers from opting for Intel Atom paired with NVIDIA’s single-package Ion chipset, which NVIDIA claims, (and reviews have shown,) to offer superior performance and features at almost half the board footprint. “That seems pretty unfair,” Huang said. “We ought to be able to compete and serve that market.”

Acer and NVIDIA introduced the AspireRevo, which is the first nettop based on the NVIDIA Ion platform. The Acer AspireRevo features the Intel Atom 230 1.6GHz processor, NVIDIA MCP79 chipset, up to 4GB DDR2 memory, up to 250GB HDD, 4-in-1 memory card reader, six USB 2.0 ports, Ethernet, VGA, HDMI, eSATA and Windows Vista Home Premium or Basic. Models with dual-core Intel Atom processors are expected later.

All of this comes into a tiny 1 liter enclosure that measures just 180mm x 180mm x 30mm (7.1″ x 7.1″ x 1.2″), it’s about 30x smaller than a regular PC case but still packs a lot of power. The AspireRevo is very energy efficient system for desktop PC work that can also handle 1080p HD video and modern games like Call of Duty 4, albeit not at high quality settings of course.

The price of the Acer AspireRevo is expected to be around $300, but availability is unknown.
No larger than a typical hardcover book, the AspireRevo is a fully capable desktop with advanced graphics and impressive multimedia features. Equipped with NVIDIA ION graphics, the system can handle a wide variety of computing needs including high definition video, gaming, sharing digital photos, surfing the web, and other tasks consumers expect from full-size systems.

The AspireRevo represents a sharp break from 20 years of big, power hungry, and expensive PCs by delivering a full PC experience in a small, energy efficient, and affordable system. NVIDIA ION graphics make this possible with performance that is 5-10 times faster than traditional PCs with integrated graphics.

“The AspireRevo is small and quiet enough to go anywhere, yet big enough to handle all the needs of your digital lifestyle,” said Gianpiero Morbello, corporate vice president of marketing for Acer. “It’s perfectly suited for the living room, because NVIDIA ION provides a brilliant graphics experience with digital photos, watching video, and playing family-friendly games.”

“The Acer AspireRevo with our new NVIDIA ION GPU is so small and powerful it’s unbelievable,” said Dan Vivoli, senior vice president of marketing at NVIDIA. “Watch Blu-ray movies1 and HD movie trailers, or clean up jerky, dim cell phone videos for internet streaming. This is the perfect PC for today’s consumers.”