It's slim it's sleek. And it's smaller than the tab loid newspaper you read with your coffee in the morning. The MSI Wind desktop makes you believe that the manufacturer is hell-bent on making our computers smaller and smaller. After all, it was the MSI Wind U100 netbook that impressed us with the performance it was capable of in spite of a very compact frame. The MSI Wind desktop continues that trend, by packing reasonable amount of power inside a petite frame. The MSI Wind is powered by a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom 230 Processor that is now commonly found in mobile Internet devices. It also uses 1GB of DDR2 RAM and has a SATA II 160GB Hard Disk. Essentially, the insides are the same as the Wind U100. The desktop comes with six USB ports, two in the front and four at the back.

It also has a built-in 4-in-1 memory card reader which is compatible with most popular memory card formats. The back panel also has a Gigabit Ethernet port. The desktop's front panel sports the normal audio and mic input slots and a DVD combo drive. Although, the Wind Desktop also comes with the option of Wi-Fi connectivity, the model we reviewed did not have that feature. The Wind Desktop is cer- tainly slim measuring only slightly over two and a half inches in width and about 12-inches in height. It also comes with a silver colored plastic stand and even with it, the Wind will probably be one of the most unobtrusive constituents of your desktop. The Wind is not supposed to be a performance powerhouse and our tests show that.

It was unable to complete our World Bench tests, as 3D Studio Max did not run. In PC Mark 'OS, it clocked up a score of 1540, again not anything mind blowing. However, it is necessary to point out here that the tests also showed that the Wind Desktop can be put through routine usage without any worries. We could browse the Internet while listening to music and a few documents open without any noticeable slowdowns. Of course, running graphically intensive programs like newer games or multimedia editing software without a performance hit is out of the question.

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With an average usage rating of 25 watts, which does not cross 30 watts even at high usage, the Wind will not be the reason for a loaded electricity bill. In fact, it surprised us by settling down to 20 watts when the PC was idle, which means that it takes up lesser electricity than a single light bulb. Because of its modest performance and lack of any additional accessories (such as a keyboard and mouse), the price-tag does bite. Also, we couldn't help but notice a few shortcomings that immediately stood out. First the lack of a second slot to upgrade RAM means that you will have to replace your existing RAM rather than add anymore. Also, RAM upgrades are limited to only 2GB.

The Wind might not blow anyone away with its performance but it does a pretty good job doing what it is designed to do. Users looking for a second PC at home to store media files or just as a dedicated machine for downloads will benefit from the Wind Desktop. The Wind will also be useful to business establishments looking for computers that take up less space and low power.