I really have to give ASRock credit for literally thinking "outside of the box" a bit with these VisionX 321B HTPC units. They've taken what is basically a laptop and squeezed it into an attractive enclosure that fits under a flat-panel LCD screen of any home entertainment unit. Doing so allowed them to provide near desktop-equivalent mainstream performance, both in CPU and GPU horsepower. The unit also manages to consume far less power than any enthusiast-built desktop PC. With such a huge amount of performance in a small form factor, ASRock's VisionX 321B HTPC stays fairly quiet, even while gaming, and it has that perfect esthetic touch that had my wife snatch it out my hands the moment she saw it—a sure sign they hit the mark when dreaming this one up.

Such power in a small form factor does come at a fairly hefty cost. Having had the unit in my hands and tearing it apart really makes me think of the price as fair, but there is something to be said about units based on other platforms that consume far less power. At the same time, many don't come with an included remote, most aren't capable of playing nearly any game at high details with 720p, and few come packing a 750GB drive for media storage. ASRock has stacked up a pretty tall list of appealing features. I know that had my wife grabbed the VisionX 321B HTPC, plugged it in, and been greeted with a flashing white cursor on a black screen, she might not have stayed as impressed with the unit as she has been these past six months. The fact that it is capable of meeting all of her needs, both when she sought to watch a movie she grabbed from the library on the way home from work or to play a game on the big screen with the kids, makes the ASRock VisionX 321B HTPC a winner. It is ready and waiting. You do need to add the OS of your choice to make it that perfect package, but that is something most users want to pick for themselves anyway.