Mini PC comes of age with Sapphire Edge VS launch

As of 6am this morning, the options available to technology lovers who want oodles of power but no noise and a stylish little package, just got a whole lot more attractive with the launch of Sapphire's Trinity APU-powered Edge VS. KitGuru peers under the bonnet to see what makes this beauty tick.

At the start of 2005, Apple launched the Mac Mini with a 1.25GHz PowerPC processor, 256MB of memory, 40GB hard drive and an ATi Radeon 9200 graphics chip. Now it seems that for less money, you can have a quad core processor running more than twice as fast, alongside an SSD-booting all round PC with Radeon DX11 graphics and the ability to take up to 16GB of DDR3 (should you decide to mod the basic system and apply some upgrades of your own).

Overall, it measures less than 20cm high, it's 18cm front to back and just over 3cm deep at its phatest point.

It comes in 2 basic flavours: Edge VS 4 with an A4 APU, Radeon 7400 graphics, 4GB of DDR3 and a 320GB hard drive – and the much more powerful Edge VS 8 with an A8 APU that incorporates Radeon HD 7600G graphics – alongside a 500GB drive and 8GB of DDR3.

For business users, it means you can replace old kit with something small, stylish, powerful and safe (due to the integrated Kensington Lock point).

In the living room, its top quality HD video and audio capabilities mean it can stream your content to exactly the right place, very smoothly.

But it saves the best to last when it comes to gaming. From the demos we've seen, it would appear to be able to run any game you throw at it – although to may need to adjust settings with the really demanding stuff.

Needless to say that the A8 version, modded from its ‘factory shipping HDD' to included SSD and plenty of DDR3, will provide a formidable companion for LAN events and other situations where you're require to being your own can of whup-ass to the party.

KitGuru says: Life is a compromise, but with the Sapphire Edge VS – for the first time ever – you won't feel like your sacrificing anything to have the smallest, most stylish option in town. It look gorgeous, weighs nothing, has all the features you could wish for and – with it's Radeon DX11 engine – it packs a hell of a punch in a business environment, for use at home with all your HD media or as a portable gaming rig. Modders are gonna love it.

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