Although VIA is the indisputable tiny PC leader, it seems like Intel's Atom processor kicked off a race between the established brands to create the smallest system based on the Atom platform and it seems like MSI is set to take on Asus' Eee Box with the Wind NetBOX early next year.

The WinBOX is based on the mobile Atom platform, and as such is has an Atom N270 processor and the 945GSE chipset. It comes with 1GB of DDR2 memory, although it seems like it should be possible to expand this to 2GB. MSI has also squeezed in a 160GB hard drive into the tiny enclosure.

There isn't much in terms of ports on this tiny system and we really wish MSI had gone for a DVI connector like Asus did with the Eee Box. Instead, you're stuck with a single D-sub connector, a pair of audio jacks, three USB 2.0 ports, a 10/100Mbit Ethernet port and a memory card slot. Internally, there's only a single SATA connector and a mini-PCIe slot.

The cool thing is that due to its tiny size, 255x280x19mm (WxHxD) the NetBOX can be mounted on the back of a display with the help of a small bracket which is attached to the VESA mount. The NetBOX will come with either Windows XP Home or SuSE Linux and it should be announced at CES in early January next year.

More details and pictures here