$35 Raspberry Pi has the crown of being world's smallest and cheapest computer, but this seems not to be the case anymore. C.H.I.P. - a brand new entry to the mini-computing scene has already been successfully crowd-funded at kickstarter, the "100% open-source" product features attractive functionality and power for a price-tag of $9 which includes a 1Ghz A13 Allwinner CPU, 512MB of DDR3 RAM, 4GB NAND storage, USB, Micro USB, Video/Audio/MIC Composite, Bluetooth 4.0 and Wifi 802.11B/G/N.

The tiny C.H.I.P. SOC is designed to run Debian Linux including modern desktop GUI apps like LibreOffice, VLC, or the Firefox or Chrome web browsers. Best of all, CHIP runs mainline Linux, which means it’s easier than ever to keep teaching it new tricks without inheriting a pile of kernel patches. Do watch the introduction video shared by MAKE magazine of this exciting new development for maker's community.

HDMI Android and Linux TV sticks are nothing new, but now we have Intel Quad Core powered Windows mini-pcs's as GULEEK i8 which is already on sale and we blogged about it earlier. Intel has also announced their own version of the Mini-PC Stick at CES 2015 as shared below.

The Intel Compute Stick is a new generation device which is a full-featured plug-n-play Desktop computer with a quad-core Intel® Atom™ processor, built-in wireless connectivity, on-board storage, and a micro SD card slot for additional storage. The four inches long, ultra-small, power-efficient device will come pre-installed in two flavors one with Windows 8.1 priced at $150 and other one with Linux priced at $89.

The Intel Compute Stick is planned to be released in March, 2015 but as of now the GULEEK i8 seems a better deal considering the fact that it is powered by same Intel branded CPU, is cheaper (for Windows version), has 3000mAh built-in battery, more connectors, comes with a remote control app for mobile phone and is available to order right now for just $103.

There are tons of TV sticks and mini-pc's with Android and Linux support, but a new breed of Intel Quad-core HDMI mini-pc's have now started to appear supporting a fully-functional Microsoft Windows 8.1 OS.

GULEEK i8 comes powered with an 1.3 GHz Intel Atom Z3735F quad-core processor, 2GB DDR3 RAM, 16GB of storage, a microSD card slot, 2 full-sized USB ports, a micro USB port (for charging), a micro HDMI port, a headset jack, microphone, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, 3000mAh battery (allowing usage as a portable media player without need of a power adapter), all this in a ultra-slim, light-weight and noise-free fanless design. The Intel powered quad-core CPU coupled with Microsoft Windows 8.1 OS makes this one of the best setup for a home entertainment system supporting hardware video decoding (Intel HD Graphic(Gen7)) with full codec support unlike it's Android and Linux counterparts, just plug this on any screen via HDMI and you have a fully-functional desktop computer with Windows 8.1 OS.

You can also use this as an headless system, the mini-pc comes with an Android app supporting remote login and interaction with the GULEEK i8 without requiring a keyboard and mouse.

Radxa Rock - the cheap and powerful quad-core mini-computer has already receiving great success with majority of stock vanishing across all major online distributors. Luckily, I had received my Radxa Rock a while back and has now successfully taken over the job of my Wireless Network Attached Storage (NAS) from Raspberry Pi.

The process of setting up NAS on Radxa Rock is much more easier then Raspberry Pi as the external disk is automatically detected and mounted on every boot (Thanks to Ubuntu Desktop based Linaro image), but when using the folder sharing via Samba Share we need to add an extra line to smb.conf to make the data accessible over network.

Raspberry Pi - the hacker friendly, cheap mini-computer started a whole new niche of users tinkering with these easily accessible hardware and open-source software to create awesome projects. There are now a plethora of such ARM development boards from single-core, dual-core to quad-code varieties having all sorts of ARM CPU options like Rockchip, i.MX Freescale, Samsung Exynos etc. with various RAM, connectivity and falsh storage options.

Radxa Rock is the newest entry into this arena and seems to pack a solid punch of hardware and software power, powered by Quad core ARM Cortex-A9 processor the board manages to clock as high as 1.6Ghz and as low as 324Mhz, balancing between performance and power saving. The single-board computer uses RK3188 as the quad-core CPU and comes with 2GB DDR3 @ 800Mhz, 8GB Nand Flash, Micro-SD SDXC up to 128GB, Mali400-mp4@533Mhz GPU with OpenGL ES 2.0 support, video output via HDMI 1.4 up to 1080p@60hz, integrated Bluetooth 4.0, WiFi with external antenna, LAN, RTC, IR, USB OTG, S/PDIF, headphone jack, built-in microphone and 80 pins including GPIO, I2C, SPI, Line in, USB 2.0, PWM, ADC, LCD, etc. allowing users to easily connect rock with breadboard or other sensor boards.

We have seen success and demand for Mini computers like Cotton Candy, Raspberry Pi, Intel Next Unit Of Computing (NUC), O-DROID X and VIA APC 8750. But here is something which takes the prize for being the only viable looking portable solution to today's high-power desktop computing needs.

Xi3 modular computers are not only small but very rugged, the outer aluminum chassis not only acts as a good heat dispenser but also as an sturdy protector. The modular motherboard lets user buy an future-proof PC as they can simply swap out components easily as new technology gets available saving cost later on PC upgrades. Xi3 systems are also energy efficient and have models using just 40W of power.

Don't miss the video introduction to this promising new era of desktop computing posted below.

Portable computing units are in-vogue and the latest to join the bunch is ODROID-X, a powerful computing unit with PC like performance powered by an ARM Cortex-A9 Quad Core and 1 GB 800 Mhz DDR RAM.

ODROID-X is aimed mainly at android developers and comes with an impressive hardware spec-sheet similar to "Samsung Galaxy SIII", i.e. a 1.4 Ghz quad-core Samsung Exynos 4412 processor, 1GB RAM, Mali-400 GPU, on-board Android 4.0.4 ICS (also supports Ubuntu 12.04), 6 USB 2.0 ports, micro USB port, micro HDMI port with full-hd 1080p video output, standard 3.5mm headphone and microphone jack, 50pin IO expansion port, 100 Mbps Ethernet port and an SD card slot for storage. The best part the board is available (from end of this month) for $129 with free worldwide shipping.