http://www.apple.com/macmini/design.html

HDMI, SD card slot, no more power brick, easy-access memory slot... There's just nothing wrong with this little computer.

One of my friends said that I should check it out as a HT PC.

Except they start at $700.

If I were looking for a mini-PC that would also be suited for HTPC use I'd start with Zotac's ZBOX platform. It's $250 for the motherboard, CPU, video, power supply (yeah, it's external), and case. You just add RAM (up to a 4 GB DDR2 SO-DIMM), and a hard disk.

It too has an SD slot. But no optical drive. I was building machines with the motherboard out of this ZBOX, but in a case which had space for a laptop optical drive (was using Pioneer's slot loading one).

Yeah, I like it too. It's like headless Macbook.

I actually just replaced my still working PPC Mac Mini w/ a used 2 GHz Core 2 Duo w/ 2GB of RAM. Fortunately, I only paid $425 w/ cables, adapters, and a remote so I don't have too much remorse...

Though I do like that form factor.