The unit measure just 8 inches square and can easily be balanced in the palm of one had. One side has a large ventilation grill while the back is sealed. From a modders point of view, it would be easy to use masking tape to protect the plastic edge of the side panels and then spray with any colour paint using cans available from any DIY outlet such as Halfords here in the UK.

The sides also have grills and on the front we can see 4 USB 2.0 sockets and audio jacks. On the back is the plate for a typical mini-ITX motherboard but we recommend removing it and using the one that comes with an actual motherboard. The optional desktop stand allows the unit to be placed in the upright position and ease of access to the front USB ports albeit at the expense of some small amount of desk space.

It's remarkably empty once opened up. Connectors are provided for the front USB 2.0 ports (needs two cables whereas our Gigabyte board only had one connector so two of the ports were left unconnected). Only a few capacitors are needed as the PSU circuitry has been moved onto an external power block.

The back shows where a hard disk would go. The central plate is attached with 4 screws and when these are removed a 2.5" drive (up to 9.5mm in thickness) can be screwed into place (using the provided thermal insulation strips). We used a 120GB SSD for our tests. It is actually possible to use 2 2.5" drives so RAID configurations are possible. The power and data connectors are slipped through a gap between the frame and the motherboard but otherwise fit snugly.

Once we put the motherboard in things look more familiar but gone are any expansion card slots and only 2 DIMMs are present (plenty for most purposes). Installation is easy as long as everything is done gently. Our Socket FM1 CPU looks very large here and it is easy to see why similar sized enclosures from other manufacturers only use NetBook type processors such as the Atom and Zacate - both insufficiently capable for mainstream purposes.

Now that we have put in the processor, cooler and memory things are starting to look quite crowded. Of particular note is the woefully inadequate cable length of the 4-pin ATX connector which could not reach the motherboard connector without us resorting to an extension lead. We used an AMD A6-3500 triple core CPU with onchip GPU rather than motherboard graphics. This allows us to run the latest DX11 games and have HDMI output from a connector on the back plate (delivering sound too). 2 sticks of Corsair XMS DDR3-1600MHz RAM (4GB) finish things off. The cooler looks massive compared to the size of the enclosure and we did not use the smaller stock cooler as we wanted to avoid as much unnecessary noise as possible by going with a PWM solution.

Even with a low profile cooler we didn't think we would be able to get the lid on but because of the way the gril is raised it actually fit quite comfortably. The PWM fan is very efficient and responds quickly to temperature changes. The final assembled unit was re-assuringly heavy with a sturdy build quality. Given some small cable ties we could have tidied things up a bit but cable management is never going to be a design consideration on a case this small and most of the time it will be hidden out of sight behind a monitor.

The real test (and the reason why the word VESA is in the title) is shown above. The bracket fits easily on to any VESA mount on a monitor and the case slips onto the bracket and is held in place with 3 thumb screws from below. As can be seen, the case is dwarfed by even a modest 22" monitor. This is a good thing because it gives the impression of using an all-in-one PC but without the drawbacks or the high price tag. The PWM fan on our cooler was whisper quiet but sprang quickly to life under high load. It's worth remembering that at least an inch or two of clearance is required for proper cooling (so best not to push the monitor right up against a wall).

Among the new market segments we found were children of all ages from those about to start secondary school (left) to those who had recently started primary school (right). It was the "cute" factor and the savings on desktop space that the kids really liked. From the point of view of parents, a mini tower takes up floor space and is easily kicked by kids. A desktop case will likely have children poke things into it and risk fluid spills etc. This unit is cleverly hidden away behind a monitor and is actually very convenient - especially with a wireless mouse and keyboard that can be put away when not needed. Reasons for the favourable response from youngsters varied but included the portability, lack of visibility behind a monitor, dimensions similar to popular games consoles and quiet operation. We suspect that the recent trend of greater emphasis on ICT in early years education in most European countries has resulted in greater computer literacy and awareness among children that would otherwise be occupied with other activities.

The only problem parents are left with is having enough units to go round in those households with multiple children!