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$149 for the base model seems quite affordable. I seriously doubt you could build something comparable yourself for less. The quoted MSRP are bit on the high side, but on the other hand the casework looks nice and compact, so I wouldn't call them unreasonable either.

I'd like to see how you'd do just that. Show me a cheap quad-core PoE box running Scientific Linux with at least the same level of performance. Never mind Android, I need something that runs Eclipse and the emulator reasonably well. 3D performance isn't that important, if it runs AlienArena, Nexuiz and Sauerbraten it's good enough.

Just a halfway decent mini-itx htpc case plus power supply can easily set you back $100 or more. You're going to have a hard time building something like this for $150. I'd love to be proven wrong, but I have a hard time seeing it.