Shuttle XH97V and DS437T are the two bare bone mini computers that retail for less than 250 euros. Both have good configurability and high expandability which make them perfect for small and home office. This is how it looks like.
Here is a pictures from the back.
Shuttle DS437T Review
The more compact but also the less powerful of the two is the Shuttle DS437T which measures 200 x 165 x 39.5 mm and weighs mere 1.43 kilograms. It is very compact and has volume of mere 1.3 liters. Featuring a completely passive cooling system, it offers a dual-core Intel Celeron 1037U generation processor that is based on Ivy Bridge architecture. The CPU has TDP of 17W and a clock rate of 1.8 GHz.
The Shuttle DS437T can be configured with up to 16 gigabytes of memory and both DDR3-1333 and DDR3-1600 are supported. For storage there is space for single SATA III 2.5 inch disk. Despite its small size it offers a large number of ports. There are a total of 8x USB 3.0 ports, HDMI, DVI video outputs, SD card reader, audio jacks for headphones and earphones and a RJ-45 Ethernet jack for LAN. For connectivity you get the trusty old Gigabit Ethernet and 802.11n Wi-Fi. The Shuttle DS437T is already available on the market at a recommended retail price of 234 euro.
Shuttle XH97V Review
For those who have a little more available space should go for the Shuttle XH97V which offers more performance and flexibility. You can configure it with any Haswell processor that includes Celeron, Pentium, Core i3, i5 and i7 fourth generation CPUs with maximum TDP of 65 watts. The Shuttle XH97V measures 240 x 200 x 72 mm with a volume of 3.5 liters and weight of 2.2 kilograms. There are two RAM slots which can be used to equip the system with up to 16 gigabytes of DDR3-1600 memory. For storage there are a total of three units thus giving the user a lot more flexibility when it comes to storage. The drives can be configured in RAID configuration as well.
Connectivity and ports selection in Shuttle XH97V is same as DS437T. It is already on sale for 235 euros including VAT in Europe.