Probably the real IT experts will know exactly what "small form factor" means - the PC is basically very tiny at the expense of expansion slots - normal PCs have at least 3, but a "small form factor" PC may not have any, which is a bit of a pain in terms of future-proofing.
"Small form factor" is quite suitable for business, and is now being sold as a PC you can use as part of a home entertainment system - connect it to your surround sound etc.
I'm interested to know how many people are or aren't aware of what "small form factor" is, and whether I'm the first to be caught out as I now have a couple of expansion cards and nowhere polite to stick them because the PC I bought is "small form factor".
Thanks for your feedback.
Julian Wattam
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Graphics & TV...
Although I'm not so interested in how to 'attach' these to an SFF PC as I've now returned it.
I was more interested to find who here even knows what SFF even signifies - I didn't and I consider myself fairly knowledgeable about computers.
Just had a similar experience with PCI and PCI-E - who would think one letter would make a difference - again sellers don't bother to explain that PCI-E is totally different and only very new PCs will have a PCI-E slot. (That was the graphics card - now sent back too!)
What Cards?
What are the "expansion cards" and are you looking for alternative ways of attaining their function with the SFF PC?
USB
Small form factor PCs have been around a long time. The now defunct Tiny Computers started by selling computers that were tiny!
Most expansion needs can be handled by usb devices these days.
Shuttles for training
Over the past few years I've bought several different versions of small form factor Shuttle PCs for use as training machines. They are easy to transport and, for training, the lack of expansion slots doesn't really matter. I've been very happy with them. As part of a home entertainment system, you'd certainly want to check on how quiet they are - fan noise can be a bit obtrusive in a home environment.
Bare bones PC
I built a PC around a Shuttle chassis about a year ago. It came with just one PCI slot - used for the wireless card, and an AGP slot for the graphics card - but I knew that when I bought it.
It's small, quiet, and does what I wanted it to. No complaints whatsoever.
This is similar, but with on board graphics: