I am a power-user and have no patience for waiting for things to load. I had a powerful i7 tower desktop I built last year, for $1200 in latest-generation parts. Although I initially bought this computer as a toy, it has now completely replaced my big tower. This computer is ~40x smaller, uses 3-5x less electricity, and the decrease in computing power is hardly noticeable (after all it is an i5). I paid $680 total for parts. Took 30mins to assemble.$385 - Intel NUC D54250WYK$180 - 240GB mSata drive
  
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    $75 - 8GB DDR3 1.3v ram
  
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    $35 - Intel 7260 AC wifi + Bluetooth 4.0
  
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    Windows 8.1 Pro - free for students.Yes, I do realize that after cyber monday the price on my parts have fallen by $50. (new total = $630) Bad luck on my part.