Sapphire Edge HD: PC For the "Post PC" Era

Conclusion
Extremes are controversial; it seems to be a fact of life. Whenever anything steps too far outside the bounds of accepted standards or common practice it generally faces much greater scrutiny than those that choose to play within the boundaries. The Sapphire Edge-HD definitely represents the extreme end of the spectrum when it comes to desktop miniaturization.

The Sapphire Edge-HD represents what is quite possibly the smallest PC form factor on the market today. Sapphire manages to achieve this feat while still providing desktop-quality performance, which is important as size is only part of the equation. The important thing to note here is that the Edge's small size is not absolute in the sense that the Edge is not truly a standalone product (a la iPad, etc.) instead it is part of an ecosystem. In order to function as a PC, the Edge still requires a monitor as well as a keyboard and mouse at minimum. When viewing the product in this light it is easy to see that its tiny form factor is a bonus, however the additional peripherals required will still necessitate a standard desktop computing environment. In order to underscore this truth one only has to look to the fact that simply adding an external optical drive (not required per se, but beneficial) effectively doubles the size of the PC part of this ecosystem.

From an engineering standpoint the Edge is truly a marvel. Sapphire has managed to stuff this little box with all of the regular desktop goodies we have come to expect with the bonus of built-in Wi-Fi and HDMI output. While some may say that Edge is not truly a desktop PC, I agree only in the sense that a laptop is not a true desktop PC either, yet it can offer desktop level performance and productivity.