Unique Phantom One Desktop on Kickstarter Gets an Intriguing Price Cut

[[Coi] Mr.CLuBBeR]

How do you like me now?

Earlier this week we wrote about the Phantom One, a small form factor PC on Kickstarter that's comparable in size to a six pack of Corona beer (or pretty much any brand of suds using 12-ounce bottles). There's also a bamboo option, which adds another unique selling point -- to our knowledge, there isn't another desktop made of bamboo. There hasn't been much action on the Kickstarter page, presumably because the systems are cost prohibitive, so One Technology has gone and dropped the price.
Originally the asking price was $1,900 for the black acrylic and $1,950 for the bamboo model. As we noted, those prices seemed a bit stiff. After receiving similar feedback from others, One Technology has lowered the prices to $1,650 for the black acrylic and $1,700 for the bamboo version, chopping $250 off each model.
My colleagues are in the process of obtaining one of these machines for review and so we'll collectively reserve judgement until then, but in the meantime, I have to admit that these little desktops are suddenly compelling. The price is for the entire system, not just the desktop, and as a refresher, they come configured with an Intel Core i7 4790K CPU, Asus Z97i-Plus mini ITX motherboard with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, 16GB of RAM, 128GB SSD, 1TB HDD, GeForce GTX 970 graphics card, 450W PSU, and Windows 7 64-bit.
I went back to Newegg and priced the components a second time and noticed that I forgot to include a power supply last time around. Leaving off both the PSU and case, I again came to about $1,200 worth of hardware -- slightly north or south depending on specific component selection.
Taking that into consideration, the price disparity before factoring in a case and PSU is $450 to $500. To keep the math neat, let's subtract $50 for the PSU, leaving a price difference of $400 (black acrylic) or $450 (bamboo).
So yes, you can build a comparable system cheaper, but considering you get what's supposed to be a high end case (especially the bamboo option) and labor, what was once cost prohibitive is suddenly a lot more compelling. Also, keep in mind these are discounted Kickstarter prices -- retail pricing will be higher.
If that changes things, you can find the Phantom One's Kickstarter page here.
Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook


More...