Original Article Link
It’s almost as though they started to second guess themselves after they finished the article and threw in the notes at the end on how to actually reduce the price. My client HTPC is right around the $1000 mark and that was without ANY consideration for price. I wanted something that would do the job for the foreseeable future, was extremely quiet, and reliable. I planned on a Plextor, but they discontinued the one I wanted, so I went with a $40 Samsung.
Without any real work to lower costs, they managed to shave $228 off. So, how much planning did they really do in order to make this “low cost”? I suspect that many of these parts are going to be recycled for the subsequent articles.