Garzetta's heavily-lacquered Pictura is one of the off-the-shelf case designs...
Garzetta has launched a mini Ardea PC with an unusual if not unique selling point: you can have your own hand-painted design. At a price.
The company says: "Garzetta collaborates with exceptional artists and design professionals in the northern provinces of The Netherlands. We are proud to employ their dedication and craftsmanship in creating truly singular Garzetta Ardea Mini PCs."
It's not a company you will have heard of, and Google prefers to provide details of Ardea Garzetta, which is a little egret (Egretta garzetta) - a wading bird. The company address appears to be a modern terraced house in Groningen, fairly close to an elementary school and the Furious PC Forum, which apparently repairs computers.
And while Garzetta announced its launch on Twitter, the account has only made one tweet, which has garnered one like. @garzettaminipc is following only one account, and has only one follower. Whatever else Garzetta might be - and it's the wrong day for an April Fool spoof - it is not a social media powerhouse.
Garzetta Ardea in blue...
Garzetta offers only one mini PC but you have a choice of two specifications. The first has an Intel Core i5-7260U with Iris Plus Graphics 640 graphics and the second a Core i7-7567U with Iris Plus Graphics 640.
You can have from 8GB to 32GB of memory, and either a 250GB or 500GB SSD. Both versions have two Visaton BF32 loudspeakers, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and a good selection of ports including gigabit Ethernet, Thunderbolt 3, two USB 3.0 ports and two USB 2.0 ports.
Prices start at €1375 (£1,199.99 / $1,622) with no operating system, though you can have either Windows 10 Home (€99) or Pro (€149) installed. (Prices include 21 percent Dutch VAT.)
Every machine is built to order so delivery can take up to three weeks.
Garzetta does not quote a price for its custom, hand-painted offerings. It invites people to email bespoke@garzetta.eu with their desires. I'm sure you could come up with something suitable for your private plane or luxury yacht, or even something cartoony for your kids.
Nowadays, most PCs are assembled in China, but I don't recognize the Garzetta Ardea case - please let me know if you do - so it could be an original design. In fact, it looks more like a very large mouse than a typical Chinese mini or boxy NUC.
Whether there's a market for premium, hand-painted PCs remains to be seen, Clearly, Garzetta is not going to ship thousands into the fleet market....