The 68B's primary front-panel connections -- four USB ports, split two USB 2.0 and two USB 3.0 -- are located right in front of a large indented "tray" on the system's top. This would be a wonderful place to stash screws for in-progress upgrades to the 68B, provided this system really used any. Its three free 5.25-inch bays are completely screwless and its four free hard drive bays use easy-to-install rails to integrate new storage into the system. It's a slight omission that the system's free PCI slots -- two PCI, one PCI Express x16 (running at x8), and one PCI Express x1 -- still use screws for device installation. And, yes, we would have loved to have seen a total of two, full-speed PCI Express x16 slots in the system.

We love the 68B's diverse smorgasbord of connection types: Seven USB 2.0 ports, one combination eSATA/USB 2.0 port, two USB 3.0 ports, one additional eSATA port, a FireWire 400 port, one Gigabit Ethernet port, and a combination of optical and coaxial SPDIF ports and integrated 7.1 surround sound. The included ATI Radeon HD 6870 videocard gives you two DVI connections and two DisplayPort connections, just no HDMI -- and that's a big omission.

We'd normally use this space to discuss the 68B's included mouse and keyboard, but we received neither with our reviewed system. Nevertheless, you'll be able to select from a variety of devices, if you so choose, when ordering the system on Micro Express' website.

It's hard to find something to dislike about . Just a few omissions mar the excellent construction of this killer Mainstream desktop, and they seem relatively minor in comparison to the system's many strengths. It's fast, it's priced perfectly, and it's a great improvement over one of our previous favorite Mainstream desktops, the MicroFlex 25B. We can't wait to see what else Micro Express has hidden up its sleeve!