The fan looks to have been replaced in a later picture.
I've got a RPi here which is doing sterling service for several tasks, but it certainly wouldn't be satisfactory for desktop use like he appears to want - that machine is a Core i5, the two are lightyears apart!
Plus the convenience factor - the RPi won't power USB devices that want more than a minimal amount of juice (an external 2.5" HDD, for example) whereas this machine could happily drive them at a temporarily increased power draw.
But it would spend a very tiny amount of time at full load?
My i3 desktop is almost always at a low of 80watts (with monitor, router, cablemodem, UPS) - full load at 150watts only happens when I fire up something with graphics (early model without GPU acceleration) and even then settles down.
