Put Vista in your living room
Matthew Elliott,
Section Editor
March 6, 2007
If you are looking to put Windows Vista in your living room, we've reviewed three home-theater PCs that might fit the bill, and we anticipate seeing many more introductions in this category as the year progresses. Two Vista editions, Home Premium and Ultimate, include a new version of the Media Center shell that gives you large menu icons so you can navigate from your couch with remote in hand, aka the 10-foot interface. Vista's Media Center is a bit slicker looking than the previous XP version, giving you easier and faster access to your media.
With a price that is likely to surpass the HDTV you recently added to your home theater, the Velocity Micro CineMagix Grand Theater is about as complete an HTPC as we've ever seen, with a Blu-ray drive, 800GB of drive space, a quad-core CPU, and graphics that provide decent frame rates. It also provides support for CableCard. Be sure to take careful measurements of your entertainment center because the Grand Theater is certainly grand in size.
If you want to spend less--closer to $1,000 than $4,000--take a gander at either the iBuyPower Value 640 or the Shuttle XPC X200M. The iBuyPower system is a great bet for PC enthusiasts who want to purchase a cheap, basic HTPC with the plan to tinker with it on down the road, adding upgrades as your budget allows. And the Shuttle PC is a compact system that will easily find perch in your AV rack. Its small footprint is the chief attraction because otherwise it's a lackluster performer with limited features. Still, it covers the basics, which might be all that you're looking for in a living-room PC.
- More Resources
- Complete guide to Windows Vista,
- CNET's Vista Upgrade Advisor,
- Editors' top desktops,
- See all desktop reviews
| Product name |
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| Price |
$1,599.00
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| CNET editors' rating |
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| Average user rating |
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| Review date |
February 12, 2007
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| The Bottom Line |
Velocity Micro's first full-fledged home theater PC pulls very few punches in providing a complete digital media experience. It's big, it lacks a built-in audio receiver, and it invites PC gaming into the living room, which has never been the best fit. It's also the victim of a few Vista-related growing pains. On balance, though, Velocity Micro has as complete a home theater PC as we've seen.
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Features
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| Graphics Controller | NVidia GeForce 8800GTS
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| TV Tuner Type | Analog TV
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| OS Provided | Microsoft Windows Vista Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium
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| Product Description | Core 2 Extreme Quad Core 2.4 GHz
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| Audio Output | - 7.1 channel surround
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| Monitor | None
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| RAM | 2 GB
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| Hard Drive | 2 x 400 GB - Standard
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| Dimensions (WxDxH) | 17 in x 16 in x 6.8 in
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| Processor | 1 x Intel Core 2 Extreme Quad Core 2.4 GHz
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| Full specifications |
Full specifications
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| Buying choices |
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