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.
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| Price | $1,599.00 | Check Prices | Check Prices |
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| Review date | February 12, 2007 | February 01, 2007 | January 22, 2007 |
| 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. | The Vista-based iBuyPower 640 is a good bet for PC enthusiasts on a shoestring budget who are looking to add a PC to their home theater and don't mind (or look forward to) tweaking and upgrading the system as they go. | Shuttle's updated supersmall home theater PC introduces a few new features to bring it inline with similar diminutive living room PCs. It also came to us with Windows Vista Home Premium. If you're in it for the looks (and you don't want HD video), you'll find a system to like here, but we think you'll be able to find more capable PCs on the market soon. |
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| Features | |||
| Graphics Controller | NVidia GeForce 8800GTS | nVidia GeForce 7600 GS | PCI Express x16 - Intel GMA 950 |
| TV Tuner Type | Analog TV | Info unavailable | Analog TV - NTSC |
| RAM | 2 GB | 1 GB DDR II SDRAM | 1 GB (installed) / 2 GB (max) - DDR2 SDRAM - 667 MHz - PC2-5300 |
| Dimensions (WxDxH) | 17 in x 16 in x 6.8 in | 14.6 in x 18.1 in x 5.8 in | 11.7 in x 8.3 in x 2.2 in |
| Processor | 1 x Intel Core 2 Extreme Quad Core 2.4 GHz | 1 x Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 1.66 GHz | 1 x Intel Core Duo T2300E / 1.66 GHz ( Dual-Core ) |
| Hard Drive | 2 x 400 GB - Standard | 1 x 320 GB | 1 x 250 GB - Standard - Serial ATA-150 |
| OS Provided | Microsoft Windows Vista Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium | Microsoft Windows Vista Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium | Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium |
| Product Description | Core 2 Extreme Quad Core 2.4 GHz | Core 2 Duo E6400 1.66 GHz | Shuttle XPC mini X 200m - Core Duo T2300E 1.66 GHz |
| Audio Output | - 7.1 channel surround | Info unavailable | Sound card - 7.1 channel surround |
| Monitor | None | None | None. |
| Full specifications | Full specifications | Full specifications | Full specifications |
| Buying choices |
This product is available directly from the manufacturer's Web site. |
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