Alienware DHS-301 Media Center PC

Alienware's DHS-301 Media Center PC shows that the company best known for its high-performance gaming systems has jumped feet first into the digital-home arena. Styled like an entertainment component rather than a desktop, the DHS-301 Media Center PC features a powerful enough computer system and a multipurpose media center rolled into one attractive, albeit pricey, box. Our $5,347 test system came equipped with a 2.8GHz Pentium 4 processor, a midrange ATI graphics card, a multiformat DVD burner, and a 30-inch LCD TV (which makes up more than half of the above price). There's lots of room for expansion inside, which is a good thing since the integrated sound chip is merely adequate and the 80GB hard drive will likely fill up quickly. You can configure the DHS-301 Media Center PC with a larger hard drive (up to 200GB) and more memory, but if you want more processing power and more hard drive storage, you have to move up to the DHS-311 or DHS-321 models. Even without the $3,000 monitor, we think this midrange system--with last year's parts and a price north of $2,000--is overpriced.Alienware's DHS-301 Media Center PC looks nothing like the flashy performance towers we've come to expect from this boutique vendor, best known for its high-end gaming desktops. Instead, the 5.3-by-17-by-18-inch (HWD) black horizontal case blends in to an existing A/V rack, giving it the appearance of a big preamp rather than a PC. In addition to its attractive exterior, the supremely quiet operation of the system adds to its living-room appeal. Who wants to watch TV over the din of loud cooling fans?

To measure application performance, CNET Labs uses BAPCo's SysMark 2004, an industry-standard benchmark. Using off-the-shelf applications, SysMark measures a desktop's performance using office-productivity applications (such as Microsoft Office and McAfee VirusScan) and Internet-content-creation applications (such as Adobe Photoshop and Macromedia Dreamweaver).

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