Entered CNET Catalog: 05/22/2003
SKU: CYBMEDCENPC
Manufacturer: Cyberpower Inc
Product summary
The good: One of the fastest Media Center PCs to date; stereo component-style case; gorgeous LCD monitor; includes DVD burner.
The bad: Wireless mouse and keyboard do not come standard; case and monitor don't match well; Media Center OS still has limitations; case difficult to open; no printed manuals.
The bottom line: The Cyberpower Media Center PC is a powerful system with a smart case design, but we recommend waiting for Microsoft's OS update to hit this summer before buying this or any other Media Center PC.
Average user rating: 0 stars Not yet available
CNET editors' review
- Editors' Choice: No
- Reviewed on: 03/27/2003
 A wireless keyboard and mouse make more sense for a Media Center PC than these wired Mitsuko peripherals. |
 You won't find much room for upgrades inside. |
The Cyberpower Media Center PC comes in a glossy, jet-black case that strongly resembles a stereo component and as such, would seem to merit a home alongside your receiver, CD player, and big-screen TV. Problem is, Cyberpower neglected to include a wireless mouse and keyboard. Instead, you get wired varieties of each from Mitsuko, so you'll have to park a chair at your entertainment center or find room for the system on your desk. Thankfully, you can upgrade to a Microsoft or ViewSonic wireless mouse/keyboard combo--absolutely essential if you plan to integrate this system into your home theater.
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| Although it looks like a stereo component, the case provides you with standard PC ports, including USB 2.0 and FireWire ports up front. | |
As it should, the case features one FireWire and two USB ports right up front. Four more USB and three more FireWire ports stand ready at the rear. A flip-down door on the front panel hides the DVD-RW and CD-ROM drives when they're not in use, which helps maintain the stereo-component appearance. Unfortunately, getting inside the case requires a Herculean effort: you need to turn over the entire case to remove the bottom screws and flip it again to slide the tight cover off. The reward for your trouble is just one open PCI slot, one free memory socket, and one open hard drive bay.
In case you're not familiar with the Media Center PC concept, this type of PC is essentially a high-end system outfitted with a TV tuner card--in this case, the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR--and Windows XP Media Center Edition. You also get a nicely designed remote control for accessing Media Center features, which reside in a separate interface and include live TV, an interactive TV guide, and a TV-friendly front end for multimedia Windows apps, including My Videos, My Music, My Pictures, and so on. It's like TiVo on steroids, except that the TV-recording capabilities, while functional, don't come anywhere near TiVo's versatility.
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| Split personality: the case belongs in your living room, but the monitor belongs on your desk. | |
Cyberpower pairs its Media Center PC with a ViewSonic VG700b, an exquisite, 17-inch flat-panel monitor that's ideal for desktop computing but not necessarily for entertaining in the living room. In our tests, running the TV signal through the PC resulted in a slightly grainy picture, especially when viewed at full screen. In addition, the case looks like it's meant for your entertainment center, but the monitor and corded mouse/keyboard say "desk." Thus, this machine clearly belongs in a dorm room, a small apartment, or a home office. Further evidence comes from the Creative Inspire 4.1 4400, one of the smallest five-piece speaker systems we've ever seen, with satellites about the size of single-serving milk cartons. These entry-level speakers sound surprisingly crisp and resonant, but we expected something a bit more robust in an otherwise high-end machine.
Indeed, the Cyberpower Media Center PC has nothing but strong stuff on the inside: a 2.8GHz Pentium 4, 512MB of 333MHz SDRAM, and a 120GB hard drive--the latter is more than sufficient for recording lots of TV shows. Speaking of recording, you can burn just about anything with the included 2X/1X/6X Pioneer DVR-104 drive. Just remember that even though you can archive TV shows to DVD, the resulting files are in a proprietary Microsoft format that prevents them from being viewed elsewhere. (Our system also shipped with a CD-ROM drive as the second drive, but Cyberpower now provides a DVD-ROM instead.)
 Creative's speakers are small, but they deliver a big sound. |
 The DVD burner would be more useful if the discs you created could be played on consumer DVD players. |
Gamers will appreciate the Nvidia GeForce4 Ti 4200, which, though no longer a state-of-the-art graphics card, delivers more than enough video vim for today's games. We fired up the game Command & Conquer: Generals, with all the effects cranked up, and enjoyed silky-smooth frame rates. Alas, you won't find any games bundled with the Media Center PC, only a big batch of shovelware and a few B-list applications and utilities: Corel WordPerfect Office 2002, Norton AntiVirus 2003, and CyberLink PowerDirector, which is a robust video-editing and -authoring tool.
Application performance
Just because it doesn't look like a PC on the outside doesn't mean that the Cyberpower Media Center PC acts any less like a PC on the inside. In fact, with its 2.8GHz P4 processor and 512MB of 333MHz DDR SDRAM memory, the Cyberpower Media Center PC is one of the fastest Media Center PCs we've seen to date. The Cyberpower Media Center's application performance is right on target for DDR SDRAM-based 2.8GHz P4 systems, which translates into a desktop that can run circles around just about any app you're likely to use. For even faster performance, you could configure the system with a 3.06GHz P4 processor from among the plethora of system configuration choices.
Application performance (Longer bars indicate better performance)
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To measure application performance, CNET Labs uses BAPCo's SysMark2002, 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).
3D graphics and gaming performance
The configuration that we tested came with an Nvidia GeForce 4 Ti 4200-based graphics card. An Nvidia GeForce4 Ti 4200 might not be the speediest graphics card available today, but unless you are a hard-core gaming enthusiast, a Ti 4200 should have no problem driving your 3D games and family titles, even at high screen resolutions.
3D graphics performance (Longer bars indicate better performance)
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To measure 3D graphics performance, CNET Labs uses Futuremark's 3DMark2001 Pro Second Edition, Build 330. We use 3DMark to measure a desktop's performance with the DirectX 8 (DX8) interface at both 16- and 32-bit color settings at a resolution of 1,024x768. A system that does not have DX8 hardware support will typically generate a lower score than one that has DX8 hardware support.
3D gaming performance (in fps) (Longer bars indicate better performance)
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To measure 3D gaming performance, CNET Labs uses Quake III Arena. Although Quake III is an older game, it is still widely used as an industry-standard tool. Quake III does not require DX8 hardware support--as 3DMark2001 does--and is therefore an excellent means of comparing the performance of low- to high-end graphics subsystems. Quake III performance is reported in frames per second (fps).
Find out more about how we test desktop systems.
System configurations:
ABS Media Center PC 8400
Windows XP Media Center Edition; 2.53GHz Intel P4; 512MB DDR SDRAM 333MHz; Nvidia GeForce4 MX 440 64MB; Western Digital WD1200JB-00CRA1, 120GB, ATA/100, 7,200 rpm
Alienware Navigator Pro
Windows XP Media Center Edition; 2.66GHz Intel P4; 512MB DDR SDRAM 333MHz; Nvidia GeForce4 Ti 4200 64MB; Western Digital WD1200JB-00CRA1, 120GB, ATA/100, 7,200 rpm
Cyberpower Media Center PC
Windows XP Media Center Edition; 2.8GHz Intel P4; 512MB DDR SDRAM 333MHz; Nvidia GeForce4 Ti 4200 128MB; Western Digital WD1200JB-75CRA0, 120GB, ATA/100, 7,200 rpm
Gateway Media Center
Windows XP Media Center Edition; 2.53GHz Intel P4; 256MB DDR SDRAM 333MHz; Nvidia GeForce4 MX 440 128MB; Western Digital WD1200BB-53CAA1, 120GB, 7,200 rpm
HP Media Center PC
Windows XP Media Center Edition; 2.66GHz Intel P4; 512MB DDR SDRAM 266MHz; Nvidia GeForce4 MX 420 64MB; Seagate ST3120023A 120GB 7,200rpm
A role model when it comes to service and support, Cyberpower backs the Media Center PC with a three-year warranty on parts and labor and provides a year of onsite service. Live tech support is available 24/7, and it's both toll-free and free of charge for life. Plus, Cyberpower offers a 30-day money-back guarantee that's free of restocking fees--a rarity these days. These generous policies just about make up for the complete lack of documentation provided with the system; there's no setup guide, no system manual, and no component manuals. Novices are sure to get their money's worth from the toll-free phone support.
User opinions
Select a User Opinion to view: 1 2 3 User Rating: 
2/10
Great prices, bad service
Pros: Low prices, good hardware offered, easy webpage.
Cons: Very Very poor service.
Review: I normally will not write this kind of letter because bad business practices are going to catch up to you in the future. I cannot say if my experience is a normal one as this is all I have to go on. I feel that I should let you know about what happened to me as a customer of Cyber Power Systems.
On the 20th of Feb 2006 I was in search of a new gaming system. My first choice was to build it myself but I decided to see if getting it done elsewhere would be easier and or cheaper. I started hitting all the web sights I could find. Cyber Power was by far the cheapest and had a very easy to use page. So I give their pricing and their web developers both an A+. The rest of the company so far gets an F-. I would give them a lower grade if possible.
My mother who lives in Virginia and I live in Florida share a credit card for emergencies. Both our names are on it. I used that card to buy the awesome new system that after all fees came to a total of $3002.00. This was where the problems began. I should have canceled the deal and moved on to another company but I liked the price. Cyber Power Systems has a policy that if the bill to and the ship too are different that the primary on the card (my mother) must call the company and have them add my address to the notes section of the card before they will ship to my address. The way it was explained to me is that I need to add my address to the billing information. This tied up the order process for 3 days. After that was sorted out it was sent to the warehouse floor. Instead of being the normal 10 business days this one was going to take 11 days and was supposed to ship on the 9th of March. I let this extra day go in spite of the fact that 3 had already passed since I made the order. The 9th came and passed, as did several other days and the computer shipped on the 13th (to the wrong person).
It seems that my machine was shipped to someone else and their computer was shipped to me. Cyber Power Systems called my mother in Virginia to tell her that the system had shipped to the wrong address. My mother told them to call me she had nothing to do with this. They called me and asked for my mother. I told them she is not getting the machine and is not going to see it. The machine and the bill are mine. They said they would update the information and get it fixed. They asked me to refuse delivery of the computer as soon as it arrived. I was a little upset at this and they said instead of 5 day shipping they would give me 3-day shipping. They also said they were going to build me a new machine and send it out. During this time they sent me a customer survey (addressed to my mother) I gave them the same grades as I did to you. I also listed out several of the problems that I had also telling them that my mom has nothing to do with the purchase.
The order finally shipped 10 days later and arrived 5 days after that (so much for the 3 day) They system worked great for about a week then I started getting Blue screens every hour or so and with greater frequency. I called their Tech support and they told me I needed 2 new hard drives (RAID STRIPED 0) and they would send them right away. 10 days later they arrived. I installed them and to my surprise there was no Nero disk and no Mcaffee disk (Both came pre installed) I called tech support and they said they are not included they were only for trial 90 day period and since I had to reinstall I loose them. After I got XP back up and running not 10 minutes into the re-install I got a Blue screen Machine Check Exception and called them again. I was told to run alternate sticks of ram I did same screen I was told to remove one video card then another same error told to re-install XP again I did they sent me a motherboard. I installed it and was rebooted and got the same error in less than 5 minutes I was told to repeat the steps and still got the same results. They said I need to send the machine back (At my expense) and they will fix it. So here it is May 23 and I have had a working system for 2 weeks since March. Cyber Power systems is un-apologetic.
I could list several other problems I have had but this is already a long read and I don?t wish to bore you further.
In short I cannot recommend anyone save enemies of the free world purchase computers from them.
On the 20th of Feb 2006 I was in search of a new gaming system. My first choice was to build it myself but I decided to see if getting it done elsewhere would be easier and or cheaper. I started hitting all the web sights I could find. Cyber Power was by far the cheapest and had a very easy to use page. So I give their pricing and their web developers both an A+. The rest of the company so far gets an F-. I would give them a lower grade if possible.
My mother who lives in Virginia and I live in Florida share a credit card for emergencies. Both our names are on it. I used that card to buy the awesome new system that after all fees came to a total of $3002.00. This was where the problems began. I should have canceled the deal and moved on to another company but I liked the price. Cyber Power Systems has a policy that if the bill to and the ship too are different that the primary on the card (my mother) must call the company and have them add my address to the notes section of the card before they will ship to my address. The way it was explained to me is that I need to add my address to the billing information. This tied up the order process for 3 days. After that was sorted out it was sent to the warehouse floor. Instead of being the normal 10 business days this one was going to take 11 days and was supposed to ship on the 9th of March. I let this extra day go in spite of the fact that 3 had already passed since I made the order. The 9th came and passed, as did several other days and the computer shipped on the 13th (to the wrong person).
It seems that my machine was shipped to someone else and their computer was shipped to me. Cyber Power Systems called my mother in Virginia to tell her that the system had shipped to the wrong address. My mother told them to call me she had nothing to do with this. They called me and asked for my mother. I told them she is not getting the machine and is not going to see it. The machine and the bill are mine. They said they would update the information and get it fixed. They asked me to refuse delivery of the computer as soon as it arrived. I was a little upset at this and they said instead of 5 day shipping they would give me 3-day shipping. They also said they were going to build me a new machine and send it out. During this time they sent me a customer survey (addressed to my mother) I gave them the same grades as I did to you. I also listed out several of the problems that I had also telling them that my mom has nothing to do with the purchase.
The order finally shipped 10 days later and arrived 5 days after that (so much for the 3 day) They system worked great for about a week then I started getting Blue screens every hour or so and with greater frequency. I called their Tech support and they told me I needed 2 new hard drives (RAID STRIPED 0) and they would send them right away. 10 days later they arrived. I installed them and to my surprise there was no Nero disk and no Mcaffee disk (Both came pre installed) I called tech support and they said they are not included they were only for trial 90 day period and since I had to reinstall I loose them. After I got XP back up and running not 10 minutes into the re-install I got a Blue screen Machine Check Exception and called them again. I was told to run alternate sticks of ram I did same screen I was told to remove one video card then another same error told to re-install XP again I did they sent me a motherboard. I installed it and was rebooted and got the same error in less than 5 minutes I was told to repeat the steps and still got the same results. They said I need to send the machine back (At my expense) and they will fix it. So here it is May 23 and I have had a working system for 2 weeks since March. Cyber Power systems is un-apologetic.
I could list several other problems I have had but this is already a long read and I don?t wish to bore you further.
In short I cannot recommend anyone save enemies of the free world purchase computers from them.
User Rating: 
5/10
Do not buy from Cyberpower!
Pros: Computer ran well for two weeks.
Cons: Product broke quickly. Cyberpower customer service and tech support worthless.
Review:
User Rating: 
3/10
This is a Horrible Company
Pros: Like everyone else, it would be an amazing computer if it didn't freeze up all the time.
Cons: Media Center stopped working. Customer Service is the worst I've ever dealt with. Computer was shipped with the case broken. SAVE YOURSELF THE FRUSTRATION, DO NOT BUY FROM CYBERPOWER INC.
Review:
