[outleradam]

Check this sucker out. http://www.emachines.com/products/produc...L1331G-01w

Here's some of the things that made it SCREAM media center to me.
Very small form factor

hidden dvd door flips out for DVDs

9 usb ports

Media Reader5 : CompactFlash I & II, CF+ Microdrive, SD Card, (MMC), (RS-MMC), xD, Memory stick, Memory Stick PRO


Specs:

CPU1 : AMD Athlon™ processor 2850e
(1.8GHz, 512KB L2 cache)
Operating System2 : Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Chipset : NVIDIA® GeForce® 6150 SE
Memory3 : 2048MB DDR2 dual-channel (2 × 1024MB)
Expandable to 4GB
2 DDR2 slots total, 0 DDR2 slots available
Hard Drive4 : 320GB 7200rpm SATA
Optical Drive : 16x DVD±R/RW Supermulti drive
Write max: 16x DVD±R, 6x DVD-RW, 8x DVD+RW, 8x DVD±R DL, 5x DVD-RAM, 48x CD-R, 32x CD-RW
Read max: 16x DVD-ROM, 40x CD-ROM
Media Reader5 : Multi-in-one digital media card reader
CompactFlash® I & II, CF+ Microdrive, Secure Digital™ (SD) Card, MultiMediaCard™ (MMC), Reduced-Size MultiMediaCard™ (RS-MMC), xD-Picture Card™, Memory Stick®, Memory Stick PRO™
Video : Integrated NVIDIA® GeForce® 6150 SE graphics
Up to 128MB of shared video memory
Audio : 6-channel (5.1) high-definition audio
USB Speakers
Communications : 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN (RJ-45 port)
Peripherals : eMachines® PS/2 keyboard and optical mouse
Ports/Other : 9 - USB 2.0 (5 front, 4 rear)
2 - PS/2 (keyboard and mouse)
1 - VGA
5 - Audio jacks
1 - Headphone jack (front)
1 - Microphone jack (front)
1 - RJ-45 Ethernet
Dimensions : 10.4" H x 3.9" W x 14.6" D
Weight : 12 lbs. (system unit only)
Warranty6 : 1-year parts and labor limited warranty with toll-free tech support
Software :

* Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit
* Adobe® Flash® Player
* Adobe® Reader®
* CyberLink® PowerDVD™
* eMachines® Recovery Management
* Google Toolbar™
* Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 (60-day complimentary trial period)7
* Microsoft Works® 9.0
* Nero® 9 Essentials
* Norton Internet Security™ 20097
* WildTangent® demo games

Price : $298.00

Available at walmart for $298: http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.d...d=12347220

[outleradam]

btw... i bought this thing with windows 7, stuck a live cd in and have not regretted it once.

[prae5]

Seems nice enough for SD content, but is going to struggle with anything hd.

[Marbieskarb]

Here is the one that I had my eyes on....

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/...63&CatId=6

[outleradam]

That processor is a dual core 64 bit athalon with power scaling from 800 MHz to 1.8ghz

[outleradam]

To clairify, It handles HD just fine. It's not like you need an alienware for HD. You need a bit more then an xbox. This computer is faster then an xbox in power saving mode. Sd content uses about 10% processor

[biggles]

It kinda sucks it hasn't got a video card capable of decoding with VPDAU. It must struggle a bit with 1080P videos...

[xexe]

Also as modern dedicated HTPC go its a bit on the large side compared with say the Asrock 330 etc

[natethomas]

To clairify, It handles HD just fine. It's not like you need an alienware for HD. You need a bit more then an xbox. This computer is faster then an xbox in power saving mode. Sd content uses about 10% processor

I call bull. A 1.8 ghz processor (and a video card that can't do VDPAU) handling HD just fine? Are we talking about ultra low bitrate 720p video? Or HD xvid files?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...-_-Product

The Aspire is smaller, quieter, cheaper by $100, and CAN handle high bitrate 1080p (if you add an extra gig of ram). Even the harddrive is comparable.