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Television Media Hardware

MSI's Home Theatre PC Reviewed 134

Posted by Hemos from the look-pretty-sound-good dept.
VL writes "MSI, long time motherboard and video card manufacturer, has upped the ante somewhat with their MSI Entertainment and Gaming (MEGA 651) PC. Like other popular SFFs, the MEGA 651 is still "cube" in appearance, and offers support for fast CPUs and an AGP slot, but it has some unique ideas that target those specifically looking into building a Home Theater PC (HTPC). "
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MSI's Home Theatre PC Reviewed More

MSI's Home Theatre PC Reviewed

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  • What OS does it run? (Score:1, Insightful)

    by groove10 ( 266295 )
    I couldn't find that listed in the article. From the picture it appears that this box does not have a traditional monitor interface, so my hunch is that it's a linux box with a proprietary interface for the custom LCD they have.

    Looks interesting.
    • They tested it with Windows XP, but I don't think it comes bundled with the unit. At only $281, I don't think it includes any OS. As for a "traditional monitor interface," you can hook it up to a monitor (VGA out) or a television (TV out).

      The custom LCD, they say, only works when the system is powered off.

    • Re:What OS does it run? (Score:3, Informative)

      by shird ( 566377 )
      Take a look at a site with some better specs [msi.com.tw]. As you can see, its got the "designed for MS Windows" logo. Plus all the standard interfaces. The LCD screen is probably linked directly to the hardware CD player, so most likely isn't even exposed to software.

      Our local PC shop has had these in stock for a while. Pretty cool for a entertainment box, though probably not worth the cost.
      • Something which that link points out but doesnt appear to be very evident in the original link is the support for FM Radio by the box. This I think is one of the biggest features for such an entertainment machine, which is often overlooked by other setups.
    • It's just a box

      You chose the OS that you put on the system when you have chosen your CPU, hard disk, CD/DVD drive, memory etc.

  • What's the fuzz about? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by jabbadabbadoo ( 599681 ) on Monday August 04, 2003 @08:25AM (#6605101)
    My PC already has all those things. Rebranding, anyone?

    Cheeze.

    • did it cost you 200UKP for the barebones, and is it tiny and neat? if this was a post about a new linux distro, would you be saying "but mine does that already"? it's just a cool gadget, ok - a nice SFF box that you can buy to out-geek the guy with the shuttle cube
    • On the contrary, I think there's a real niche for something like this if executed correctly. The current generation have grown up around file sharing and electronic media, and for some being able to set up a system out of the box with no fiddling is an attractive and more natural proposition against a CD player seperate (which is it's likeley competitor, rather than a PC.)

      I guess the important thing is the price point. These devices can mainly add value in their convenience, something which we're only l

    • My PC already has all those things.


      From what I have read it can play you MP3s and CDs via the box's front interface whilst the OS isn't booted, which I'd of thought your PC would have trouble doing...

      I'm not sure of the value of that function, but I can think of student and family scenarios where that would be useful...

    • My PC has all of those things too, and is in a nice 19" rackmount chassis in the AV rack along with the CD Player, Laserdisc Player, VCR, Tape Deck, Receiver, Pro Logic Decoder, etc, etc, etc.

      Granted, it doesn't operate perfectly mainly on account of my not really knowing what I'm doing, but the form factor of this thing is just asinine. A nice 3U height case would be perfect, 17" wide (with an available 19" ears kit), black to match my AV stuff, with front Svideo and Component inputs like VCRs. This t

  • Old news (Score:4, Informative)

    by gvdkamp ( 139273 ) * on Monday August 04, 2003 @08:26AM (#6605108) Homepage Journal
    M.S.I. already announced this Product during the CeBit in March...

    See their Press Release [msi.com.tw]

  • Shame they don't use one (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 04, 2003 @08:26AM (#6605115)
    ... to run their webserver, that could use a fast CPU right now. /.ed with one comment. That's embarrassing.

  • Cube? (Score:5, Funny)

    by diospadre ( 244392 ) on Monday August 04, 2003 @08:27AM (#6605127)
    You gotta love how companies like Shuttle, MSI, and Nintendo are slowly changing the definition of the word cube into "randomly sized box."

    Then again, the movie changed it to "crap", so maybe this is a good thing.

    • Re:Cube? (Score:4, Funny)

      by Ominous Coward ( 106252 ) on Monday August 04, 2003 @08:41AM (#6605239)
      I'd say that the GameCube is about as close to a cube as any console's ever come. GameSlightlyOffACubePlusHandle is a bit too long of a machine name.

      Do Shuttle and MSI call their SFF boxes cubes, or was that the article's author calling them cubes?
    • Are refering to the little Canadian 'Cube' movie, wherein a bunch of people are stuck inside a giant cube-like death-trap? Cause that was a great little movie. The sequel " Cube Squared: Hypercube" sucked though.
    • Can I have mine in Hypercube form, please?

    • Re:Cube? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by gid ( 5195 ) on Monday August 04, 2003 @09:26AM (#6605624) Homepage
      No where on Shuttle's site do they refer to any of their XPCs as "cubes". That's the slashdot story submiter's label.

      I do wonder why they make HTPC's cubiod in shape. I'd much rather have one the size of an amplifier or dvd player and black that's designed to fit in my stereo rack, not grey and stick out like a sore thumb, screaming "HEY, I'M AN UGLY, NOISY, GREY COMPUTER, LOOK AT ME".

      • Re:Cube? (Score:3, Informative)

        by mydigitalself ( 472203 )
        you may want to look at someline along the lines of this [hushtechnologies.net]. although its a bit pricey for my liking...
      • I agree... I have standard formfactor audio-equipment and I would like my HTPC to be the same. Now it's a black ATX Midi-tower case standing next to my stereo and it looks like shit... but I'm looking into getting myself a black 19" rack, but I find them a little pricey still... But well, maybe I run into a cheap 19"-rack and have to paint it myself... we'll see

  • But does it run MythTV? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by laird ( 2705 ) <lairdp@gmaSLACKWAREil.com minus distro> on Monday August 04, 2003 @08:29AM (#6605138) Journal
    This looks like pretty hardware (aside from the pathetic lack of TV in/out in a "home theater" PC) ... but the million dollar question is whether it will run MythTV (www.mythtv.org), the open source TiVo-like system? MythTV is a fantastic project, but it's pretty picky about the hardware it will run on.

    I only made it two pages into the review before the site was slashdotted, so apologies if they documented the software later in the review...

    • pathetic lack of TV in/out in a "home theater" PC

      Not sure about TV out, but it has TV in if you want it. Read the chart on the first page:
      TV Tuner Function MS-8606 TV Tuner Card (Optional)


      RTA.
      • I _did_ read the article. I still think it's lame that in a home theatre PC you still can't get TV in/out built in, but have to use up _both_ of your slots to add them. Vendors should build in the things that everyone will use, and for a HTPC tv in/out should be standard...
    • As its basically just a fancy-form-factor PC, complete with AGP slot, both of your problems could be solved.

      They were testing it with Windows XP, but there's nothing to stop you dropping in an appropriately featured AGP video card and running MythTV, Linux or anything else you fancied. Personally, I'm thinking that a MAME bootdisk coupled with decent USB joypad would be quite natty for it.
    • MythTV is a fantastic project,

      Sounds good :)

      but it's pretty picky about the hardware it will run on.

      Sounds bad

      a bit of a contradiction...
    • Myth TV sure *looks* good, but the idea of doing a Linux distro, X, and then MythTV sounds like way too much nuisance compared to just buying a Tivo (which I already own) or even a DVD recorder.

      I'd pay $100 for a install-from-CD distro designed to do MythTV. I'm sure some people insist on it being everything from a web server to an email gateway, too, but I'd care only for the Myth TV functionality.

      Is anything coming down the pike like this, a home-media OS package designed to be put in a standard stereo
      • I agree. I've been considering setting up a little side business to pre-build MythTV hardware/software. What doyou think?

        I'd agree with your comment -- if you're worried about having to fiddle with things, you should just get a TiVo -- it "just works" while the MythTV is a fair amount of work to set up.

        As an aside, MythTV actually does have a web server built in (so you can manage recordings while you're not home, etc.). Don't know about mail, though it might be cool (come to think of it) to have it email
        • I'd want MythTV for the total flexibility it would provide, including the ability to write DVD-Rs, copy raw MPEGs and that kind of thing that Tivo can't do.

          Even the mail sending and web interface (especially this) would have a lot of use (remote schdeduling, program downloads, etc). When I referred to email server and web server in my previous post, I was kind of knocking the people who would INSIST that because it's Linux, it must also continue to be a general purpose server platform.

          Maybe I would too,

    • MythTV is a fantastic project

      Well, that's complete and total bull... You must never have used it.

      http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=73411&cid=6603 612 [slashdot.org]

      but it's pretty picky about the hardware it will run on.

      You lost me... As long as you have a V4L compatible Tuner card, and a videocard that supports XV, what the hell else do you need? Feel free to tell me what MythTV has been "picky about" in your experience.

      • Actually, I've built a couple of MythTV boxes, and I've been running it on a dedicated box of my own for two months now, and I'll stand by what I said. It's a fantatic project.

        Yes, it's not completely consumer ready yet (it should manage disk space better, a change which is in CVS but not a packaged release yet) but it's astoundingly good for anyone who likes fiddling with these sorts of things.

        And in building MythTV's, I've found that it's very picky about the TV tuner card (Only the Hauppauge 250 and 35

        • I've found that it's very picky about the TV tuner card (Only the Hauppauge 250 and 350 work constently,

          Hang on, those are hardware MPEG-2 encoding cards... That's entirely different. First of all, MythTV accesses them directly, rather than using V4L like it would with normal TV cards (so it's not surprising it's picky about them). Also, you probably managed to avoid all the problems that MythTV has by not needing to use Myth for the encoding...

          Still, even if you manage to avoid Myth's encoding problem

  • Huhhhh? (Score:5, Funny)

    by GeneralEmergency ( 240687 ) on Monday August 04, 2003 @08:30AM (#6605146) Journal
    "The speakers are each rated for 3W RMS"

    Has Richard Stallman become so noisy that they've named a unit of measure after him? 8^)

    .

    • Re:Huhhhh? (Score:3, Informative)

      by Slack3r78 ( 596506 )
      You may already have known this and just used this as an opportunity to crack an RMS joke, but for those that don't - RMS is one of several ways that the maximum output of a piece of stereo equipment is rated. In general RMS is the rating you want to look for - basically think of it as how loud you can crank them before the signal starts to distort.

      It's especially important to watch for this with computer speakers as manufacturers have a tendency to rate these units with PMPO which makes the units sound f

      • Re:Huhhhh? (Score:4, Informative)

        by dillkvast ( 657246 ) on Monday August 04, 2003 @09:22AM (#6605597)
        basically think of it as how loud you can crank them before the signal starts to distort

        Actually RMS = Root Mean Square. Usually one would see time variant voltages and currents given in RMS values or amplitude value. The RMS value is the DC value that would yeild the same powerdissipation in an ohmic load as the time variant signal does. For pure harmonic signals the RMS value is A/sqrt(2) where A is the amplitude value. RMS has noting to do with distortion, but simply denotes the power that would be dissipated in a pure ohmic load.

        The speaker and amp manufacturers are very creative when it comes to power values, and you should be more critical that just looking for the three letters RMS.
        • Ah, I'm just a dumb guitarist. With guitar amps, I've always heard it refered to as the maximum load before signal distortion begins to occur. The two might be related, or I might just have been mislead. =)

          • Re:Huhhhh? (Score:3, Informative)

            by dillkvast ( 657246 )
            Ah, I'm just a dumb guitarist. With guitar amps, I've always heard it refered to as the maximum load before signal distortion begins to occur. The two might be related, or I might just have been mislead. =)

            There will always be some distortion. The value to look for is THD which states the total harmonic distortion i percent (at some power value). When a system isn't perfectly linear (which no physical system is) in responce it will add unwantet harmonic components. THD is the power of the unwantetd compon

            • There might be some standard way to specify RMS values which implies some THD value, but i wouldt trust that blindly.

              I think that may be the case, as similarly rated equipment that I've heard seems to have about equal output levels. But this is only anecdotal and obviously in no way scientific.

              And thanks for the info. While I wrote myself off as "a dumb guitarist," EE is one of (far too many) fields that I have an interest in, so I'm always more than happy to learn what I can. =)

      • RMS is one of several ways that the maximum output of a piece of stereo equipment is rated.

        You were going to actually explain what RMS stands for, and what the term means, right?

        Shamelessly ripped from whatis.com [whatis.com]:

        root-mean-square

        Also see peak and peak-to-peak.

        In a direct current (DC) circuit, voltage or current is simple to define, but in an alternating current (AC) circuit, the definition is more complicated, and can be done in several ways. Root-mean-square (rms) refers to the most common mathemati
    • The speakers are each rated for 3W RMS

      In other news, the CPU runs at a rip-snorting 12.3 Mhz, and the Hard disk has an impressive 10Mb storage capacity

  • want one? (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 04, 2003 @08:31AM (#6605149)
    Get it barebones for $279 at Zeus PC [zeuspc.com]...

  • I wonder... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by i8urtaco ( 663163 ) on Monday August 04, 2003 @08:32AM (#6605160)
    When and if these things will replace the more traditional "home theater in a box" sets, and if so, does that mean that companies like RCA or Panasonic will move away from making propietary components in favor of making "small pc's in a box that can be used for a home theater"? Will this force these companies to make a switch to small pc manufacturers?

  • The noise... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Basje ( 26968 ) <bas@bloemsaat.org> on Monday August 04, 2003 @08:34AM (#6605169) Homepage
    What I'm interested is not so much how it looks, but how much noise it makes. Do how does it hold up??

    It's really spoiling the fun when you're watching a DVD and are distracted by the fans trying to cool an overheating proc in a cool looking but hot running too small enclosure.

    The fact that a fan deaf overclocker tells me it's quiet isn't really informative.
    • Have you looked at the Mac ? Serious ability without the noise. I have not owned one yet but I am thinking about getting one next especially now they run *nix.
    • never had a Real home theatre have you? The fans running in my Overhead projector are quite loud.

      what is the solution?

      turn up the Volume. if you crank it up a little bit that fan overhead and the fans in the bottom of my equipment rack dont ruin any movie or DVD and I nor anyone coming over become easily destracted by a constand low whirr..

      fans are a part of life, if you have a projector for the real theatre experience you can never get away from the fan noise... so something making noise way over in
    • I don't think you will be watching a DVD on this 'media PC'. I didn't see anything in the specs about it having a DVD drive.

      Personally, I think this is your typical cheapy .tw fleamarket-ish product that will appeal to people who do not understand what they are buying. To those people, I can see this quickly becoming a CD just an expensive CD player.

      I priced out building a miniATX entertainment system with quality parts and water or peltier cooling for noise concerns. Using a Lian Li miniATX desktop case,
      • I don't think you will be watching a DVD on this 'media PC'. I didn't see anything in the specs about it having a DVD drive.

        Well, I didn't see anything in the main article myself, as it was Slashdotted before I could get to it, but if you'd have followed the link to Zeus computers posted earlier in this thread ( here [zeuspc.com]), you'd have seen that it indeed does support an "optical drive". Last I checked, DVD drives were indeed optical.

        I priced out building a miniATX entertainment system... the price works out

        • I just live by the "You get what you pay for" theory; Five finger discounts excluded.

          It just sounds like there's a lot of stuff here that likely doesn't tie in together all that well. Low price == cheap parts. I could be wrong here, but would be interested in some feedback from someone who owns one of these things.

      • The only area I've not done much reading on is how to set it up to boot 'n go. I am assuming there are media linux distros that boot up and go straight to a nice media gui.

        Two of the most popular Linux-based PVR's are Freevo and MythTV.

        http://freevo.sourceforge.net/
        http://www.mytht v.org/

    • It's really spoiling the fun when you're watching a DVD and are distracted by the fans trying to cool an overheating proc

      When I was trying to quiet the fans in my router at home I tried a number of things: underclocking so I could remove the CPU fan, rubber vibration dampers, flash-memory storage instead of disks, etc.

      However, one of the most surprisingly effective measures that I took to reduce noise was to remove the little guard that covers the outside entrance of the PSU fan. You wouldn't think it wo
    • I have to wonder why so many people are concerned about noise in an HTPC.

      My HTPC has a 6 drive RAID array and 9 cooling fans with just under a terabyte of storage. It runs fairly cool for all it does (HDTV decoding and recording, media library, analog video capture, MP3 serving). Yet you can't hear it at all in the home theater.

      Why? Because it's in another room. Seriously folks, just stick your HTPC in a closet and run long cables. Even at 75 feet, 1080i HDTV carried over component video looks amazin

  • So that's a "cube" is it? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Dj ( 224 ) on Monday August 04, 2003 @08:36AM (#6605192) Homepage
    In other news, world found to be flat, balls no longer spheres, /. duplicate postings declared square.

  • Been around a while... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by tbase ( 666607 ) on Monday August 04, 2003 @08:37AM (#6605201)
    I've seen this at Computer Geeks [compgeeks.com] for some time now. Even better, they also have it at newegg [newegg.com].

    Pretty cool how you can use the radio, CD and mp3 playing capabilities without booting up the PC. But they say due to the proprietary nature (I assume they're talking about these features) that only MSI optical drives a guaranteed to work.
    • Support Contact: Geeks

      I love the sense of humor folks at newegg have these days. I'd offer a complaint that this doesn't help Joe AverageUser, but it's a "geek special," so I guess it doesn't matter.

      • Actually, you're reading that from the Computer Geeks web site - newegg is the second link. The support contact listed on the Computer Geeks web site means they supply support. Sorry for the confusion.

        Pricing aside (newegg is about $20 cheaper), having dealt with both, I'd recommend newegg for the speed they get items out. I haven't had to deal with Computer Geeks customer service, but newegg's is unbeatable.
  • Due to proprietary mechanical design, MSI only guarantees the compatibility of the MEGA PC with MSI's own Optical Storage Devices:
    DVD-ROM: MSI 16x DVD-ROM (MS-8216)
    CD-RW: MSI 52x24x52 CD-RW (MS-CR52-A2)

    Sorry, but the word 'proprietary' gives me a not-so-fresh feeling. Yes, it's good that there's competition to Shuttle's XPC, but I consider this to be a huge strike against the MEGA 651. Especially considering how similar the feature sets and prices for each SFF box are.

    • Re:Propreitary CD-Rx/DVD-Rx only? No thanks. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by RMH101 ( 636144 ) on Monday August 04, 2003 @08:47AM (#6605303)
      I'd presume this is because the opto drive has to be able to spin up and be controlled without the PC being on - this probably either uses some new features on the drive, or more likely depends on some ones in the standard that other manufacturer's have since dropped.
      It'll only affect the cool "play CDs with the PC off" bit, nothing else. It's not imposing DRM on your MP3's*

      ric

      obSlashdotAntiMS: "We'll leave the OS to do that"

  • Well with any hardware... (Score:5, Informative)

    by AntiPasto ( 168263 ) on Monday August 04, 2003 @08:39AM (#6605218) Journal
    ... you can make an HTPC. There are lots of projects out there... (isn't there a linux distro for a media jukebox?)

    For Windows, check out myHTPC [myhtpc.net]... I've been playing with that for some time. Its got a good community, getting ready for a second generation, and works well with my older ATI all-in wonder! Quite a fun thing to do, and my wife appreciates the outcome!

  • What about component video? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ShadeARG ( 306487 ) on Monday August 04, 2003 @08:41AM (#6605241)
    It amazes me how every time a HTPC is mentioned, it always lacks compenent video output. This is the year of HD after all, let's make use of it.
    • ATI's upper-end All-in-Wonder cards have a component/HDTV add-on you can purchase for like $30. AFAIK, there is no other video card that supports component output. Maybe one of the high-end cards from Hauppauge?
      • I was thinking more along the lines of integrated component video. There are VGA to component converters around, but they cost between $130-175 USD. It just really surprises me that it hasn't been done yet.
    • Its certainly a valid point - after all, I despair at the fact that DScaler does such a stunning job at deinterlacing on the fly from my laserdisc player, but is effectively useless for any of my other components which output RGB thought Scart. This is for input, though.

      But many (most?) HD displays will take your traditional 15-pin VGA connector without complaint, so component out isn't the biggie for me on output that input is.
    • To me, an HTPC really means:

      HDTV in/out
      video recording for HDTV and normal TV.
      Component or RGB out (for projectors)
      component in and built in line doubler (for progressive out from video devices that do not support progressive).

      An HTPC should offer features well above those of normal devices like TIVO, not make you wonder if you should buy a TIVO and an A/V receiver instead.
    • It has AGP and PCI slots, I'd of thought it could be added later?

      I think people are over shooting who this is aimed at - I think the majority of it's sales will be OEM, to people who were buying a PC and for a bit more money get the cute 'lifestyle' features - the component people will buy different case/mobos which specifically hit their needs...

    • It amazes me how every time a HTPC is mentioned, it always lacks compenent video output.

      Now would be a good time to thank the MPAA and RIAA for all they have done for us.
    • More important I would say is an NTSC/PAL video output that does NOT consist of a scan converter hooked up to the regular VGA video card. NTSC/PAL and HDTV have vastly different signal requirements than VGA (interlacing, YCbCr vs RGB, etc). A scan converter will produce some sort of approximation of a real NTSC/PAL signal, but if you compare e.g. a DVD playing through a VGA scan converter against the component or S-video out from a set-top DVD player, the VGA out looks like a poor imitation.

      I would love to
    • Component is so last year. DVI is the way to go for HD.

  • Color (Score:3, Informative)

    by slaker ( 53818 ) on Monday August 04, 2003 @08:46AM (#6605291)
    All my stereo components have a matte black or champagne finish. Not only that but they all mount in a 19" rack, especially the HTPC.

    I like the shoebox formfactor but if MSI is serious about it as a home theater component, they could at least go with a similar color scheme. Or maybe just less orange.
  • With all the computer equipment in the family room, I already need ear protection.

    Fan on the Replay TV, fan on the Playstation, Fan on the 4 computers at the desk, Fan in the stereo, fan on the damn DVD player...

    I'm going deaf, but they want to protect the electronics in the $45 DVD player...

    snip snip... turn AC up a bit...
  • In typical /. fashion, I haven't RTFA, but are there any plans for an AMD based unit? While I understand that the P4 performs better when it comes to MPEG4 encoding, the fact remains that as of this posting, the cheapest 533MHz FSB P4 I'm pricing is a 2.4GHz at $164, which doesn't help those of us looking to build a similar unit on the cheap.

    One of these things with, say, a $70 XP 2200+ slapped in it could make for a very nice set top multimedia box for a relatively low amout of outlay.
  • at first i thought this was a nicely packaged cheap computer with an fm tuner......
    now it looks like a poorly packaged cheap computer with an fm tuner....nothing that couldn't be built easily for less.

  • Argh! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Dark Lord Seth ( 584963 ) on Monday August 04, 2003 @09:13AM (#6605522) Journal
    Without a subwoofer, there simply isn't enough bass to make music listening, let alone gaming, sound convincing.

    Let's face it, floppy drives are useless

    Yes, it sounds unbelievable, but there are a lot of people without broadband

    Something useful, like displaying music info or system temperatures would have been nice

    Did anyone else laugh so hard they had to cry? The worthless comparative graphs were amusing too. Seriously though... Some people should be removed from the internet and never, EVER, be allowed to touch a computer again. The internet is a wonderful thing in the way it grants everyone the oppurtunity to make oneself heard. Sadly, this also applies to politicians, overclockers, script kiddies and other subhumans :(

  • ugly ugly ugly (Score:3, Funny)

    by BobTheLawyer ( 692026 ) on Monday August 04, 2003 @09:18AM (#6605558)
    it looks like the worst of 80s hi-fi designs, complete with garish colour scheme (orange!) and pointlessly large LCD display.

    The standard black hi-fi units are boring, but this is actively offensive.

    Great idea, though.
    • This is slightly off-topic, but what about a 1U or 2U rackmount case from Antec or such? I figure that would be great to slip a HTPC into, and then put feet on it, and slip it in there with the DVD Player and Radio-Amp.

      I figure using a rackmount design, you'd get that nice black you want, and you can put the hardware you want in there, hell, you could even have a dual CPU redhat box serving a web site, and playing back DVD's at the same time >-)

  • Good Review (Score:3, Informative)

    by danielems ( 694042 ) on Monday August 04, 2003 @09:20AM (#6605583)


    see Tom's Hardware Guide [tomshardware.com] for a really good review of this HTPC and three others.

  • Bad shape for a HTPC (Score:5, Informative)

    by Genjurosan ( 601032 ) on Monday August 04, 2003 @09:24AM (#6605609)
    First, the shape of the unit is terrible for a HTPC.. it would barely fit in most HT racks. A HTPC should conform to the fat and wide standard that every other home entertainment device has for ages. Yes Virginia, there is a reason they all look generally the same!

    Second, it only has a 200W power supply!!!!! Umm.. my AIW 9700 Pro just about eats up all of that. That is VERY lacking when it comes to power supplies these days.

    Third, What the hell is this statement about?

    "Due to proprietary mechanical design, MSI only guarantees the compatibility of the MEGA PC with MSI's own Optical Storage Devices:
    DVD-ROM: MSI 16x DVD-ROM (MS-8216)
    CD-RW: MSI 52x24x52 CD-RW (MS-CR52-A2)"

    Some how CD drives and DVD-ROM(not an optical storage device, it's an optical read device) can't be trusted to work since the shape of the system is different? Uhhh... that's a load of crap.

    Fourth, It's a bit unclear if the annoyingly bright screen will be on when playing a DVD. The author of the article seems to think that HTPC users want an obnoxious screen dancing and doing other crap? Uhhhh... no.

    In summary, this guy and MSI both seem to be missing the point. I quote, "If you're gaming...." Also, he doesn't ever actually integrate the unit into a HT setup, nor does he actually playback a DVD (according to article).

    This box seems better suited to be a fancy media player and not a HTPC. Anyone can take a look over at avsforum and realize that the HTPC should be silent and inconspicous.

    FYI, my HTPC is also my working PC(which isn't my desire); however, it's in a different room. My HT has zero exposed units... all you see is the TV and the speakers. Now if I had all my units near my TV, I wouldn't pick this unit as an HTPC.

    • Re:Bad shape for a HTPC (Score:4, Informative)

      by dat00ket ( 249468 ) on Monday August 04, 2003 @10:10AM (#6606077) Homepage
      "Some how CD drives and DVD-ROM(not an optical storage device, it's an optical read device) can't be trusted to work since the shape of the system is different? Uhhh... that's a load of crap."

      Not crap. MSI drives have the added feature of being able to play CDs/DVDs without the computer being turned on. A very useful feature for a living room style computer used as a DVD player and stereo. A feature not all drives have, so this isn't just a pathetic attempt to make you buy their products.

      • Informative yes; however, I feel that most people that work with HTPCs also have a few large hard drives and have ripped their own movies to disk. This way we can output these movies in 1080i and put the ever growing collection of discs away in a closet.

        A HTPC is much more than a simple DVD drive. If that were all it was for, then I'd simply stick with a DVD player and be done with it.

        BTW, I still think it's crap. Why would they go as far to say that the warranty wouldn't be honored if you placed a non
    • You're reviewing a home theater pc. You don't hook it up to a home theater system. The home theater pc doesn't come with a tv out. Uh..... I don't get it. Who is this review supposed to help? And how is this intended as a home theater pc?
    • AlienWare sells a Shuttle based system that has a 200 watt power supply as well, and I wouldn't consider them to be that stupid when it comes to building rigs.
      Could it be that having most of the hardware integrated into the mainboard that used to require PCI slots uses less power?
    • Sudhian has a forum dedicated to HTPCs only.

      HTPC forum [sudhian.com].

      There are some good HiFi like cases like the CoolerMaster ATC 600,610, 620 and 630 [coolermaster.com].
      The LianLi 9100, 9300, 9320 and 9400 [lian-li.com] are fine as well.

      The other forums at Sudhian are interesting as well if you into XPC and similiar stuff.

      Bye egghat.

  • From an owner... (Score:4, Informative)

    by CerealFan ( 459175 ) on Monday August 04, 2003 @09:38AM (#6605722)
    (I can't get to this article, it's been /.ed, so I don't know how much of this is a repeat.) My friend and I ordered one just before it came out about 2.5 months ago and we got it after a few weeks of delays. The orange version is the Intel, and an AMD version is slated to come out (I'm pretty sure it will be green). The fan goes out the side, not the back like an XPC, but other than that it's a normal computer and can use any CD/DVD drive. The cords are cut to exactly the right lengths which makes assembling less than fun, for example, you need to mount the hard drive upside down.

    The proprietary drives that they mention is so that you can play radio/audio CD/MP3 CD when the power to the computer part is off - the small amount of power that is drawn while the computer is plugged in is kept in a small area and used for the optical drives at low speeds, the LCD display in the front, and the audio. Those MSI drives that they recommend just use very little power (and give them more $$$).

    We had it set up to act like a Windows Tivo (ATI AiW)/jukebox/internet console with a wireless network and monitor output (display 1) and directly to a tv (display 2) which worked really well (especially with ZoomPlayer), and we're going to try to put Linux on it next week or so along with MythTV. (The manual says that future versions will come with MSI's own media player/tv recorder software.)

    It's pretty quiet and sitting in an air conditioned room - and thus hasn't overheated yet, but a review we saw before mentioned that cooling was definitely an issue. The PCI cards go directly in front of the cpu fan (brilliant) but if you get half-height cards it probably wouldn't be an issue at all.

    The best part is that it looks much more like a home theater component than the XPC, but I think it was about US$50 more than a top Shuttle.

    • The orange version is the Intel, and an AMD version is slated to come out (I'm pretty sure it will be green).

      Does that mean the AMD version is decaf? Or is it the other way around? I never can remember...

  • Interesting but Disappointing (Score:5, Interesting)

    by truffle ( 37924 ) on Monday August 04, 2003 @09:40AM (#6605740) Homepage

    Like many geeks I'm interested in getting some kind of component PC to handle my audio and video. This product is interesting, but it doesn't quite provide what's needed (which doesn't detract from the product, just means it doesn't meet my needs).

    I'm looking for a component PC that:
    - runs linux (not some customized version, just regular debian)
    - has audio and svideo in/out
    - has cute little component system type nobs and a remote
    - plays my mp3 collection and can be controlled by the remote
    - plays my video collection and can be controlled by the remote
    - can record video to the hard disk like a PVR or ideally a TiVo (ideally with an mpeg4 encoder built in)

    I think we're close but I haven't seen something that quite does this. In particular I think the missing component is runs debian and integrates with remote. This may seem a bit weird but, besides all the audio and video stuff, I expect to do a lot more with my linux PC and I don't want to be stuck with non-debian linux.

  • Can be found here [sfftech.com] (SFF standing for Small Form Factor).

    They also have information on similiar machines and busy forums which have probably already answered the questions being thrown around here, plus some cool user mods and paint jobs...

  • Their tech support is not very "good", their (un)official forums are filled with generic RTF-FAQ written by semi-official MSI mods, but I guess they are doing their best. Just make sure you don't get on MSI's case or they'll remove your messages, and delete your account.

    From experience:
    CRC problems with KT400 mbs, being blamed on VIA chipset (at least the problem is acknowledged), and still not fix satisfactory after 3/4 years. The "fix" was to slow down the ide bus. Why not product recall!
    AMD rec
  • Anyone care to compare this with the Shuttle SN41G2? I've been considering one of these, although the price ($329 at Fry's) seems a little high. Still, the Shuttle comes with Nvidia video with SVGA TV-out, which is fairly appealing. The one thing I've been wondering is if it's easy/possible to use remotes with Linux.

  • Not a home theater box (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Lets face it, without tv out, dvi and/or component out this is simply another un-cube pc.

    My extensive experiences with these are that they're loud, hot, and hard to work in. My last experiment with a shuttle based unit was horrible. It ran way too hot and the noise overwhelmed the low sound passages on movies. I removed the cover from the power supply for circulation and pulled the power supply fan that was screaming. No dice, the power supply died a month later. Proprietary replacement supply was ove
  • This is nice but, I wish systems like this would come prebuilt with PVR capabilities. They are starting to put some very nice Home theater computers on the market but they are all bear bones. Lets see something that comes with the hardware needed for PVR.

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