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EXACTLY... I can't believe you were the first person here to realize this

Though I think it's even more simple then that... _DRM_
The problem with OSs like Windows Media Center is that it's just too damn locked down out of the box it can only play propriatary formats if you want to play anything else people have to hunt down codecs and it still complains/wants to convert everything. I would imagine that if apple ever came out with anything they'd want everything converted to their own propriatary formats. The only USEFUL media center PCs are those based on OSS or hacks such as MythTV or Xbox Media Center.

I think cost and appearance also add to it as well. If dropping $1500 on a new LCD is a big deal then dropping that much on a Media Center PC that's fairly locked down in it's capabilities is just stupid. An HD-DVD player is a big investment in the home-theater world and it's only $500, to a consumer a simple device to play music and video files and browse the web should be LESS then that.

As for Appearance home theater people don't want some hulking plastic PC tower sitting in their rack.. heck they don't even FIT properly in a home theater rack. There are companies that make NICE HTPC cases that properly fit in that domain, like Ahanix or Silverstone. I've got an Ahanix MC302 in Black housing a Xbox Media Center and it looks right at home with other Hi-Fi equipment... I woudln't know where to put a PC tower... there's no place for it in my home theater rack.

Maybe I have pretty high standards, but I want a PVR/HTPC to fit in with my HiFi equipment and TV. I thought these four were rather ugly, to be honest.

I quite like the Accent HT-400 http://www.arisetec.com/products/HT-400.htm, or some of the silverstone cases http://www.silverstonetek.com/product-case.htm, or perhaps (although personally there's something about this last that doesn't feel quite right) the http://www.ahanix.com/dvine5.html.

I'm surprised the reviewer stuck to some of the major case makers in the review (Antec, Lian Li).

HTPC's, IMHO, are still very much a niche product, and the specialty case makers like a Silverstone or Ahanix would seem more appropriate.

The review focused on some of the bigger cases out there - when you realize how big the assortment is to choose from, from mini-ITX to slimline to full size, there are quite a number of choices out there.

My Tivo made more noise than my Myth frontenend does.

unable to record more than one digital channel at once, and you'll still need a cable/satellite receiver to record digital at all

If you use DirecTV with HD then yes the Tivo wins. But you know, there's this big thing out there called the world and DirecTivo is only available in one tiny part of that.

terrible form factor

I assume you're referring to the case? If so I'd have to disagree.

clunky user interface

Spoken like someone who's never used the MythTV interface.

limited epg (electronic program guide)

And here's where we realize you realy don't have a clue what you're talking about. Myth gets it's data from the same source as Tivo. Their EPG provides more information than Tivo's does to the user. Then combine that with the fact that Tivo isn't available in many countries an thus has NO EPG....

For most people I would recommend just buying a tivo or something off the shelf like that, but if you're a true geek you're going to want a mythtv system. I spent about ~$1,000 total on mine, but it's the nicest PVR me or my friends have ever come across. It's actually more of a media center than just a PVR. Here's the basic setup..

First I didnt want some clunky beige case sitting beside my TV looking akward, so I opted for a home theater PC case, specifically this one.

I've got two Hauppauge PVR-500's, which are dual tuner cards, so I have a total of 4 tuners (this way I can record 4 different shows at once if they happen to be broadcast simultaneosly. This comes in handy durin g prime time when you would otherwise be forced to pick between different shows.

The rest of the hardware is nothing special, a soyo kt400 mb, 512M ram, athlon 2100+, and a geForce fx 5200. Not a top of the line system by any means, but not bad at all. Probably overkill for doing the PVR stuff, but I do alot more with it than just that.

The software is where it really gets interesting. I use gentoo on most of my machines, and this one was no different, mythtv as well as several plugins are already in portage and installed hassle free. MythTV acts as my front end to TV, weather, DVD's/Movies, Games, etc. I scripted a little GTK frontend to all my emulators and roms, so my PVR is also a NES, SNES, SMS, N64, PSX, etc. (now you see why I needed that GeForce :P) It server as my fileserver and mp3 jukebox, and can stream all of it's data (video,tv,music) to any other PC in my house. I can browse tv listings and schedule show recordings through a web interface from anywhere.

So all in all I spent about 4 times more than a Tivo and got about 20 times more out of it. Not a bad deal I'd say...

The article is a nice start. For getting the lay of the land, I like the enthusiast sites like Tom's Hardware, AnandTech, and ExtremeTech. Silent PC Review shows some nice components for building silent PCs.

Usually, I buy CPUs that are not the latest (better bang/buck) but couple them with the new motherboards, decent (but not overextravagant) memory, and a nice video/TV card like the ATI All-in-wonder series. It's difficult to get the latest ATI A-I-W card from the stock computer builders. If you don't do excessive gaming, you can opt for slightly less CPU and a lower power ATI A-I-W; that will help you build a more silent computer. Building your own also lets you try out the better cases, so there's less Apple envy. Cool cases can be had from places like Ahanix, Lian Li, and Nexus (check out both the iStyle and Breeze cases).

I hope you can return whatever ugly case you bought, because there are some pretty nice looking ones out there... you just have to look really really hard.

Cases:
Silverstone LC09 (Mini-ITX)
Ahanix D4
Soldam Alphia

Barebones:
Shuttle SB86i

Complete PC:
Hush

Most of these are not as cool looking as my Mac Mini, but then, you wouldn't be limited to 1.43GHz G4 and laptop hard drives.

I've used their minitower designs(Noblesse) for a conventional PC, and wouldnt hesitate to use something from Ahanix. Not a lot of slim design, but appears to be about the size of a ATX desktop case.

Ahanix has some nice machines as well with a more living-room-appropriate form factor. My sister has one and says the only drawback is the noise from the CPU fan. So I guess I'll be chalking up for a Pentium M motherboard. Anyway, here's the Ahanix link: http://www.ahanix.com/ahanix_product.asp?pid=8 Another thing that turned me off to the S-Preso is that it only has one expansion slot. If I want a high-end sound AND high-end graphics card.... I'm out of luck.

http://www.atechfabrication.com/

http://www.ahanix.com/

http://www.silverstonetek.com/

Kanam has some nice cases, but I can't seem to be able to find their website any longer. However, you can buy Kanam cases from a number of places, like:

http://www.digitalconnection.com/Products/Cases/ht 400.asp

The Hush case can't be bought by itself. Same goes for a similar case from another German manufacturer - Mappit. I had a Hoojum Cubit 3. Very pretty, but limited, due to poor ventilation and of course, small size.

• Antec
• Silverstone - if getting an HTPC case, be careful to get one that doesn't have cooling problems with your CPU of choice. HTPC cases with higher numbers in their names are generally better at cooling.
• Travla
• Ahanix
• XOxide carries their own brand of cases, plus a lot of the other ones on this list.
• Arisetec (formerly Kanam)
• CoolerMaster
• Logic Supply

On their homepage they say that "Dvine 6 supports Micro ATX motherboard, three 3.5-inch storage devices and two 5.25 inch optical devices." ... With three drives you can get quite far :)

Odd, my Myth box looks a lot better than my Tivo, both in it's UI and the box itself. Take a little time to research the various PVR packages, most of them offer themable UIs that look a LOT better than a Tivo.

As for a complex installation... I guess inserting a CD into a drive could be considered complex for some.

Personally, the integrated Music Player, TV recorder/viewer, web interface(and this is the killer app for me) for scheduling recordings make the hassles worth it. Even bought myself a JP1 remote that I reprogrammed so it controls everything seemlessly so my girlfriend faction has increased greatly in the past month or so.

Getting back to the Ahanix cases, they have several different models with different sizes most with a LCD display(HD44870) that can be used by mythtv if you have lcdproc installed. If you are looking for a HTPC, check them out.

Tom's Hardware has a few PSU roundups (older, newer) which include noise level testing... as you can see, other "silent" PSUs are much louder than 14db (nor do said PSUs even claim to be that quiet). At best, you're talking about PSU's doing 25 (low load) to 33db (full load), and they tend to get louder as the wattage rating increases. All SilenX PSUs (I believe they go up to 600watta) are rated around 11.5 (minimum) to 14 (maximum) db. So it really is a big difference. I know my "silent" PSU which is around 30db is -much- louder than my 80mm case fan which claims to be 20db.

Anyhow, literally EVERY SilenX review I've read has said they a) really are quiet (much quieter than other "silent" PSUs, apparently) and b) are very high quality.

Also note that you have to buy them from www.silenx.com or (soon) NewEgg. You'll see "SilenX 14db" PSUs on Pricewatch and such, but they are imposter PSUs of inferior build made by a company named Ahanix, whom SilenX is currently involved in lawsuits with regarding this issue, and whose site is a blatant rip-off of Samsung's.

Divine, it's not cheap but it sure looks nice.

I put an Iceberg I in my kids' Athlon XP 1900+ in the first part of September. It worked great for almost three months and then the heat exchanger (radiator) sprung a leak and fried my GeForce3 video card. I wrote that off since I was planning on upgrading it soon anyway. I also considered myself to be extremely lucky to have only lost something so easily replaced.

However, what burns me is the response I have received (or, lack thereof) from exoticpc.com (where I bought the fscking thing). BTW, their website is not working for me in Mozilla right now, but Konqeror seems to work.

I originally emailed them telling them about the radiator leak and asked for a refund. They did reply the next day saying that they would not return my money. But, I was told that they would give me a new reservoir since I had apparently screwed mine in too tightly and ruined it -- which is not the case, the reservoir is not leaking.

They apparently didn't bother to even read my complaint. I made it clear that the problem was with the radiator, not the reservoir. Here is my original message:

I purchased this item on 09/03/2002 and installed it
as soon as I got it. It has been running great until now. The radiator
unit sprung a leak. Fortunately, all I lost was a video card which was due
for upgrade anyway. I would like to return the entire product for a refund
since I will not be using it again. I do not trust a replacement to be any
better. It was cool while it lasted :)

Hi Trent,
Sorry to hear what happened to you. This is actually a rare occurence. This
problem only seems to occur when someone screws in the screws too tight and
the cracks form over time. Also, try to make sure the lid is screwed in
evenly so the top is level and not at an odd angle. This may also cause
cracks to form. Another precaution would be to use a regular screwdriver
instead of a power drill. We could send out a new reservoir to you, but
after 30 days there's no refund. Just let me know and I'll send a
replacement reservoir out to you, Trent.

Thanks for reading. I feel a little better now.

I'm looking into building a PC myself, and have found that the cheapest way by far is to buy what's called a 'Barebones' system. On pricewatch they are initially listed as 'Kits' but after following the link you seem them called 'Barebones', as all the online super-deal-megastores do. The system will include at least a case, power supply, motherboard, processor, memory, hard drive and 3 1/2, and some flavor of a ROM drive. It can be configured with basically any standard hardware (and occasionally peripherals) that you want...but they never require you to order an M$ OS (or any OS).

With a barebones system, you get the best of all worlds: when you go to order one (at a quality site), you are linked to a form where you customize your barebones PC like you would a DELL, except with many more options.

All of this cuts down the price...plus, since they're building it for you, they get the deal on the hardware for buying bulk, which is passed onto you. Also, they do what's called 'burn-in', which is where they hook up their software-preloaded-testing-hard-drive and make sure it all works, and then as a guarantee they'll tack on a 1 or 2 year warranty (often upgradable). This way, you don't have to put it together yourself and wonder what's not working, and watch all the tech-support point fingers at each other yelling 'it's-not-me-it's-the-other-part'.

If you look a little, you can find a barebones package that can be configured with all the components you wanted anyway, and certainly with any processor. (Be careful though, the default choices on the form often are cheaper in make, but not in price).

I am personally using AccessMicro to build my system. I'm getting an Athlon XP 2100+, Gigabyte KT333 ATA133 RAID-enabled, 512MB DDR 333MHz DDRAM, plus CD-RW, DVD-ROM, 40GB hard drive, floppy, keyboard and mouse, and a sweet, sweet case for under a grand, easy (NOTE: IAN Affiliated). I couldn't have found but a couple parts I want cheaper, and I'll just install those myself...I'm telling you, this is the way to go, save yourself some time.