I did a lot of research on what my next computer was going to be because I knew that I was pretty much going to use it as a media center. I used to have a pretty nice 17" Dell laptop...for 2005 that is. Don't get me wrong, it was a great PC and I even had it hooked up to my TV for a lot of the time and we watched hulu from it. I couldn't stand having a laptop sitting on the floor and a VGA cable running from it to the TV any more and I figured it's been 6 years, it had a good run, but it was time to upgrade my computer. So, I sold it on craigslist for about $185, which is ridiculous but it's what everyone else was selling my same exact laptop for.
For a while, I was hell bent on getting a Mac mini and mounting it to the back of my 40" LCD TV but those beasts are like $700! Wish I had the fundage, but it wasn't going to happen, not for a while anyway. Then I found a Dell that was the same size as a Mac mini, but I read bad reviews on it, so decided to keep looking. I wanted to just sell my laptop and go directly to Best Buy and get a replacement. Why Best Buy you ask? You guessed it, (if you read my review of the Roku) I have a Best Buy credit card, therefore I could put down my $185 and then cover the rest on the card. I gave myself a budget of $400 and so when I went on the BB website, I found the best reviewed desktop and it happened to be an E Machines and it ALSO happened to be compact! That's what I wanted!
So, I sold the laptop, went to Best Buy and they had ONE left! It was $365, just the tower itself, no monitor and I was out the door spending just slightly over $400. This computer is pretty damn impressive and completely accomplishes everything I need it to do! It has 4g of ram and a 500 gig hard drive. Came with Windows 7 of course and also has an Nvidia graphics card. HD movies and hulu look awesome on it and it is extremely fast! I used to have some glitching when I watched streaming tv shows but now it's totally smooth. I can have as many pages as I want open, play music, edit movies, photos etc. and it doesn't even flinch!
I am extremely happy with this computer and even though I can't mount it to the back of the TV, it is still pretty small and inconspicuous. I could put it behind the TV still but I use a wireless mouse and keyboard and the signal gets interference if it has to go through the LCD screen.
I highly recommend getting this computer and using it for a media center. You can always get external hard drives if you need more space. If you just used it as a family desktop PC, it would be great for that too. Even though TV's are now coming with all the movie and tv streaming apps, they still can't top having a full on computer on your TV at all times.
Get the E Machines EL 1352, hook it up to your LCD, LED or Plasma, get a wireless mouse and keyboard, and you won't be sorry!
2 comments:
Did you look at the AppleTV or any of the other TV-centered devices on the market now? They have GoogleTV, Boxee and a few others I can't think of right now. Just wondering, I have no opinion on any of them but was curious if they had made it on your radar doing your search.
Yes indeed my friend. I know all about Google TV, Boxee, Apple TV etc. The thing is, they are just a simplified version of a computer, with an interface and remote. They are cool, but I can do even more with just my computer hooked up to the TV. I watch torrents, hulu plus, netflix etc. I open up itunes and I control it with my Android phone. If I had an iphone, I would DEFINITELY buy and Apple TV because it's a full on remote for it and it integrates automatically. I needed a new computer, so I figured, it's the ultimate use for it and I love it! If you have any questions about this kind of stuff, I will totally answer them. I do this audio video stuff for a living and have been for almost ten years :)
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