AOpen XCube AV

Small-form-factor computers, or SFF's for short, are all the rage at the moment and many of them, such as the AOpen XCube AV, are being specifically designed as home theatre devices.

It arrives as a barebones PC, which means all you get is the case and motherboard. Everything else (processor, memory, hard disk and optical drive) you'll need to buy and install yourself. However, because this computer is focused on multimedia, a TV/radio card is already fitted in the single PCI slot.

To make fitting components easier, the entire drive cage lifts out. There's space for a single optical drive (CD or DVD) and a hard disk and AOpen supplies a Serial ATA cable and special shortened parallel cables to use on any drives you fit. A 7-in-1 memory card reader is already built into the front of the case.

The motherboard can cope with Pentium 4 processors up to 3.2GHz in speed. But because of the heat generated by higher speed processors, it may be wise to install a less powerful model. The supplied cooling fan is very loud when the system is first switched on and although the noise level drops after a while, this is certainly not a quiet PC.

Once built, the AV really shines. There's an Instant On switch that allows the unit to be ready within six seconds to play DVDs, CDs, VCDs or MP3s on the hard disk, listen to radio, or watch TV. You have to install the Instant On software yourself, but the accompanying booklet guides you through all the steps.

You also have to purchase and install Windows. Then you can load the supplied InterVideo Home Theatre software. This is InterVideo's answer to Windows XP Media Center and gives you control over TV viewing and recording, video clips and your digital image and music collection. Like the Instant On software, Home Theatre is controlled by the supplied remote control.

Using the AV for gaming will prove difficult. The integrated graphics are fine for everyday applications but 3D games will struggle. To remedy this, you'll need to fit a better card in the AGP slot but this won't leave much space between the graphics and TV/radio cards, which could cause the graphics card to overheat.

Nevertheless, the AOpen's XCube AV looks good in its black finish and offers the chance to create a true multimedia PC that will fit in any room.

Contact: Aopen
www.aopen.com

Also consider:
Moore Medio Home Theatre PC
Bigger and pricey but it has everything bar a monitor.