Shuttle M1000

The standard M1000 package doesn’t come with a 2.5in drive, but you do get the caddy so you can add your own at a later stage.While on the subject of storage, it’s a shame Shuttle could only find room for a single-layer DVD drive. Don’t be fooled by the ‘Dual-layer support’ claim on the website; this means it can read dual-layer discs and you’d be hard pushed to find an optical drive that can’t do this.

On the plus side, it is a particularly quiet drive.The wireless keyboard complete with a trackball is small, lightweight, and perfect for controlling things from afar and when not in use, you can tuck it under your sofa.

A small power button on the keyboard sends the system into its Away Mode – a new feature with Media Center. In this state, the M1000 will still record programmes and stream content to Media Center Extenders. It then takes less than two seconds for the system to leap back into life.

However, when we measured the wattage we weren’t too impressed. When turned on and running Media Center, the M1000 was drawing between 75 and 77w. While in Away Mode, this dropped to around 70-74w – hardly what we’d call power saving. If you use Windows Stand-by mode it drops down to just 11w, but you then lose all Media Center functionality and it takes around 15 seconds to fully resume.

In a further attempt to differentiate the M1000 from other Media Center PCs, Shuttle has gone for its own version of the Media Center remote control. It’s more compact than the Microsoft device and features the same black livery on the back of the controller as on the case.

In the past, although we’ve raved about its attention to detail and stylish designs, we have often criticised Shuttle for overpricing. Sadly, the M1000 is no different. £1,422 is a lot to spend on a PC that comes without a monitor or surround-sound speakers.

Shuttle will argue the specially designed case and use of the expensive Pentium M pushes up the price, but we still feel it’s too costly – not outrageously so, but we expected it to be around £200 cheaper.

There’s plenty to like about the M1000. It’s small, stylish, extremely quiet and well designed. On the downside, the lack of a dual-layer DVD burner, unconvincing power-saving mode and, most importantly, high price tag go against it, but there’s also a problem that Shuttle can do little about – Media Center itself.

Microsoft appears committed to Media Center (see box), as do a large number of PC manufacturers, and it’s not hard to see why. Intuitive menus, very few bugs and plenty of functionality is just what you want from a PVR (Personal Video Recorder).

The problem lies in persuading the average home user to throw away their video recorder and DVD player and replace it with a Windows-based PC; something they’ve probably had a fair share of bad experiences with in the past. Only time will tell whether Microsoft achieves its vision of a PC in every lounge, but Shuttle releasing the M1000 will have done its cause no harm at all.