Hi

I am in the process of setting up a home theatre/download system/file server. I have the digital tv, have set up raid-5 in my pc (3x1tb drives), got the wireless network set-up ... just one last componant: the media PC/download box.

Basically I want something that is quiet, low power consumption, supports latest standards (HDMI,e-SATA,etc.), and will be basically used to play avi's and download stuff. I watch the stuff I download - then transfer it to the file-server, hence this PC doesnt need a huge local storage - just enough working space for downloads to occur, and possibly recording digital TV.

While look at the options (of which there are many), I came across the Dellâ„¢ Studio Hybridâ„¢, which appears to be a laptop-stuffed-in-a-pc kind of box, but it looks pretty sweet, only thing missing is e-SATA (which I can probably live without). Any comments or reviews? What would be some good alternatives? What about best approach to building something similar myself?

Here are the specs:
Intel® Core™2 Duo processor T5750
2GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM
250GB SATA Hard Drive
Integrated Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 3100
8X Max DVD+/-RW Drive

Some of my concerns with this one would be the inbuilt graphics (how well would it handle HD tv?), lack of option for tv tuner, no e-sata.

Cheers

There's a thread about this Dell a bit below, in case you missed it...
http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/vi ... hp?t=49348

I know there was a review with comments discussing using the Asus EEE for this sort of thing at the Ananda review site, but people said it wouldn't be strong enough or something, maybe some of their comments could be useful too? The Dell here has bigger specs though..

I haven't had any experiences with any of them, so I wouldn't know...

Hope you find something useful!!

The GMA 3100 is the graphics chip that is integrated into Intel G965 and G33 motherboards. The Dell Studio Hybrid is most likely using laptop parts which may differ from its desktop versions. Anyways, here is SPCR's G33 review. It shows that with a E6400 CPU, 1080p video is possible. I would think that the T5750 (2GHz) is comparable to the E6400. So I would think that the Studio Hybrid is capable of 1080p video.

As for the TV tuner, what about a USB tuner?


The easiest and simplist solution would be a AMD 780G based motherboard and a dual core X2 CPU and 2GB of RAM. This system would certainly be able to play 1080p video (see the review). There are some 780G motherboards that have eSATA and all of them have PCI slots for TV Tuners. The only advantage the Dell has is size. The 780G solution will be larger than the Dell, but not intrusively large though.