A suitably configured PC can form a formidable multimedia hub, capable of recording, storing and playing back all your media. Hook it up to a TV or projector and you can enjoy all manner of audio-visual entertainment from the comfort of your living room.
A Windows- or Mac-based media-centre PC is usable for running standard desktop applications and, given a decent graphics card, large-screen gaming. A media system can also be built around a PC running Linux. Along with OS X systems, overall security is higher with little need for annoying antivirus.
Windows Media Center, which comes built into some versions of Windows 7, offers an interface that’s easy to operate via remote control. Many of the PCs we review here are supplied with a dedicated remote, and some can also be controlled using a smartphone or tablet app.
Media-centre PCs can require more technical knowledge and time to set up than standard desktops. For more complex systems, we recommend checking what level of support is offered. A home installation may be a better option still.
Almost any PC could be used as a media centre, but the noisy fans and spinning disks of tower systems can ruin your viewing or listening pleasure – and will look out of place in the living room. A quiet, compact PC is advisable and, since media PCs are designed to be powered on for long periods, most should consume less power and generate less heat.
With this in mind, don’t look for the fastest processor you can afford. You’ll want to strike a delicate balance between power requirements and performance.
If the PC is to be used only for media, a low-power CPU is ample. AMD’s E-350 is one such chip, and is capable of processing DirectX 11.0 graphics and HD video content. The Asus E35M1-I Deluxe motherboard comes pre-stuffed with the E-350, and makes a strong basis for a low-power PC.
Cooling is an important consideration. You want to listen to music and video, not your PC, so minimise the number of fans and moving parts. Fanless systems can be built using large passive heat sinks, often aided by multiple heat pipes designed to draw heat away from core components to an external radiator. The Zeno NT-TX2000, for example, has a custom-built fanless CPU block, linked to large aluminium heat sinks on the outside of the case.
Where cooling fans are your only option, ultra-quiet fans have intelligent spin speeds to balance cooling with noise.
Graphics cards and hard drives can also be the source of noise, with whirring fans and spinning platters respectively. For a little extra cost you can plump for a quiet graphics card and SSD storage.
For components that can’t be silenced, sound-proofing material and enclosures can provide an effective solution.
Internal PCI or external USB TV tuners allow you to watch and record live TV. Dual or twin tuner cards let you watch and record different channels simultaneously. A premium model, such as Black Gold’s BGT3600, lets you watch Freeview and Freesat in both standard definition and HD.
Blu-ray playback is standard on many media PCs. Expect to find a Blu-ray/DVD combo.
Media centre PCs
Apple Mac Mini - £896
Chillblast Fusion Avatar Media PC - £799
Arbico Zippy X35 HD Media Centre - £549
Cryo PC Alto - £1,038
Eclipse DMS PRO TOUCH i321Z68 - £699
Quiet PC Zeno NT-H67 Fanless Media PC - £1,444
Conclusion:
Media-centre PCs are available to suit most needs and budgets. A low-end system should set you back around £500, provide a dual-channel TV tuner and cope perfectly well with recording and playing back all sorts of multimedia content, including HD video and Blu-ray. Arbico’s Zippy X35 HD Media Centre is a good example of such a budget system, providing just enough power to play media, while keeping down costs.
Spending a little more will afford you extras such as support for HD TV and improved build quality. If you don’t want an eyesore of a PC sitting in your living room, then you may wish to invest in the system case, too. A PC that looks more at home in the hi-fi rather than IT world can set you back rather a lot, however: Quiet PC’s stunning Zeno NT-H67 costs £1,444, and more than £200 of that has been spent on the passively cooled, fanless Zeno NT-TX2000 system case.
Extra processing power is useful for other computing tasks, but also bumps up the price tag – and that’s before you consider quietly stepping up the cooling to counteract the increased amount of heat generated. The aforementioned NT-TX2000 can cope with any CPU rated with a thermal design power of 65W or less. If you don’t have the budget to spend on such a case, opt for quiet fans instead.
For more flexibility, a custom system such as Eclipse’s DMS Pro Touch will deliver plenty of computing power, as well as a handy colour touchscreen – but beware the fiendish complexity.
The Mac mini is an excellent and quiet alternative, but factor in the cost of a TV tuner, DVD drive and other peripherals if required. Freeview and satellite tuners from Elgato neatly finish the package.
How we test:
Application performance
Core system performance is measured using WorldBench 6. This customised test suite runs several desktop Windows applications with real-world workloads, mimicking how PCs are used on a daily basis.
These workloads include tasks such as editing documents and images, compressing files, browsing the web and encoding video. Some tasks are then run simultaneously to form an additional test of the PC’s multitasking capabilities.
In total, eight applications are used: Adobe Photoshop Creative Suite 2.0, AutoDesk 3ds Max 8.0, Firefox 2.0, Microsoft Office 2003, Microsoft Windows Media Encoder 9.0, Nero 7.0 Ultra Edition, Roxio ViewWave Movie Creator 1.5 and WinZip Computing WinZip 10.0.
Results from 10 individual tests are combined and weighted to produce a numerical score relative to a baseline PC.
Our baseline configuration runs a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo E6600 processor, 2GB of DDR2 RAM, an nVidia GeForce 7900 GS graphics card, twin Western Digital Caviar WD3200KS hard drives in a striped Raid array, and Windows Vista Home Premium 32bit. This PC scored 100 points in WorldBench 6.
Transcoding performance:
Because you’ll often be working with more than one video file format, we set each PC the task of converting a batch of 1080p Mpeg4 video clips for use on the iPad 2 and recorded how long it took to complete. We used CyberLink’s MediaEspresso software.
This software is able to make use of hardware-accelerated decoding and encoding built into graphic cards and CPUs with integrated graphics-processing capabilities. These techniques can often shorten conversion times by a factor of 10. Multiple CPU threads are also fully exploited, allowing quad-core CPUs to shine when compared to dual-core versions.
Gaming performance:
As entertainment centres plugged into your TV, media PCs might be used to play games. Power and noise requirements usually prohibit the use of the best graphics cards, so we tested each PC running Crysis at 720p, ‘Low’ and ‘Medium’ quality settings.
Overclocking:
We allow overclocked systems to be submitted only for our dedicated gaming PC reviews. All other components are run at stock speeds, with the exception of factory-overclocked graphics cards designed and sold at boosted speeds. We do, however, allow underclocking for the purposes of reducing power consumption.
Subjective assessment:
We also pay close attention to the physical characteristics of each PC, its noise output and its build quality, delving inside the case and taking note of the quality of components used, cabling and airflow.
Good-quality peripherals are also important, and where they are supplied we note the ergonomics of the keyboard and mouse. A media PC also needs a remote control and, preferably, a keyboard that can be operated from the sofa.
Support:
Differences in warranty terms can impact our scoring. Long warranties are sought after, but we also look at the terms and conditions – specifically, whether faulty systems must be returned to the vendor at your own cost and if both parts and labour are included. Ensure the vendor offers full software support and preferably a home installation for more complex systems.
Comments
Terry said: Pity the NOFEN Quiet PC approach wasn't mentioned here. There are NO fans in my Media Center power supply, CPU radiator or SSDs. The only thing that moves is the BD ROM (no option there)! Also as cheap as the cheapest in your review.