Rating: 8/10
I've recently taken a great interest in multimedia solutions, and have even decided I'm going to build one for Micro Mart soon. But in the meanwhile here's an off the shelf solution from Aria, which they've entitled the AXL Slimline Media Center.
Based on an AMD Socket 754 solution the review model used the processing power of a Sempron 'Palermo' Core 3100+ CPU. This was mounted on an Optronix ATI Xpress 200 Micro ATX motherboard together with 512MB of DDR 400 memory.
Because this is an integrated video solution, as a default the graphics sub-system borrows 64MB of memory for its purposes from main memory, but in the BIOS you can adjust this down to 32MB or up to a maximum of 128MB. The video technology here isn't up to gaming quality, but acceptable for general video playback.
The only special aspect to this hardware was the inclusion of an S-Video out, which is a necessity for a system that's expected to be attached to the TV.
For storage, a 200GB hard drive is preinstalled with Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE), and further software can be loaded via a DVD-R slimline slot drive. The model used here is an SLW-831S made by Liteon, and it can read and write all standard CD and DVD formats with the exception of DVD-RAM. It can even burn Dual Layer media, although its maximum speed in DVD mode is 8X.
This is all mounted in a stylish Hiper media case, giving the entire solution the appearance of a HiFi component. The only other internal hardware worthy of mention was a Hauppauge Nova-T DVB-T capture card, mounted to give the system a good single channel PVR (Personal Video Recorder) capability.
When you add up all those parts, and throw the price of Windows XP MCE in there too, that total cost doesn't seem too bad a price. But you also get the proper Microsoft controller and their new uber-cool Media Center keyboard, which are worth another £100 at least.
Have I any reservations? A few niggles, but nothing major. My biggest bugbear is that the system isn't silent, and although I made some adjustments (like loading the Cool 'n' Quiet driver) it still made a clearly audible drone in my lounge. Perhaps I was expecting too much, but it is possible to make them quieter than this one. My other disappointment was to do with the TV out, or rather the lack of a DVI out. While for most people such an omission is currently irrelevant, the lack of this interface means that this system can't be effectively coupled to a HD screen, which needs DVI. It might be possible to add this, although a swarm of keep-out stickers strongly suggest that Aria don't want you inside this box. The only other feature I'd have included is a USB wireless networking adapter, which isn't an expensive option.
These minor points aside, this is cost effective solution that provides a complete multimedia management PC in one slim box.
For more information, visit Micromart.co.uk