Alienware Media Center PC

July 2003

multipage

MCE allows you to navigate with its remote control. Its TV functionality makes PVR users feel right at home —the capability to record TV shows with several quality settings, pause live TV and check out TV listings are all well-supported by the user interface. Unlike my modem-bound TiVo and its subscription fee, the Navigator Pro easily accommodated a USB 802.11b adapter, and used my wireless LAN to retrieve free TV program guide updates over the Internet. MCE will use a network connection to find information and album cover art for your DVDs and CDs, too. Still, my cable signal suffered a tiny bit of noticeable picture degradation when routed through the PC.

As a TiVo replacement "plus," it does an excellent job. And the digital photo and video features are simple to use with FireWire and the excellent flash memory card slots. But a PC is much more flexible than a PVR or a DVD player, and MCE doesn't help you navigate those features. To do so, you'll need to dig underneath the interface to apps that might be intuitive on a desktop, but are unwieldy from your couch. Want to rip your CDs to a digital jukebox, or create playlists? You have to use Microsoft MediaPlayer, not Media Center.

The Alienware PC has very solid 3-D gaming capabilities, but its lack of support for the stellar ATI AIW 9700 is a glaring omission. And despite the hearty 2.67-GHz Pentium 4, don't try to multitask too much. Watching a DVD and recording live TV simultaneously resulted in dropped frames. This PC is also rather loud, so I found that the bedroom wasn't a good place to keep MCE running.

Alienware step-up Navigator Extreme's 3.06-GHz Pentium 4 boasts HyperThreading, a virtual "multiple CPU" technology that may help the multitasking situation. Microsoft-only approved TV tuner solutions, which offload 100 percent of the MPEG-coded features from the CPU to prevent dropped frames, and ATI's AIW still require the CPU to do some work. Yet it was easy to make MCE drop frames. And you don't get the option of the AIW's one-slot solution with superior 3-D acceleration and TV playback quality. ATI has pioneered TV/PC integration for years, so it's puzzling why Microsoft won't approve that hardware for use in a Media Center PC.

As it is, the Navigator Pro is an excellent value — solid gaming and computing, great case design, PVR, CD, DVD and recordable DVD features for $1,999 — though you'll want a 200-GB or 250-GB hard drive (rather than the Navigator's 120-GB model) if you really want to record TV. If you don't have a PVR, and need a computer, take a close look.