HP Pavillion Slimline Media Center PCs

im interested in these too. I saw on HPs website you can configure it up pretty nicely. Two concerns where the integrated video and no HD tuner. I generally just watch movies and TV so the video card should be ok. They have a TV tuner option - not sure what kind it is? im pretty sure its not a HD tuner. Are there any HD tuners that are half height PCI and work with MCE?

I saw one at costco - i liked it, small and quiet.

Thanks for the research.

Im looking at it as a replacement HTPC. My current one (home built in a custom ahanix case) is just too noisey and dated now. The biggest issue with vanilla pcs (something like a dell), is noise (and they are huge!). The video cards are generally fine for htpc. (no gaming).
I have some experience with the hooking up PC to LCD and Projectors. I was running a projector and then a 32" lcd (some cheapo brand). I hooked it up with VGA and it was great. You can watch movies, play music, browse without any issues. My res was 1024Xx768 (or 1280X768 if i remember correctly). I forget the native res of the LCD, but the text was clear and legible. I also had a myHD card in it for OTA HD. That looked amazing.

Now just bought a Sony lcd 32" its res is 1366x768. I dont have my htpc, but i have hooked up my laptop to and its far better than my old lcd. I want to go back to having a dedicated Meida PC hooked up. Learning lessons from past experience, i want something that is prebuilt, quiet, and does everything i want it to. I could build another PC using quiet parts but im thinking it will end up costing about the same as prebuilt one. I googled TVIX - thats looks good, but kinda expensive, im trying to shoot for something <1000.

If youre on the fence about HTPC, i can tell you go for it. Its very rewarding and gives you many more entertainment options. Otherwise TV is good for TV and DVD. With HTPC it opens up to limitless entertainment off your media center. TV, DVR, Music, internet even games.

And if you have a 40" Sony LCD (that can go to 1080p) Youre set. One thing you may need is a video card that can do 1920X1080 (or whatever the 1080 res is) well. And have the horsepower to do it. Im not sure is the Xpress 200 does it well enough. Thats more of a question for rest of the crowd here.

There are USB HDTV tuners now, so I don't think the lack of full-size or enough PCI slots is an issue any more. I am curious how well a Core Solo + Radeon Xpress 200 would play HDTV in MCE.

- Mike

HP Slimline 7410

There is a modem in the PCI slot. I would like to connect to my HDTV via a dvi out by putting in a new graphics card. Does anyone know which card would work for this computer? I've been checking online and cannot find anything; I know it must be a low profile or half height PCI card, but which one will work and where do I get it? Any help would be great. Thanks!

Also: I dont play games; so it doesnt need to be for that.

At these prices, I would just go with a Mac Mini, and scrape off MacOS and install MCE or XP. This avoids the need for dealing with Vista crap and is more compact and pretty inexpensive.

If you need slots of course, that's a different story, but many seem very pleased with mac mini's as silent HDTV PC clients, running MCE and other HTPC software.

Thanks,
mike

I just bought the HP s7600n slimline pc clearanced out at Office Depot for $299.99.
The configuration was different than what the box said. It was suppose to have the athlon 64 3500+ in it, but it came with the x2 3800+ !! I threw in another gig of ram for $60.00 bucks. Plus it had a $50.00 rebate! Then you get the free upgrade to Vista home premium. Very nice system quiet and cool. I have it in my bedroom hooked up to my Olevia 27" 720p monitor through vga. Needless to say I am one happy camper! btw The mobo on this is the ASUS A8N 6150le the onboard video has 64mb dedicated memory and up to 256mb shared memory.

just a little bump for info

Just hit 2 Office Depots in DE, but none of these to be found.

just a little bump for someone who have probblem with slimeline lately?? I haven't own hp slim pc yet.. but i just curious..

My S7712n (I think that's the model I have) has been running 24/7 for probably two or more years now. I'm effectively using it as a headless home server (Server 2003, not WHS), so I'm not taxing the hardware from a processing standpoint.

-SUO

I had decided to replace the faulty laptop with a Slimline PC which I recently order.

My order-

HP Pavilion Slimline s3700z customizable Desktop PC

* Genuine Windows Vista Home Basic with Service Pack 1 (32-bit)
* AMD Sempron(TM) LE1300 [2.3GHz]
* 2GB DDR2-800MHz SDRAM [2x1024]
* 250GB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive
* 128MB NVIDIA GeForce 9300 [DVI, VGA adapter]
* LightScribe 16X max. DVD+/-R/RW SuperMulti drive
* LAN port on system board (10/100/1000Base-T), no wireless LAN
* 15-in-1 memory card reader, 2 USB, headphone port
* No TV Tuner w/remote control
* Integrated 5.1 channel sound with front audio ports
* No speakers
* HP keyboard and HP optical mouse
* Microsoft(R) Works 9.0

I have own vista windows OS CD< I will upgrade it with this. And will upgrade 4GB Memory RAM when it arrive @ my place.

I will get it in few days. I can't wait!

I've had my Slimline for almost a year now and it's worked great. I paid $300 for it.

Yeah they cost me $329.00 for that! , isn't that steal a deal?

What do you think, My friend decided to replace the faulty motherboard in the Slimline with an Intel Atom mini-ITX, is that bad idea? I just wondering..