Thoughts on using...

I would say

• Much more powerful than the Acer SU4100 my wife's been using for 3 years
• Should be fine for TV, don't know how well it'll handle HD channels but my wife's (listed above) is plenty capable for 802.11n access of SD content from HDHomerun Prime with Comcast
• Should output HD content just fine through HDMI (ours doesn't but it's older and much less powerful) but I would guess that you've got that covered already
• Battery sucks
• Don't know about OS efficiency, but XBMC might get you more battery life
• I personally don't go gaga for 720p content on this screen size, and SD content will look good from 4-6 ft

And to add

• It should demolish office/firefox/chrome in dual-display mode with live TV on a different screen

For the TV use it would be plugged in for both power and ethernet and I would use the monitor of the laptop in the kitchen.


I was wondering about the "refurbished" part and the price.

 http://camelcamelcamel.com/X54L-BBK2-Computer-Generation-Processor-15-6-inch/product/B006P8Y8YU


Camel report on the slightly lesser X54L-BBK2 shows nothing less than $300 with the exception of the one person who sold a used one for $250


Manufacturer refurbished from Asus is fine by me, but I'm consistently considered the "cheapest" person people know of.


90 day warranty, and you can add the $50 service net extended warranty for a year. However, that will get you to the cost of a new X54L-BBK2 on Amazon