Do the MEGA 865 make good HTPC's?

very nice system, if you are planning on running MCE 2005, you probably will have to buy a new graphics card, and a PVR tuner, hopefully there will be enough room for both of those cards.
 
Dan,
Do you know where to find one of these already loaded rather than bare bones?
 
Rupp:

I'm not sure this answers your question, but you may want to look into Stack 9 if you want a complete powerhouse solution already built and ready to go.

They recently won a CES innovations award and Homeseer is planning on using their product for their "professional" MCE/Homeseer line as well.

I did a little blurb on their CES booth HERE.
 
I have not seen anyone sell such a combo, I would just get the barebones system, then get one of those PVR combo deals from PC Alchemy where you get the PVR-whatever, MCE software, NVDVD codec and the remote for good price. The more I look at that case, the more I like it, looks much smaller than my nice looking (giant) SilverStone case.

http://forums.tech-arena.com/archive/index.php/t-17255.html shows that they are compatible with MCE (assuming you do the upgrade).
 
I initially was looking at one of these for my HTPC. The built in LCD would be awesome except it only displays the radio station info and the CD track numbers.

The LCD is proprietary and can't be accessed with programs like an add on LCD could. You could probably pull it and try to mount a USB LCD in its place but I don't know about the size of the hole or how the LCD is mounted.

It was discussed quite a bit over at AVSForum when it first came out and the concensus was that it's close but not quite there.

Sorry 'bout the bad spelling/grammar. Had to fly to Wyoming and they lost my luggage. It's been a great trip so far and I haven't even gotten to the customer yet.
 
i have the MSI mega 180 same system only AMD micah is correct that the lcd only displays what its programmed to display it only displays stuff when there media centre 3.0 program runs and this program is Totally useless it crashes so often its unreal there is work in progress on the LCD to display other stuff i know they have made a LCD plugin for these Mega systems.

On the other note these things are small and compact and loaded with features like TV out Nice onboard GFX and Sound via, Nvida on the 180`s only problem is they do tend to get Very Hot indeed as for adding a PVR card u only get 1 AGP slot with these And 1 PCI slot u must find a Low Level Card no other cards will fit i have tried to install a Avermedia DVB-T in mine but the Tuner Board sticks out to much not allowing me to close the Case ...... other than that they aint to bad there are others on the market now tho one to look out for is

http://solution.aopen.com.tw/products/XC/EA65/en/

this is cheaper than the MSI systems
 
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