Judging from the amount of choice, Media Center PC's still don't account for a significant amount of computer sales. Compare that to the amount of choice in HTPC cases that's on offer and the conclusion must be that Media Center PC's are still the domain of DIY PC builders.
The bigger real-life stores offer nothing but disapointment. MyCom, Computerland as well as Media Markt have no Media Center PC's at all. Paradigit offers an OEM system from ASUS, the Aspire L5100-tv. This is pretty much an ordinary small form factor desktop with a tv card. It doesn't have a display or a remote control.
From the web stores, only very few carry pre-configured HTPC systems. Salland sticks out with a range of different systems. Their latest "Gold" model comes at a stunning 1031 euro and that's without operating system or a tv card! It's based on a 3 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 processor on a Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS4 motherboard. The case is a Zalman 160D. Fortunately Salland also offers more affordable "Silver" and "Bronze" models. Most are based on Intel the 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo E8200.
Informatique has a single configuration on offer called the Informatique inDigho-a HTPC. It's priced at 649 euros. Add a Floppy DTV card and the total is 804 euro for a complete system. It's based on a 2.3GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 4450e processor on an ASUS M3A78-EM motherboard. The case is the ever popular Antec Fusion.
Comptech has two systems on the website. Both run on the AMD Athlon 64 X2 4850E processor. The CTW Media Center Deluxe has a Asrock K10N78HSLI mother board and a TopMedia case. It's priced at 579 euro, including Vista but excluding any tv cards.
The Media Center AMD is based on the MSI Media Live barebone with
nVidia C51PVG / MCP51 Chipset. The price of 699 euro is without a tv-card.
Without a doubt, QMotion is building the Rolls Royce under the dutch Media Center PCs with the DVB 400i. The folks at QMotion clearly want to market a piece of consumer electronics as opposed to a PC. The website lacks specifications like the type of motherboard and the size of the harddisk. What is clear is that this product is well thought through. It features a dual DVB tuner with a single CAM, and the manufacturer has developed an online service to help the user configure the tv channels. The case is a Origen AE S10V Black, the processor an unspecified Intel Dual Core. At 1849 euro it's not the cheapest though.
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