8400 Media Center PC

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

I have two laptops, which I love. The both run Win XP Pro, so I can
use them as servers.

I just bought a Dimension 8400 with the Media Center edition version
of Windows. My assumption is that I cannot serve with that using
Internet Explorer, or do some of the other things that XP Pro allows.

I was very surprised -- for under $1,300, I got a decent processor, 1G
of RAM, 250G hard drive, dual TV tuner cards, good graphics board,
Soundblaster Audigy, good surround sound speakers, the DVD software
(which I could probably do without) and the other normal stuff.

I didn't get the monitor because I have a great Dell 19" CRT that does
just fine and hopefully it will for a long time until much larger flat
panels are affordable (5 years?).

So, since it doesn't have XP Pro, I won't be able to serve from it.
It will be a good central place for a lot of data. I also have two
160G externals, and an external 80G portable. Having a desktop PC
with its tons of USB 2 ports as the center of data will be good.

Oh, it also comes with the DVD ROM, and DVD RW drives. So, to copy a
DVD put original in top, and duplicate comes out the bottom (gee it
sounds like I'm explaining a Dell laying eggs!). I've copied DVDs,
and it's like downloading MP3's -- after a while it gets old.

Why spend so much time downloading digital stuff when radio stations
are your personal perpetual jukebox.

Anyway, I wonder since it has a dual tuner whether I will have to hook
two separate cables to those cards. That would be just one more cord
to worry about.

Anyway I'm glad to get this PC at this price. This had all the
upgrades that I added onto other systems I was considering in the
past.

Kevin Fosler

--- I wonder if I can set up a triple boot -- XP Pro, XP Media Center
Edition, and Linux -- can anyone point me in the right direction? A
long time ago a program called System Commander was used