Multimedia-Center: The Lan-Plus Integra

Conclusion

The price of $ 1,600 is certainly no exceptional offer, considered that you will 'only' get a Pentium III 850 with 128 MB and a 20 GB hard drive. Let us summarize the most important benefits of the INTEGRA:

• Modular Design
  You can freely exchange almost every component (motherboard, CPU, hard drive, graphics card, DVD drive...) as long as the power supply is able to supply them.
• Gaming Station!
  By exchanging the graphics card with a fast GeForce2 or GeForce3 model, you can turn the INTEGRA into a gaming monster within minutes.
• Solid Hardware
  A MicroATX motherboard with Intel's 815E chipset is certainly the best platform for the Pentium III. VIA's new Apollo Pro 266 plus DDR SDRAM is definitely not worth the investment, since it is not able to beat common SDRAM chipsets.
  The ATI Rage 128 Pro and the Western Digital 20 GB hard drive are nothing to write home about, but still quality hardware.
• Good Display
  Even if the viewing angle could not convince completely, the display comes with a short response time, good illumination uniformity, brightness and contrast. The maximum resolution of 1024x768 is enough for a 15" display.

In contrast, it is not possible to attach more than one hard drive and one CD/DVD drive. Due to the TV-like design, which is definitely close cut, there is hardly any space for additional hardware except a second memory module and another PCI add-on card.

So far, I personally did not support compact computers, but after testing the INTEGRA I have to admit that I'm slowly changing my opinion. It can be put up practically everywhere; particularly at places where computers with tower case and monitor are not wanted - e.g. in the living room.

People who do not have much housing space but still want a TV and a computer should consider the INTEGRA. With prices for TFT displays dropping, we can hopefully expect to see more interesting systems like this system.