![]() At least HP has ditched the old-fashioned keyboard and mouse for an excellent wireless tandem that reduces cable clutter somewhat and is also far more usable. By the time you hook up the power, VGA, speaker, and coaxial cables, as well as the infrared receiver for the Media Center remote and attached IR blaster (if you have a separate set-top box), you have a tangle of cables. There's another downside to all these features. If you want to install a PCI adapter for wireless networking, as we did during testing, you'll need to deal with this cramped case and sacrifice one of the installed cards (the most likely candidate is the modem). The manufacturers will tell you that Media Center PCs aren't really designed for upgrades anyway, but we don't know many people with an Ethernet jack next to their TV. ![]() The DVR card (with coaxial cable input), Creative Labs Audigy 2 sound card, and the modem occupy all three PCI slots. The case opens easily enough-you undo two thumbscrews and yank the side off-but the squat minitower is so loaded with drives and PCI cards that there's virtually no room inside to maneuver. "="" -="">/sc/30550-DT7.gif" width="200" height="150" border="0" />Īt least the wireless keyboard and mouse help cut down on cable clutter.īeneath this slick facade, however, the m300y's design can be more problematic. The m300y's feature-packed interior leaves no room to upgrade, let alone maneuver. On the top of the case is a hatch for HP's dockable Photosmart cameras. A flip-down cover hides ports for FireWire, USB 2.0, composite video, and S-Video, plus a headphone jack. Below a pair of optical drives sits the Media Center PC's row of mode buttons for controlling Windows XP Media Center functions, a six-in-one media-card reader, and a floppy drive. The first thing you'll notice about the m300y is the shiny, black-plastic front panel, which is crammed with conveniently located features. The sleek front panel includes handy shortcut keys, a media-card reader, and home theater-friendly A/V ports.
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