While I am no longer interested in watching SD
movies, I have invested in a XBOX HD DVD player some time ago. I use it with my
VISTA PC to watch HD movies that I buy online. Although it looks crisp clear, I
am viewing it off a 20" which defeats the whole purpose of HD since it is shown
on a small screen.
I do have a 42" LCD TV in my living room though
connected with local telco's HD Pay tv system. I wouldn't want to bring my PC
which is big and clumsy, blocking everyone's way just to watch one film!
The Shuttle XPC SN68PTG6 Deluxe solved all these
problems. Based on the NV 7050-630a chipset, it supports the X2, A64 and Sempron
CPUs. Just like the earlier MCP68 boards we reviewed before, this board supports
4GB of DDR2-800. It comes with GbE, Firewire, 6 USB, eSATA, 8 ch audio,
HDMI(with HDCP), WIFI and Bluetooth. On top of that, it has a Finger Recognition
system and a USB Speed Link feature. The Finger recognition system allows you to
use it for login authentication (VISTA), opening of encrypted files and logging
in to websites without remembering passwords.
Specs
Technical details:
Shuttle XPC Glamor Series
* NVIDIA® GeForce 7050PV/630a
* Supports AMD® Athlon™64 X2, Athlon™64 and Sempron™ series, Hyper Transport 1.0
* Max. 4 GB Dual Channel DDR2 800 (OC to 1066 MHz)
* NVIDIA® GeForce7050PV with HDMI/HDCP
* 8-Channel HD Audio with Dolby® Digital Live! and DTS® Connect
* 1x PCI-E X16, 1x PCI
* Gigabit LAN
* 2x Firewire, 6x USB 2.0
* 2x SATA2, 2x eSATA
* Bluetooth 2.0+EDR (Deluxe model only)
* 802.11b/g WiFi (Deluxe model only)
* USB Speed-Link Technology (Deluxe model only)
* Fingerprint Recognition Security (Deluxe model only)
* 250-Watt power supply / 300-Watt power supply (Deluxe model only)
* 310(L) x 200(W) x 185(H) mm
