Best computer desktop price

The first time I laid eyes on a system built around Microsoft's Windows XP Media Center was this past Christmas.

Housed in a state-of-the-art looking Hewlett-Packard Pavilion PC, it was a great product. It managed photos, music, and videos better than any other product on the market. It played DVDs, recorded TV shows and let users surf the Web.

It did all this for roughly $2,800, without monitor. That was the only negative feature.

Two months later Supercom, one of Canada's top broadline distributors, created its own version called Touch Media Center PC and left the HP price far in the past.

Supercom has managed to build a system using best-of-breed solutions. The desktop is its Shuttle product, which looks like a travel make-up case. Its hard aluminun square box can fit nicely on a bookshelf. Inside is a DVD drive along with four USB 2.0 ports and direct cable/satellite/high-speed Web hookups. Also included are Altec Lansing surround sound speakers with a sub-woofer.

A remote control allows you to watch TV, record shows, play MP3s, watch a slide show presentation and a lot more. It also switches from computer mode to Media Center mode. You still need a mouse and keyboard, which come with the package, for surfing the Web and doing e-mails. (Shipping versions will be wireless.)

The biggest decision to make with a Media Center PC is whether to use a monitor or TV. I prefer the TV, mainly because of size. Even a 20-inch flat panel monitor does not come even close to a 28-inch TV especially if you want to enjoy a DVD movie. The neat thing about this product is that it makes your TV go beyond just TV. You can enjoy a slide show with background MP3 music, or just the music. It also stores home videos for playback.

This leads me to one of the only problems I had with the Touch Media Center PC. Transferring legacy data is not as easy as you think. Since it only has a DVD drive it could not read content stored on my CD-R discs. You'll have to either e-mail large files over to the unit or use a USE flash drive. Using a flash drive I was able to transfer nearly all my photos in one shot. The USB memory key also can hold around six MP3 songs as well.

The only other drawback about the Touch Media Center PC was the software. It refused to stop playing a DVD even after the movie was over. According to Supercom, the version of XP Media Center I used was a demo version and this glitch will be fixed by the time it ships on March 3rd.

Supercom can build-to-order Media Centers with DVD/CD-R combo drives, additional drives, video cards for games and more.

Of course the costs go up, but for $1,699 -- more than $1,000 under the HP Media Center price tag -- this unit is a good start on a home entertainment center. Just use a television.