Floppyhead – Digital Media and Streaming

Right now, there are three essential items for any computer that costs over $3,000 and is a media center:

1. Two digital cable tuners to record one HD program while watching another
2. A Blu-ray or HD-DVD drive to watch HD movies
3. NVidia 8500/8600 GT video card to optimize performance of HD content

A couple days ago I complained about Alienware’s Hangar 18 lack of CableCard support and Blu-ray/HD-DVD drives. The Hangar 18 has none of these right now, which is kind of surprising. However, they are planning to offer these items in an series of upgrades over the next couple of months.

My main concern though with the Hangar 18 is the chassis, which only has one more available slot for a digital cable tuner. In order to have two tuners, it appears that you will need to use external tuners, which kills the the point of having such a stylish case. To be fair to Alienware, only one vendor offers these three items: Velocity Micro PC. Hopefully this will change soon to drive down prices.