Floppyhead – Digital Media and Streaming

Dell recently discontinued their line of XPS 420 computers. Why is this interesting? The 420’s were the only computers to come standard with the version of Vista that supports digital cable tuners (i.e. it came with a digital cable product ID). I would suggest verifying with the seller that a digital cable product ID is included; it is usually on the same sticker as the Vista serial code.

This got me thinking: the price of used XPS 420 on sites like Ebay and Craigslist should start to fall, making an entry level CableCard machine even more accessible. Typical prices right now for used XPS 420 run about $500 depending on the specs.

You can buy digital cable tuners on Ebay for about $150 a piece so for a two tuner XPS 420, you are looking at about $800. This should drop with time. If you are in the market for a CableCard machine, I would start to monitor the prices for used Dell XPS 420s.