New Home Entertainment PCs from MSI



With Computex 2007 still in full swing, the product announcements are coming thick and fast.
MSI released a couple of press releases today detailing two of its new SFF (small form factor) creations.

Hetis 965 - Small in Size, Big in Performance

First up is the Hetis 965, a barebone system based on either the Intel G965/ICH chipset or Intel Q965/ICH8DO chipset.
These come with graphics provided by the GMA X3000/3000, featuring Intel Clear Video Technology.
The system allows you to drop in your choice of Core2 processor and also supports a PCIe x16 slot should you want to
drop that onboard graphics solution in favour of something with a little more kick. You can also cram 4GB of DDR2 into the two
memory slots.

I wouldn't expect a lot of overclocking options, but then it's aimed at the home entertainment crowd at any rate.
It's not exactly sexy, but it's not too ugly to sit somewhere near your big screen TV, plus with that PCIe slot you might actually
be able to play some games too.




MSI launches its New Media Center PC

If the Hetis is still a bit too "office client PC" for your liking then MSI has also announced its new Media Center PC.
This follows in the strong tradition of making media PCs look like other Hi-Fi and entertainment kit.
It's called the MSI Media Live, the name strongly hinting at the AMD Live! platform which it is built upon.
Apparently it "Features all the necessary multimedia PC connectors..", though exactly what that means I'm not sure.
It does feature HDMI and an onboard card reader (which supports all the common formats).
Other features include onboard High Definition Audio and integrated nVidia graphics (which seems a little funky for an AMD based platform).

So pretty much bog standard media center fair. At least you won't have to relegate it to a cupboard somewhere, like
that old beige monster you've probably got lying around somewhere.

i like the silver on looks pretty nice but i also like a custom built media pc using the antec media pc case.

weird, you'd think they'd use a 2900 with HDMI

I think AMD outlined their Live! platform before the merger with ATI.
It does seem a little strange to continue allowing products like that to be released though doesn't it.

I agree that it's weird to see the AMD/nVidia combo these days.

And to think, it wasn't that long ago that AMD and nVidia were practically inseparable.

Late, but sometimes at night, I hear the gremlins fighting in my PC, with an AMD CPU, an Nvidia chipset, and an ATI videocard, sometimes it sounds like all out war inside my case, complete with screaming and possible bloodshed, if any of these gremlins bleed on my carpet, their getting thrown outside

they REALLY need to work on the chasis for the Hetis. was stocking the older version, and it would fall apart or jam up and not open... plus it feels cheesy.