Advent MC3040

Microsoft’s Windows Media Center 2005 is an enhanced version of Windows XP, designed for computers primarily used for entertainment. With an emphasis on music, video, photos and TV, you might think you’d need to pay a premium over standard PCs. But PC World’s Advent MC3040 is a reasonable sounding £799 with some great features.

Features
If looks are important to you this machine won’t disappoint, with its gorgeous Philips 17in flat-screen monitor matching the snazzy, mirrored lines of the slim, upright case. With a wireless keyboard, mouse and remote control, this could happily sit in your living room without cluttering the place up, especially since it comes with built-in 802.11g (54Mbps) Wi-Fi capability for wirelessly connecting to the internet.

The package also includes a copy of Microsoft Works so you can get working straight away, though we’d also recommend you download or install some security precautions such as an anti-virus program and a firewall.

Performance
The computer’s internal components have been spread fairly evenly. Powered by a 2.93MHz Pentium 4, a slightly underwhelming 512MB of memory, but a good-sized 160GB hard disk, the basics are all in place. The 128MB NVidia graphics card, Wi-Fi built-in and DVD re-writer are sturdy additions for the price and make for a solid performer.

Ease of use
As with all Media Center computers you get a standard Windows XP installation with a special built-in menu for browsing the photos, music and TV content on your PC. This makes things such as slideshows and recording TV accessible at the touch of the remote control’s green button. The keyboard has a lot of useful extras too, including a scroll wheel for browsing and handy cut-and-paste buttons.

Value for money
The price is right and should prove affordable to most buyers who want to get a middle-budget computer with Media Center installed. A few areas (like the memory) have been left a little short for our tastes, but it’s only to be expected and helps keep the price reasonable. Our unit came with optional surround-sound speakers to replace the Philips monitor’s built-in speakers, though placing this in your living room should mean you can hook it up to a hi-fi or surround-sound system instead. Otherwise, these recommended speakers push the package up from £799 to £899.