- Powerful Quad Core Processor
- Support For Blu-Ray and HD-DVD Movies
- Dolby Digital Live Support
- Case Design Doesn't Quite Fit With Other Home Theater Components
- No Support For CableCard
- Expensive
- Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Quad Core Desktop Processor
- 4GB PC2-6400 DDR2 Memory
- Two 750GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drives
- Blu-ray/HD-DVD Reader with Dual Layer DVD+/-RW Burner Combo Drive
- Intel GMA X3100 Integrated Graphics With HDMI Output Support
- Intel HDA Audio with Dolby Digital Live Support
- Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g Wireless and Bluetooth 2.0
- Digital and Analog TV Tuner
- Six USB 2.0, Two FireWire, eSATA and FingerPrint Scanner
- Windows Vista Home Professional
6/25/08 - The key to any good HTPC is really its ability to connect into things such as HDTVs and audio receivers. It would be nice if a home theater PC would integrate well with the system in terms of its appearance, but that isn't critical to its functionality. The Shuttle XPC G5 3300m does extremely well in terms of the functionality, but lacks a bit in appearance.
The XPC G5 3300m integrates extremely well with external home theater components thanks to the built-in HDMI connector used by pretty much every high definition TV on the market and an optical audio connector that can support Dolby Digital Live encoding of 5.1 audio. Add to this the fact that the unit comes equipped with a Blu-Ray/HD-DVD drive that let's it playback either of the high definition video formats. The drive also has the ability to record and playback both the DVD and CD formats as well. This makes it a very solid home theater system.
In terms of computing performance, the XPC G5 3300m is very strong for a home theater system. The Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 processor allows it to perform extremely well at multi-tasking or every handling things like transcoding video, a common task to a HTPC. The 4GB of memory is the most that it can have and is recommended for the smoothest computing experience.
There are two real flaws with the XPS G5 3300m. The first is that the system does not come with an option for CableCard support. This is something that is pretty important to many people as most HDTV viewing is done over cable or satellite providers rather than over the air signals. The second problem is the price. The XPC G5 3300m is bit high in price compared to several other similarly equipped HTPC units available on the market.
