Okoro's Core Duo-powered OMS-LX100 HTPC

Okoro Media Systems has just released a low-profile, reasonably priced home theater PC based on Intel's Core Duo processor that has also received the coveted VIIV seal of approval, which we're still not exactly sure about, but whose very existence makes us scared of buying any products without this enigmatic certification. Besides the 1.73GHz Yonah T2300, the OMS-LX100 features one gig of 677MHz DDR2 RAM, a Nvidia GeForce 7300 GS PCI Express video card with 256MB of memory, an ATI Theater Pro 550 PCI TV/FM tuner with MPEG-2 encoding (OTA HDTV tuner optional), 250GB hard drive, 16x dual-layer DVD burner, IR or RF remote, Dolby Digital Live support, your choice of operating system and bundled multimedia software, and a host of ports: component, S-Video, composite, DVI, VGA, optical and coax digital audio, plus the usual complement of USB, FireWire, and PS/2 hookups. Available immediately, Okoro's dual core HTPC will set you back just $1,400.

[kerunt @ Apr 10th 2006 8:27PM]

Why do people bother buying these "media centers"? I can build a PC twice as powerful as that listed above, considerably cheaper. And that is one of the cheapest media centers, too. Waste of money.

[Paul J. @ Apr 10th 2006 8:37PM]

Well I think the point here is that they have a stylish box, with a good price. You can't really build a Core Duo system yourself right now. Even with the touch screen LCD on the front, you are still under $2k, similar setups from Falcon or other high end vendors are over $4000 and not even using Core Duo.

[BigG @ Apr 10th 2006 9:07PM]

For a stylish case, I'm using an Antec Aria. As for power, for a Media Center how much do you need, especially if you have hardware encoding? I have a 1.7Ghz P4 in mine. 2x512MB DDR. 16X DVD+-RW DL. 2x300GB hard drives. Hauppauge WinTV-PVR 500 dual tuner. and a $50 AGP video card I don't even remember the specs on. I have spent about $600-$700 putting this together and it works great.

[Stephanie @ Apr 10th 2006 9:09PM]

Should be a great product to bad it is a little late, doe to Moores Law the next chipsets are due ot next month making this producta has been!

[andy @ Apr 10th 2006 9:10PM]

wheres this stylish box? ? , i remember more stylish ibm 286's.

[Chris Moroz @ Apr 10th 2006 9:44PM]

Who in their right mind would pay that much for such an ugly piece of "Media" equipment? That looks some recycled 80's corporate box.

[D @ Apr 11th 2006 4:21AM]

>> For a stylish case, I'm using an Antec Aria

Man, I've puked all over my keyboard because of you. Next time warn everyone before you say something stupid like that. Jesus Christ, now I understand why Apple has 2% market share. It's because most people completely lack aesthetic taste and appreciation for well made things.

This is not to say that this $1400 piece of cr@p is worth $1400, but if I had to choose what to put in the middle of my living room that would not be Aria, for sure.

[Mark @ Apr 11th 2006 4:44AM]

Anyone have any idea on whether this will reach europe and a price?

[Matthew @ Apr 11th 2006 10:21AM]

You can buy the new Yonah chipsets for yourself, its not restricted to builders now. Here is the T2300 on newegg, $239 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819111180

the T2500 is over $400 though.

The case being used is a Ahanix MCE302. There are much nicer pictures on Ahanix's site.

[kerunt @ Apr 11th 2006 11:09AM]

RE: #3
"Well I think the point here is that they have a stylish box, with a good price. You can't really build a Core Duo system yourself right now. Even with the touch screen LCD on the front, you are still under $2k, similar setups from Falcon or other high end vendors are over $4000 and not even using Core Duo."

Poster #4 clearly showed an example of a decent media center system. Adding a core duo CPU would only be a few hundred $ more. Still twice as cheap. Why would you compare that to a setup from Falcon? Might as well throw Alienware into the mix of over priced shit.

[David Hills @ Apr 11th 2006 2:00PM]

http://www.silverstonetek.com/product-case.htm
Silverstone do a range of beautiful cases in most form factors. Have a look at my favorite the LC09, it's mini ITX so very small but boy is it pretty!

[Martin Jones @ Apr 11th 2006 2:12PM]

We published an article today about Media Centre PC's at High Tech Home Magzine.

"Perhaps the MCPC is conceptually flawed and its greatest strength is inextricably linked to the very factor which inhibits its wide spread market penetration. Quite simply, all the power of a PC may seem like overkill for many users in the front room."

http://www.hightechhomemag.com/blog.php?id=92

[Will @ Apr 11th 2006 6:08PM]

I went the HTPC route for awhile. My first attempt was with a CRT HDTV w/ VGA. It was a lot of fun and a lot of hastle. I've given up on that application and now use a streaming media/DVD player set over my network. Does everything my HTPC did except play PC games.

The HTPC is still performing HTPC duties but it's now connected to a 27" 16:9 LCD HDTV-ready monitor in the bedroom. It was as simple as setting up an ordinary PC. No more Powerstrip. In fact I don't really consider it an HTPC.

[jay @ Apr 18th 2006 2:02PM]

As a systems builder, I believe there is a need for pre-built media centers as not everybody has the technical knowledge to assemble one.

With my experience, people just want something that works out of the box without trying to assemble and configure it. Considering the time and effort that goes into building your own htpc, to some people it's not worth it. They rather pay a little more for the convience.