MSI Wind Box DE220 displayed and detailed
By Ross Miller 
posted February 1st 2010 8:57PM
posted February 1st 2010 8:57PM
In all the CES madness, we somehow missed MSI's previously-teased Wind Box DE220. Fortunately, Liliputing didn't; the site's just now putting up impressions and along with it some specs of the novel-sized nettop. It's packing Pinetrail for starters, in the form of a single-core Atom D410 or dual-core D510. Also included are an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330, up to 1TB HDD / 4GB memory, 802.11b/g/n, and Windows 7 home premium. Mum's the word on price or release date, but from what we've seen, you can at least start decorating around its known color options: blue, red, and black.
Maybe instead of dedicating 99% of your energies to the iPad in the last 2 weeks, you could have spent a few resources checking out other sources for other products. Crazy, I know.
@John Stathakis better late than never, lets not go there and just give em props for trying. =)
@John Stathakis : I'm just suprised that they didn't add something like, "And then we have MSI Wind Box, that looks a lot like a certain pad from Apple, seeing how it's rectangular and all."
@John Stathakis
seems to me like you're the one who dragged the iPad in to an article that had zero mention of it. and if you guys were paying any attention they pretty much across the board have criticized it anyway. they wouldn't be doing their jobs if they didn't cover it; regardless of whether it's a good product or not, or whether you care or not, the iPad was important news. grow up and if you hate the attention it's gotten quit mentioning it in unrelated articles.
Pretty nice specifications, although I'd prefer to put in one of those $200 Hitachi 2TB drives you see pop up on slickdeals now and again.
Would make a great HTPC that you could leave on as a centralized home server with all your recorded TV shows, movies, music, etc.
Hard to tell the proportions of this device, anyone have a detailed spec sheet showing how big this is? Looks like a pretty decent device that could be used for some lite media center duty.
@thetoad The Liliputing site says:
"The Wind Box DE220 measures 10.8″ x x 6.7″ x 1.6″"
@kaeljae
Thanks, thats a nice and small box. May pick one up depending on how soon it will be out and pricing.
Ironically, there were more posts about iPad rumors than all of CES combined.
@jol That isn't ironic. It would be ironic if this site leaned toward favoring Microsoft, which they don't.
@scots79
It wouldn't be ironic, it'd just make this site a little (or a lot...) better than what it is now. Not that I don't like seeing these iPad updates every second of my day, I'd just like to see some [more]... *Real* news.
@jol Well it didn't help that multiple people posted the same thing over and over about the iPad specs, software, what Jobs had for lunch and the corresponding bowel movements.. Then the hands on, the rumor round up, the round up on the hands on, the bs chart comparing lifetime plan cost, the what you need to know about the iPad, the round up about the round up of the round ups, iPad versus iPhone, iPad versus unicorns, but I'm sure I'm missing a post or twelve that went up in that time frame.
Any idea's if this can serve as a HTPC?
Thinking of something like this or the Dell Zino next to the tv to stream content.
Doable? Or would it be better to go with something more dedicated?
@Munk I have two Dell Zinos, and the Dell Zino is an excellent htpc IF you max out the specifications and get the fastest e6850 processor and better dedicated ATI video card.
With those upgrades, its taken every 1080P movie I have thrown at it as well as BluRay of course with a DTS signal my receiver can understand all through the single HDMI out.
Fan noise is there, but quiet and inaudible at normal seating distance.
@Ducman69 Cant be louder than a 360!
How much did that setup cost then? & did u run 1080 over 802N or hd?
@Munk No, its nothing like a 360, its very quiet.
Sorry, I don't know what 802N is in that context. But it has a built in bluray which is 1080P which goes from the HDMI for video and 7.1 audio into my receiver, which outputs to my plasma. It also does 1080P downloads in various formats fine w/ the shark007 Windows 7 codec pack (will play absolutely anything in media center that way).
I bought them when they were on slickdeals.net:
* 1.80GHz AMD Dual Core X2
* 4GB 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM - 2x2GB
* 320GB 7200rpm Serial ATA Drive
* 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
* Wireless 802.11a/b/g/n
* Dedicated ATI Radeon HD 4330 512MB of dedicated memory w/ 7.1 DTS audio over HDMI
+ accessories: wired keyboard/mouse
------------------------
* $388.82 (after +8.25% tax and -20% bing cash back)
@Ducman69 Oh and $475.44 for the one with BluRay after 8.25% tax and -20% bing cashback.
WAY overpriced for a BluRay player, but that one was a gift and she asked for it.
@Ducman69 Thnx for the info!
I meant wifi. I currently stream content to a dv3(hooked to my bravia via HDMI) from a tower via a WRT150N. I dunno if its cause the desktop is 1.6 core 2 (4 giggs ddr3 + 1G 8800 GT) or the router but after a few mins the bd rips start to stutter like crazy.
I 'm too cheap to buy a $100 wifi adapter for the 360 + that thing is just too freaking hot, loud and unreliable to be used as part of a HT setup!
The choice is b/w a ps3 which from what i've heard does a pretty good job with handling media or buying something like the Zino.
How do you use the Zino? Via keyboard + mouse & do you use stock win7 (media center im presuming) or do you use something like XBMC? I'd image windows looking quite odd on a large tv!
@Munk It starts up automatically into Windows Media Center, but my TV is 1080P and it just looks like a 30" screen on your desk, just that its say 50-60" and you're further away.
I use the Gyration Music Universal remote control and keyboard, which was $50 after a $50 mail in rebate. Its a pretty accurate air-mouse, and feels kinda like a wiimote.
The Dell Zino is okay but you really have to upgrade the processor to get it to work properly. Wish they offered a core2duo option, hdmi and optical out on the zino and it would be a pretty nice device.
@thetoad I agree and recommend the better processor. Its still not a powerhouse though, but better than a dual-core Atom 330, and just as frugal on power.
With the dedicated video card though, it does have HDMI (with 7.1 sound) output though.
MaC mini like.
@logic thinker Test
I hate the collapsed comments , sighhhhh Whats the fix for that?
@Hydra Alt+F4.
Interesting design. Very Wii-esque.
Do these things run on batteries?
If not, why are they running cheap underpowered ATOM processors??
@JakeInDC: 'cheap' being the operative word. Even the first gen Atoms when combined with the Nvidia ION are powerful enough to handle HD video (the ASRock ION 330 performs flawlessly with Windows 7 and Media Center, even recording OTA HD with a USB TV tuner).
Friends of mine who would never have considered an HTPC are now looking at the Atom 330 based Revo which can be found for $300, including Windows 7 Home Premium, as their living room PC, especially since it's a one-click install to launch Boxee directly from the W7MC interface.
@JakeInDC Yeah, I'd have to read reviews to see if this combo is strong enough for HD flash and 1080P videos, but if it is, the benefits would include lower electricity bills if you use it as your always-on media server and the lower thermal load usually means a small footprint and quiet fan.
data from market research firm NPD showing that, of computers priced at $1,000 or more sold in the U.S. in the fourth quarter of 2009, 90% were Macs. The data demonstrates Apple's continued strong performance among the high-end personal computer market as average selling prices for Windows computers continue to decline. In addition, Apple doubled its share of the $500-$1,000 computer market year-over-year from 5% to 10% based on sales of the Mac mini and MacBook.
@logic thinker
And to think people pay all that money for something bubbly and shiny.
@logic thinker 95% of the computer industry is seeing gadgets become more and more affordable as technology advances, the trend since the beginning.
Apple, although using the same industry standard intel processors, LG LCD screens, hitachi harddrives, nvidia/ati GPUs, sony batteries, and being built in Chinese factories right next to other manufacturers continues to charge exorbitant prices for their equivalent hardware.
Although computer sales are amongst the lowest in the industry, advertising expenditure is the highest of any computer manufacturer by many factors, yet the high profit margins keep the image-oriented niche manufacturer very profitable. =p
Looks a lot like Dell's tower design, only slimmer.
Wind Box? Sounds like some kind of flatulence cannister.
Looks good though.
@thunderbollock Queef FTW!
I just don't get the names some of these manufacturers come up nowadays with like iPad, Joojoo and Wind Box.....do we really need to be reminded of our bodily functions when we're surfing on a computer?