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Alienware's Hangar18 HTPC gets reviewed: more HT than PC
Alienware's tricked-out Hangar18 HTPC launched last month, and Computer Shopper was first to put a unit through its paces. The reviewer had praise for the sheer number of inputs and outputs, nifty Gyration remote, and the terrific sound from the 1000W amp, but found that the AMD Athlon X2 4600+ and NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS were a little slow for games and other compute-intensive tasks -- in fact, benchmark results were "close to entry-level." We're not certain that's what Alienware was aiming for with its $3,199 flagship HTPC, but the Hangar18 did shine when used as a media player: the only other faults Computer Shopper found were the lack of QAM tuners and a finicky DVD drive. With a final score of 8.6, it looks like the Hangar18 lives up to its advance billing -- now here's hoping Alienware rolls out those promised Blu-ray and CableCARD options sooner rather than later.
Alienware's Hangar 18
We can't tell you much about Alienware's new Hangar 18, but if you were wondering what one of those new-fangled AMD LIVE! Home Cinema PCs is all about, here's what you're looking at. The Hangar 18 isn't yet announced so we can't tell you much about it as a media PC, but like so many other machines, we suspect this one will be announced alongside Windows Vista later in January.Update: We snagged some of the deets on this puppy -- it'll be running on an AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual-core processor with up to 2GB memory, sport up to 1.5 terabytes to store your high-def content, up to four TV tuners (two analog and two digital), HDMI out, stereo receiver with built-in 1000W amp and subwoofer, slot-loading DVD/CD player/burner, Bluetooth, wireless 802.11a/g, and front inputs for a raft of memory standards: Compact Flash I and II, SD, Mini SD, MultiMedia Card, Memory Stick, and Smart Media.
