My New Media Center PC

I got a new Acer at Tiger Direct. It was just a cheapo, but it is more than adequate for my Media Center. It is running Windows Vista, and I added on 2 digital tuners and a 750 GB secondary SATA drive for tv recording and media storage.

19" LCD (this came with the PC, but it is upstairs in my office now)
Embedded high-definition audio with 7.1-channel audio support
Two external speakers
VGA, DVI-D, headphones, microphone and six audio ports
Interface Ports
RJ-45 LAN
VGA
Headphones
Microphone
DVI-D
FireWire® (IEEE 1394)
Two PS/2®
Six audio
Eight USB 2.0 (four front, four back)
Communications
Gigabit LAN
V.92 modem
Bunch of Included Software
NTI Media Maker™
Six 3.5" drive bays (two external, four internal)
Two 5.25" drive bays
One PCI Express® 2.0 x1
One PCI Express® 2.0 x16
Two PCI v2.3
USB mouse and multimedia English keyboard
250 watt power supply

The secondary drive is so that all the recording/deleting of tv and other media takes place on a drive other than the one where the operating system resides. This will help keep the PC quick and responsive. Also in the "keep the PC quick and responsive" department - the PC will be locked down for program installation: no apps will be installed to the PC besides what is already there, with a few minor exceptions.

The two tv tuners allow me to record two shows at once.

Conversational Mockery

(03:36) lancer: ok
(03:37) jamesn: Did you mean: OK...
(03:37) lancer: yep
(03:38) jamesn: The ellipses are crucial
(03:38) jamesn: See more in Chapter 7 of James' Guide to Conversational Mockery