Are fanless pc-s making sense for the living room?

[Cuzza]

Source: http://globegadget.com/shuttle-mini-pc-ds57u/

 

This got me thinking if this would make any sense for a media center pc in the living room.

I would love to see a review from Linus about this topic/product.

[Mujteba]

Yikes! Not with that I/O.

[lani100]

Something like the zotac pico that linus reviewed would  be suitable

[multifrag]

Not sure if it makes any sense as you can just buy a chromecast or raspberry pi and make your own media pc. Linus already done reviews of similar product but with gpu in it, which would make more sense(result- throttling).

[lani100]

Not sure if it makes any sense as you can just buy a chromecast or raspberry pi and make your own media pc. Linus already done reviews of similar product but with gpu in it, which would make more sense(result- throttling).

Only when gaming for displaying video and normal use these are fine and some light gaming.

[multifrag]

Only when gaming for displaying video and normal use these are fine and some light gaming.

Not for over $200 playing video is easy and having raspberry pi hocked up to your lan or chromecast will do the same thing for under $40

[lani100]

Not for over $200 playing video is easy and having raspberry pi hocked up to your lan or chromecast will do the same thing for under $40

Some people prefer windows and use it for some other tasks aswell.

[PumaXCS]

I have an HTPC which doubles as a game stream. Its just an old dual core in a smaller form factor case (Optiplex 790 I salvaged from work) and considering the performance I get out of it there isn't much benefit for me to pay that much money on something because of size and noise. I've never heard that Dell, it's black/gray so it blends in well, and I'd much rather spend the budget on more storage space rather than a PC that hides.

[Jarsky]

Yikes! Not with that I/O.

 

Should probably click the link

 

Connectors: DisplayPort, HDMI, 2x USB 3.0, 4x USB 2.0, audio and 2x RS-

Network: 2x Intel Gigabit Ethernet

 

connectivity looks fine.

 

As for Chromecasts, I could only really use that to play back my media via plex/dlna, it doesnt allow for direct media playback - and I prefer not to transcode my stuff to the main media setup.

RPi unfortunately isnt strong enough to decode DTS either, so if you have 1080p DTS encodes then dont expect to play it back without doing passthrough to a compatible receiver - im guessing that the new Pi2 would address this problem.

 

I use a microATX system in a media case because I already had the hardware and didnt want to spend more $$$ on a miniITX systems. But I use the system for direct media playback, streaming, capturing the consoles (PS4/XBO/WiiU) and for emulator based games.