Home Media / Theater PC

 

While experimenting with Android TV boxes, I found various limitations in the boxes themselves. Just to mention a few, the interface, file management, networking, file sharing capabilities, supported hardware are limited and inconvenient compared to a desktop PC.

The best advantage of using an Android TV box is probably its cost, as a relatively good performance one costs well under $100. However, I noticed full PC options were available at just under $200 like this one below:

HP 8300 SFF (Small Form Factor) Core i5-3470 PC (refurbished)

Though this product was listed as refurbished, the unit I received seemed practically new (including a keyboard and mouse) with no noticeable signs of wear. The seller, ITreplay, seems to be an in-house brand of Ingram Micro – one of the largest tech distributors in the US. The specs of this PC are as follows:

  • Intel Core i5-3470 3.2GHz (Max 3.6) 6MB cache Quad Core Processor
  • 8GB DDR3 RAM (up to 16GB)
  • Intel HD 2500 Graphics
  • 500GB HDD
  • 1 VGA Port, 1 Display Port
  • SuperMulti DVD RW
  • 6 USB 2.0 4 USB 3.0
  • Windows 10 Professional 64-bit

At $188, including free shipping, this is a very good price for the performance you get.

This is a fully functioning PC that is capable of playing practically all types of HD sources and will cover basic games. As a PC, it will support all types of USB keyboards, webcams, external AV devices, etc. If you install a SSD, boot up and wake up from sleep is pretty quick and fan noise is audible only when close to it.

It also comes with a full OEM Windows 10 Professional 64-bit installation key, which you can use to install on the hard drive or an optional SSD with ease.

The minor downsides would be that there is no HDMI port nor wireless internet capability, but Display Port to HDMI adapters and USB Wi-Fi adapters can be purchased for under $10 and adding a wireless keyboard/mouse combo, like the Logitech K400 Plus, would make it the perfect home media PC that everyone in the family can enjoy.

With this Media PC, I use it almost daily for the following tasks:

  • Watching Youtube, Netflix, other streaming video services.
  • Playing local music, video, photos off my Synology file server using Windows File Explorer and VLC media player
  • Multi location international family video calls using Zoom Conferencing

 

Due to the low cost of this very capable PC, it can be easily used as a secondary computer or a dedicated CCTV monitoring PC or a basic server or development computer and at that price, you can buy more than one for other uses.

Do you have or know better alternatives? Let us know!