MSI mega barebones

[intel-ligent]

Youve probably seen my laptop post, i wanted something portable to take between houses when im at uni so a laptop would be ace, but then i came across these as a good idea.

Does anyone have one? or has anyone used one?

heres the basic spec

M/B . MS-6796(Proprietary F/F)
. 185 x 290mm(6 layers)

CPU . Support Socket 462 for AMD®/Duron™/Athlon XP™ up to 3000+
Chipset . nVIDIA nFORCE2 (Crush 18G) + MCP2T
Memory . DDR 333 x 2
. Support memory up to 2.0GB(Dual Channel support)
On-Board Audio . AC'97 Codec integrated in Realtek650
. Support 5.1 Channel
. SPDIF In/Out
On-Board VGA . Integrated in nFORCE2(AGP 8X)
On-Board Communication . LAN: RTL8201BL(10/100Mb)
. Modem: 56K MDC module
. WLAN: Mini-PCI WLAN Card(For Deluxe model)
On-Board TV-out . Integrated in Crush18G
On-Board USB . Front Panel x 2
. Rear Panel x 2
. On-Board x1 for Card Reader
On-Board IEEE 1394 . Agere FW802B
. Front x 2(4pin, 6pin)
Expansion Slots . PCI 2.2 x 1
. AGP(8X) x 1
Power Off Function . Playback Audio CD, MP3, AM/FM Radio Tuner(with Remote Controller)
TV Tuner Function . MS-8606(Optional PCI TV Tuner card with remote controller)
Power Supply 200W(PFC 5V/12V SB) Full Range
Chassis . 202(W) x 320(D) x 151(H) mm
On-Board Headers & Connectors . Rear Panel:
- Parallel Port x 1
- VGA x 2
- PS/2 x 2
- Mic in/Line in/Line out x 1
- USB x 2
- LAN(RJ45) x 1
- SPDIF/O x 1
- Phone Jack(RJ11) x 1
- TV-out(S-Video)

. Front Panel:
- Mic-in x1
- Headphone x 1
- USB x 2
- SPDIF/I x 1
- 1394 x 1(4-pin)
- 1394 x 1(6-pin)

BIOS . 4MB Flash
Clock Generator . Integrated in Crush 18G and MCP2T
Others . Microsoft® PC 2001
. LAN Wake Up Function
. Suspend to RAM/Disk Function
. Top Tech III(Thermal Overheat Protection Technology)
. PC Alert System Hardware Monitor
. On-Board BlueBird Module for Power-Off features
. Color LED
. Media Center Deluxe III

any ideas will be appriciated

edit: also wondering what optical drives people use for this, ive heard some dont fit. thanks!

 

[HippyWarlock]

IIRC PC-MART tested these recently(ish) - Good review.

They're using one as the base of a Home entertainments setup in a copy about a fortnight ago.

Quiet - looks like its begging for a carrying strap

 

[becroydon]

this may seem like a stupid question, but what is that, it looks like a stereo. Can a motherboard and graphics card ect fit in that

 

[intel-ligent]

Its a barebones system with a built in radio/cd/mp3 player to be used as a standalone stereo if needs be

 

[preet2u]

I've sold a couple of these ... n' the feedback from my customers has been really good so far ...

I personally like 'em ..i think they make excellent home pc's ...

The older barebone's in this series form MSI had SIS chipset based mobo's ... now they have replaced it with nforce2 chipsets ..which make these machine's a real good option...

They r pretty good for gaming too ..since they have an 8x AGP solt n' can accomadate most new graphic cards