Small Form Factors (SFF) PCs are currently the hottest topic in the computing industry. With their sleek designs, quiet nature and portability, they are perfect for a die-hard gaming session in the computer room to a relaxing movie session in the living room. SFF PCs really captured the hearts of many when Shuttle entered the market with its promising designs. In fact, Shuttle is now a name synonymous with SFF PCs. While SFF barebones from Shuttle, MSI, Soltek and Gigabyte (along with many others) are targeted more or less towards the enthusiast crowd (with experience in building personal computers), custom PC makers have jumped the ship to deliver SFF PCs to those with little experience in custom building. As a matter of fact, SFF PCs or rather multimedia PCs from companies like ABS and Alienware are more suited to fit a living room décor than the ones from Soltek or Gigabyte. Some hardware manufacturers, such as MSI and Shuttle, have quite a few professional models that will also appeal to the self-doers, so the industry has enough to offer to both the enthusiast as well as the inexperienced.

ABS Computer Technologies, a popular custom PC builder, has recently announced its Ultimate E2 Media Center PC that is solely targeted at those with a desire to have a powerful multimedia PC. This particular multimedia system supports an Intel Pentium 4 microprocessor based on the latest Socket 775 at 3.0GHz clock speed. This is a default processor of choice, but for a higher price it could be upgraded to a faster one.

The system is designed in an Intel approved barebone style case for multimedia systems; it also supports a solid 300W power supply unit to provide adequate power to the latest in hardware components. The system also features an Intel 915 PCI-E chipset based motherboard for the latest in on-board peripherals and upgradibility options. The ABS Ultimate E2 Media Center PC is equipped with Corsair’s 1GB XMS PC3200 memory along with Seagate’s 80GB SATA II standard, NCQ technology and 7,200RPM spindle speed hard disk drive. The point to note is that the Seagate drive is an OEM version, which could potentially reduce the cost of the system by a small margin. The media center PC also features an ATI X300 128MB PCIe graphics adapter, NTSC dual-TV tuner card, on-board Realtek 7.1 surround sound audio, on-board 3COM Gigabit Ethernet controller for connectivity, 16x Double-Layer DVD-RW drive, a remote control with built-in IR Receiver and an Intel 2200BG wireless card.

Since the media center PC is built around Intel’s BTX design, the case as well as its thermal solution reflects to match Intel’s standards, thereby, efficiently reducing the thermal inefficiencies in the case itself. You have the option to upgrade to a faster Intel-based microprocessor, memory, hard disk drive and a media center extender kit that includes Linksys Dual-Band wireless card should you prefer.

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