4. Multimedia Capabilities And Other Interesting Issues

The PC Alchemy units came up ahead of the Shuttle and Winbook units primarily because of the completeness and convenience of their overall offerings (what wasn't bundled is incredibly easy to find and add to complete any system purchase, as you'd expect from vendors that specialize in multimedia systems and hardware components. Where the Shuttle was concerned, we were a little nonplussed to be shipped a unit sans even an SDTV tuner (available as an add-on option) and without a wireless keyboard, remote control, or IR receiver. We rate these elements as essential in delivering a workable MCE system (but of course we had no trouble adding these missing elements, and Shuttle's own order page includes all of them as well, though they do add at least $145 to the system cost; $230 to match the Winbook Jiv Mini's capabilities, for a sticker price of $1,229).

At first blush, we expected the WinBook Jiv Mini and the PC Alchemy M2B units to be completely alike. But when we took delivery of the two test systems we discovered some interesting differences, some minor and perfectly acceptable, others still minor but somewhat irksome. On the plus side of the ledger, the WinBook unit includes built-in wireless networking, IR, and Bluetooth receivers, where the M2B omits Bluetooth. But the $1,129 price point for the WinBook Jiv with those optional peripherals we mentioned gets you a Core Duo T2300 1.66 GHz processor and 1 GB of PC-4200 DDR2 RAM, whereas $70 more dollars for the PC Alchemy M2B buys you a T2400 1.83 GHz processor, and 1 GB of PC-5400 DDR2 RAM, plus the peripherals that are optional with the Jiv come with the M2B.

Though the Jiv includes built-in Bluetooth, the M2B counters with a nice (and to our way of thinking, more valuable) wireless 2.4 GHz wireless keyboard with an integrated optical trackball in lieu of a mouse (the keyboard normally retails for $60 or so; you can buy a good USB Bluetooth receiver for about $30). Given that performance and choice of peripherals lean toward PC Alchemy, we can't help but lean in the same direction in our estimation of the relative worth of both offerings. That said, this is as close to a real toss-up as you can get.

There was also one completely surprising and totally unexpected difference between the two units. When playing a DVD on the WinBook unit in low-light conditions, we noticed that light from the laser on the optical drive leaked out of several narrow seams in the case. For whatever reason, this did not occur with the PC Alchemy model, where we saw no such light leakage even in pitch-black darkness. Granted, this could simply represent a manufacturing glitch in the unit that WinBook shipped to us and might not be a problem in other such units, we found it astonishing that two otherwise identical cases could exhibit such a profound and occasionally annoying difference between them.

Finally, we found some additional, if slight reasons to lean in PC Alchemy's direction where the Jiv and the M2B were concerned. The Jiv bundles CD/DVD burning software (Newtech Infosystems CD&DVD Maker), whereas the M2B bundles Norton Internet Security with a 12-month subscription, the Nvidia Pure Video Decoder, and the OEM version of Nero Burning ROM 6.0. Given a choice between making media and obtaining decent Internet security, anti-virus protection, and a good video decoder plus more powerful CD/DVD burning tools, we'd opt for the latter choice every time.