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To test the MegaPC we used a selection of budget components. Our setup could easily be recreated for as little as £500 in its entirety.
Processor: Pentium 4 2.66 Northwood - 533 Mhz
RAM: 512MB of Samsung Original DDR2700
Hard Drive: Single 80GB Western Digital 8MB Cache
CD ROM: Pioneer 16x DVD / CD Drive
OS: Windows XP Pro SP1
It's a HiFi Unit!
Once plugged in, the front buttons and dials of the MegaPC come to life. Without even starting the PC the MegaPC can be used to play music from the CD drive or via the built in radio. The dials and buttons illuminate in matching orange and it was a simple case of inserting a CD containing either audio tracks or MP3 files to get going.
It was at this point that we really needed some guidance on operating the MegaPC, so we turned to the great looking, thick manual. But oh no, the manual proved pretty well useless, it may have been thick but it only contained a few pages in English. Most of those pages were devoted to physical setup. On checking MSI's web site we discovered that we had only received the quick setup guide, the manual was missing, so a quick download and hey presto, a 79 page, very well produced and informative manual.
With the unit in HiFi mode we were able to successfully listen to the Radio using the included AM/FM aerial. Despite our location having relatively poor reception, the audio quality was very good. It was very easy to tune stations and store them for future use.
Audio CD's and MP3's recorded onto a CD were also easy to play. Control is at your finger tips using the included remote control. Most of the remote control was devoted to the optional TV tuner. We did note in the manual that the TV tuner is not available in HiFi mode; it requires the PC to be in operation.
While music is playing the LCD display becomes a graphical display with four different modes. Unfortunately the display looses some of its potential as it is not a pixelated unit, there are pre defined image shapes and text that can be activated as the system requires. This could be a lot more impressive.
As a piece of HiFi equipment the MegaPC would rank at the cheaper end of the spectrum, the quality and features do not make this unit a replacement for a good HiFi system. What it does offer is a very useful alternative where having a separate PC and HiFi unit is impractical.
One area that frustrated us was the fact that in HiFi mode, speakers or headphones could only be connected via the audio jack the Optical SPDIF out only seems to work in PC mode.
It was not possible to play music from data stored on the Hard Disk drive or on any inserted memory cards. This was also a shame.
The MegaPC can be run in either HiFi mode or PC mode, but not both together.
No its not it's a PC!
In PC mode the MegaPC starts to show some of its true potential.
Once booted all of our installed components were recognised correctly and on entering the BIOS there were the usual array of adjustments available.
For those of you interested in pushing your components to the limit, the MegaPC does not provide very much at all. The front side bus can be set to 100Mhz, 133Mhz or CPU default, nowhere in between. Memory can be set to 200Mhz, 266Mhz 333Mhz or SPD. There are no voltage adjustments to be found.
Windows XP installed faultlessly and the included driver CD provided the necessary SiS chipset, integrated graphics and audio drivers. All installed perfectly.
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