New Computer HP m7360n

I broke down and picked up a new computer to replace the computer I have had for 5 years. I ended up going with an HP m7360n. I set it up this afternoon and the performance is light years beyond what had been working with. Dual core processor, lightscribe DVD burner, 2GB of ram, and what seems to be an endless supply of USB ports. On my old computer I had to ration the connections.

Oh and the iPod finally syncs and performs as seemlessly as it does with a Mac.

The computer uses Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005. Most of the Media Center Edition features seem nice in principal but have a little trouble with their execution. I'll mainly use it for the online sites like MTV Overdrive. The online MCE sites look slick, but once you factor in bandwidth congestion the ondemand experience of watching your favorite tv shows from Comedy Central or your favorite music videos from MTV can become frustrating. I had numerous buffering problems, however when I did get a good stream watching some old bad 80s metal videos and a little Chappelle show was really cool.

With the MCE I finally got to try out the connectivity to the XBOX 360. This experience was seemless. Able to watch videos, browse MCE websites, listen to music and look at pictures all from the XBOX 360 interface streamed from the new HP computer to my TV. Some of the videos had minor drop outs due to the streaming. However I was quite impressed with how well it performed.

Now I just have to decide if I want to install the new Windows Vista beta onto this new machine.