alienware
Banned
Excess. A word that I would not usually apply to myself. Let's take a look at a couple of meanings for it from the Oxford.
A going beyond what is regarded as customary or proper
Immoderate indulgence
More than or above what is necessary, usual, or specified; extra
If ever I could apply those meanings to something in the computer world then I would find one word. Silverstone.
Never before have I seen such wonderful, gorgeous, sexy products with a price tag to match. I am aware that they have recently started serving some cabbage for us mere peasants but for many years their name has been associated with products that have just defied what one could need when building a 'regular every day' computer.
So we shall stick with excess as our word of the day.
A brief line of history just incase you had no idea of who Silverstone were, well, they were the ones who have created what is hailed as the best computer chassis ever built, the Temjin. Nuff said really. If you still don't know who they are then read on and you can see what kind of a product they produce.
Today I am penning some words about the MFP51. Apparently this device comes in Silverstone's top flight media PC cases (or HTPC depending on what you refer to them as). This time around however the LCD screen has been detatched and fitted to a aluminium bezel to make it into a 5.25" bay device. It also comes with all of the needed parts to make it work in any PC. Good, eh?
I purchased this device about nine months ago. I will admit that I was lured in by a few things. Firstly it looks super cool. It also looks gorgeous like near on all of Silverstone's product lineup. It does, however, offer quite a vast range of functionality and I will get onto that now.
News feed RSS can be fed into the MFP51 and it will gently scroll accross all of the latest news whilst you work away. Great for let's say, football results on the fly. My main use for stuff like this has been when gaming. It still continues to beaver away doing it's stuff no matter what you are up to.
Emails. Apparently you can set it to notify you when you have an email and actually display the email. I never really did work this part out. I think I needed some software and never got around to it.
Full system specs and info. This has been thus far my main use for this device. It displays everything you need to know barring temps (sadly but then it was never designed for that). Ram size, ram free, CPU speed and spec and name and so on. This is particularly handy for when you are experiencing issues with a game as it tells you the disparity with your ram size and what you have available. This helped me to realise why GTAIV kept crashing. It was running out of memory. It will also display your username and so on.
However where the MFP truly shines is found in the name. The media front panel. On the front is a small remote censor which works to accept signals from the remote. The panel itself during operation of media center will tell you everything you need to know. Put on a DIVX from your collection? Immediately you will see South Park 1402 - The tale of Scrotie McBoogerballs as an example. Switch to a DVD? Chapter info, film name, etc. It can even tell you the bitrate.
Cueing a load of MP3? It will display the artist, song and bitrate of every song played.
So what do you get for your hard earned £49.33? (price taken just this second from Scan computers for the silver one, expect to pay around £70 for a black one) Well here is what will arrive should you order it.
When opening the box you will be presented with this.
Cables and set up
One would think that this product would be really easy to install. Well, think again if you want it to function 100%. You see, this device has a way of hijacking your power button and allowing you to actually turn your PC on and off via the remote control. Now before I hear all of the groans from the back consider how useful that would be if you had a large living room or bedroom and was nicely tucked up under a blanket with your Mitchell Kitty. All you need to do is grunt, reach for the remote and bingo bongo ! we have power. Shut down is the same too although you can use the app shutdown button to achieve that. The problem (if it is one to you) is that your power button needs to be routed to and reach to the inside face of the device because that is where it needs to plug in. In my case this was a pain because my power switch cable was routed through the side panel of my machine and came out through a small hole under the mother board. This meant I had to cut a load of zip ties and actually remove the motherboard in order to reroute it.
Another small problem here is that the pole bracket things that hold the face to the back of the unit are right in the way of pushing the plastic plug onto the device. So I had to loosen the entire face of it just to get the thing in. Annoying.
The second thing you need to do is put on the ATX adapter. This is how the unit draws power, oddly. It's basically a 24 pin male to female extension affair with two wires breaking out of it. These in turn plug into a plug that dangles out of the back of the unit. This led me to question why Silverstone could not do the same with the power switch header.
The third and final thing that you need to connect is the MFP51's lifeline, the USB wire. This is also quite strange as it comes out of the back of the unit into a regular USB plug that you would find on say a mouse or keyboard. It then goes into a socket that breaks into a plug that you put onto an internal header on your motherboard. The problem I had and have with this is that it's a fair old clump and pretty much impossible to hide with any neatness. I can understand why they did this and do agree (some people won't have a spare header and would need to put it out the back of the PC and into a USB socket) but it just makes it messy for those that like to keep everything nicely neat and tidy inside.
A better choice would have been to provide two cables but I guess the price would have become even more than it already is.
Once you have tackled all of that and boot your PC you are greeted with... Well... Nothing. The device will not do anything until you have been into Windows and installed the software. The software it uses is called Imon. No, that's not a Jamaican agreeing with you what fine beer you have given him, but the name of the software. I would imagine it is short for Imonitor? not sure. Also on the CD is Imedian, a rather nice looking (but utterly pointless as it doesn't do anything MCE does and also doesn't offer BR playback). I would imagine this would be useful to some one who uses something like Vista Basic but for any one else MCE is the weapon of choice.
O.K, so now we have installed the software we are then prompted to reboot, which we do immediately because we just want it to do something.
Immediately upon reboot it springs to life, giving you the time displayed all accross it's screen. I have found this handy, too.
Once in the software will immediately start annoying you to update. The problem is when you tell it to update it says "failed to connect to download" and stops. When you reboot? it bugs you again. And again. And again. Until I was finally annoyed enough to go off and find this mythical update. In the end it did nothing and I ended up figuring out that you can turn off updates.
And then we get to another seriously great part. The remote. It is, bar none, the nicest MCE remote I have ever seen. Instead of having a Dpad like cursor thing like the Speedlink remote I had it has something that feels like an Xbox 360 analogue stick. It isn't analogue of course but it still feels incredibly nice to the touch. Setting up the remote is very very easy and within moments you can be in MCE watching away. There is a very slight snag to that however. Imon sticks a whacking great disc shaped thing in the bottom corner of your screen that is on top of everything, even games. Also, when you press the remote to do anything it lets out a truly ghastly sound that sounds like a robot taking a dump. And it doesn't just do this once it does it every time you even touch the remote . This is a problem right from the get go because not only does it nearly blow out your ear drums if you are wearing headphones but it wakes people up in the house as it's FAR louder than what you are watching or listening to. Thankfully this also can be turned off but god only knows why they put it there in the first place. It's really tacky and serves no function whatsoever.
Going back to the remote though again I will say it's just drop dead sexy and leave it there.
But I can't because it's more than a remote. There is a small button on the remote that says "Keyboard/Mouse". Pressing it presents a cursor and all of a sudden you have a movey stick mouse thingy complete with buttons to left and right click. Again, sheer indulgence. I no longer have to sit up, pick up the keyboard and launch that game. I can simply use this remote mouse movey stick thing.
It also has buttons to launch the Windows search and a full keyboard app that allows you to use the mousey stick thing to type with. Sadly this is where it goes too far and tries to do too much as just typing a sentence takes all day. Still, it's there if you need it I guess.
The launching apps with the remote function is friggin great though because hardly any games come with a MCE launcher now.
Over all the remote is the finest I have ever seen.
Here are some pics of what I have explained above
The time.
CPU speed.
More system info. Heck, this thing even tells you about your network card.
Let's wrap this up then with the classic good and bad.
Good.
It's utterly gorgeous. It's Silverstone. It actually has a whole host of functions that can be very useful but if you are on the market for a media remote then the remote alone almost justifies the cost of admission.
The display can be used for a plethora load of things and I hear that there are numerous aftermarket apps that can also be used with it.
It can power your PC up and down without having to bend down or get up. Awesome
Combined with the remote you can control your entire PC without a keyboard, mouse or media keyboard with pad. The remote also moves the mouse cursor with great fluidity making it a doddle to get used to. I worried at first that I was going to miss all of my icons but it's very well done and it took mere seconds for a clumsy oaf like me to be setting his power options and everything.
Bad.
It's a pain to set up and will cost you the neatness of your case inside. It's expensive. It's excessive. It's frivolous to a degree.
If you have a front door or sliding panel on your case then you have to get up (*groan*) to open or slide it to get to see the device or use the remote.
The remote goes a little too far with the typing on a keyboard function.
But overall it's so damn gorgeous that I don't care. When I got mine a friend of mine said to me -
Wow ! what a truly unbelievable waste of money.. Where can I get one?
A going beyond what is regarded as customary or proper
Immoderate indulgence
More than or above what is necessary, usual, or specified; extra
If ever I could apply those meanings to something in the computer world then I would find one word. Silverstone.
Never before have I seen such wonderful, gorgeous, sexy products with a price tag to match. I am aware that they have recently started serving some cabbage for us mere peasants but for many years their name has been associated with products that have just defied what one could need when building a 'regular every day' computer.
So we shall stick with excess as our word of the day.
A brief line of history just incase you had no idea of who Silverstone were, well, they were the ones who have created what is hailed as the best computer chassis ever built, the Temjin. Nuff said really. If you still don't know who they are then read on and you can see what kind of a product they produce.
Today I am penning some words about the MFP51. Apparently this device comes in Silverstone's top flight media PC cases (or HTPC depending on what you refer to them as). This time around however the LCD screen has been detatched and fitted to a aluminium bezel to make it into a 5.25" bay device. It also comes with all of the needed parts to make it work in any PC. Good, eh?
I purchased this device about nine months ago. I will admit that I was lured in by a few things. Firstly it looks super cool. It also looks gorgeous like near on all of Silverstone's product lineup. It does, however, offer quite a vast range of functionality and I will get onto that now.
News feed RSS can be fed into the MFP51 and it will gently scroll accross all of the latest news whilst you work away. Great for let's say, football results on the fly. My main use for stuff like this has been when gaming. It still continues to beaver away doing it's stuff no matter what you are up to.
Emails. Apparently you can set it to notify you when you have an email and actually display the email. I never really did work this part out. I think I needed some software and never got around to it.
Full system specs and info. This has been thus far my main use for this device. It displays everything you need to know barring temps (sadly but then it was never designed for that). Ram size, ram free, CPU speed and spec and name and so on. This is particularly handy for when you are experiencing issues with a game as it tells you the disparity with your ram size and what you have available. This helped me to realise why GTAIV kept crashing. It was running out of memory. It will also display your username and so on.
However where the MFP truly shines is found in the name. The media front panel. On the front is a small remote censor which works to accept signals from the remote. The panel itself during operation of media center will tell you everything you need to know. Put on a DIVX from your collection? Immediately you will see South Park 1402 - The tale of Scrotie McBoogerballs as an example. Switch to a DVD? Chapter info, film name, etc. It can even tell you the bitrate.
Cueing a load of MP3? It will display the artist, song and bitrate of every song played.
So what do you get for your hard earned £49.33? (price taken just this second from Scan computers for the silver one, expect to pay around £70 for a black one) Well here is what will arrive should you order it.
When opening the box you will be presented with this.
Cables and set up
One would think that this product would be really easy to install. Well, think again if you want it to function 100%. You see, this device has a way of hijacking your power button and allowing you to actually turn your PC on and off via the remote control. Now before I hear all of the groans from the back consider how useful that would be if you had a large living room or bedroom and was nicely tucked up under a blanket with your Mitchell Kitty. All you need to do is grunt, reach for the remote and bingo bongo ! we have power. Shut down is the same too although you can use the app shutdown button to achieve that. The problem (if it is one to you) is that your power button needs to be routed to and reach to the inside face of the device because that is where it needs to plug in. In my case this was a pain because my power switch cable was routed through the side panel of my machine and came out through a small hole under the mother board. This meant I had to cut a load of zip ties and actually remove the motherboard in order to reroute it.
Another small problem here is that the pole bracket things that hold the face to the back of the unit are right in the way of pushing the plastic plug onto the device. So I had to loosen the entire face of it just to get the thing in. Annoying.
The second thing you need to do is put on the ATX adapter. This is how the unit draws power, oddly. It's basically a 24 pin male to female extension affair with two wires breaking out of it. These in turn plug into a plug that dangles out of the back of the unit. This led me to question why Silverstone could not do the same with the power switch header.
The third and final thing that you need to connect is the MFP51's lifeline, the USB wire. This is also quite strange as it comes out of the back of the unit into a regular USB plug that you would find on say a mouse or keyboard. It then goes into a socket that breaks into a plug that you put onto an internal header on your motherboard. The problem I had and have with this is that it's a fair old clump and pretty much impossible to hide with any neatness. I can understand why they did this and do agree (some people won't have a spare header and would need to put it out the back of the PC and into a USB socket) but it just makes it messy for those that like to keep everything nicely neat and tidy inside.
A better choice would have been to provide two cables but I guess the price would have become even more than it already is.
Once you have tackled all of that and boot your PC you are greeted with... Well... Nothing. The device will not do anything until you have been into Windows and installed the software. The software it uses is called Imon. No, that's not a Jamaican agreeing with you what fine beer you have given him, but the name of the software. I would imagine it is short for Imonitor? not sure. Also on the CD is Imedian, a rather nice looking (but utterly pointless as it doesn't do anything MCE does and also doesn't offer BR playback). I would imagine this would be useful to some one who uses something like Vista Basic but for any one else MCE is the weapon of choice.
O.K, so now we have installed the software we are then prompted to reboot, which we do immediately because we just want it to do something.
Immediately upon reboot it springs to life, giving you the time displayed all accross it's screen. I have found this handy, too.
Once in the software will immediately start annoying you to update. The problem is when you tell it to update it says "failed to connect to download" and stops. When you reboot? it bugs you again. And again. And again. Until I was finally annoyed enough to go off and find this mythical update. In the end it did nothing and I ended up figuring out that you can turn off updates.
And then we get to another seriously great part. The remote. It is, bar none, the nicest MCE remote I have ever seen. Instead of having a Dpad like cursor thing like the Speedlink remote I had it has something that feels like an Xbox 360 analogue stick. It isn't analogue of course but it still feels incredibly nice to the touch. Setting up the remote is very very easy and within moments you can be in MCE watching away. There is a very slight snag to that however. Imon sticks a whacking great disc shaped thing in the bottom corner of your screen that is on top of everything, even games. Also, when you press the remote to do anything it lets out a truly ghastly sound that sounds like a robot taking a dump. And it doesn't just do this once it does it every time you even touch the remote . This is a problem right from the get go because not only does it nearly blow out your ear drums if you are wearing headphones but it wakes people up in the house as it's FAR louder than what you are watching or listening to. Thankfully this also can be turned off but god only knows why they put it there in the first place. It's really tacky and serves no function whatsoever.
Going back to the remote though again I will say it's just drop dead sexy and leave it there.
But I can't because it's more than a remote. There is a small button on the remote that says "Keyboard/Mouse". Pressing it presents a cursor and all of a sudden you have a movey stick mouse thingy complete with buttons to left and right click. Again, sheer indulgence. I no longer have to sit up, pick up the keyboard and launch that game. I can simply use this remote mouse movey stick thing.
It also has buttons to launch the Windows search and a full keyboard app that allows you to use the mousey stick thing to type with. Sadly this is where it goes too far and tries to do too much as just typing a sentence takes all day. Still, it's there if you need it I guess.
The launching apps with the remote function is friggin great though because hardly any games come with a MCE launcher now.
Over all the remote is the finest I have ever seen.
Here are some pics of what I have explained above
The time.
CPU speed.
More system info. Heck, this thing even tells you about your network card.
Let's wrap this up then with the classic good and bad.
Good.
It's utterly gorgeous. It's Silverstone. It actually has a whole host of functions that can be very useful but if you are on the market for a media remote then the remote alone almost justifies the cost of admission.
The display can be used for a plethora load of things and I hear that there are numerous aftermarket apps that can also be used with it.
It can power your PC up and down without having to bend down or get up. Awesome
Combined with the remote you can control your entire PC without a keyboard, mouse or media keyboard with pad. The remote also moves the mouse cursor with great fluidity making it a doddle to get used to. I worried at first that I was going to miss all of my icons but it's very well done and it took mere seconds for a clumsy oaf like me to be setting his power options and everything.
Bad.
It's a pain to set up and will cost you the neatness of your case inside. It's expensive. It's excessive. It's frivolous to a degree.
If you have a front door or sliding panel on your case then you have to get up (*groan*) to open or slide it to get to see the device or use the remote.
The remote goes a little too far with the typing on a keyboard function.
But overall it's so damn gorgeous that I don't care. When I got mine a friend of mine said to me -
Wow ! what a truly unbelievable waste of money.. Where can I get one?
