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HP z556 Digital Entertainment Center: Why Build When You Can Buy?

06:17 - Tuesday 18 July 2006 by Mike Baggaley

At a Glance
Product	HP z556 Digital Entertainment Center
Summary	Great-looking, reasonably priced and feature-packed HTPC with decent performance and HD support
Pros	• Integrated Dual SD and single HD tuners • Full complement of audio and video ins & outs • Dual-band wireless networking • Good multitasking performance
Cons	• No HDMI port (DVI instead) • No QAM support in HD tuner • Very limited upgradeability • Noisy fan under heavy CPU loads

I wouldn't usually consider buying a retail brand-name PC. I'm naturally obsessive and controlling, and I have this thing about hand picking each component that goes into my computer. Heck, in my case, half the fun of buying a new computer is building it anyway. Well, then there's the elusive home theatre PC (HTPC). It's not easy to obtain perfection when assembling an HTPC. It needs to blend into your living room or home theatre, which are generally foreign places for a regular PC. Anyone with a little time and a few bucks can throw together the core components that are required in an HTPC, but the trick is putting them together with style.

Modern PCs are masterpieces of engineering and functionality but they are not traditionally designed to disappear into a home theatre environment. People who don't know what they are looking for shouldn't be able to recognize your HTPC as a computer at all. While building one can be challenging and fun, you're almost guaranteed to go through a series of failures before you produce something with which you can live. If you're not interested in the trial and error method, the HP Digital Entertainment Center line of HTPCs is an excellent alternative.

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