Multimedia-Center: The Lan-Plus Integra

Today's possibilities are infinite -that's at least what the commercials from a large IT company suggest. Indeed the computer can easily be turned into a total multimedia center including TV, radio, DVD and 3D gaming station, audio or video jukebox, communication and information system and of course more.

There have been several attempts to include almost every feature into one single machine. Unfortunately, those attempts failed due to the fact that the degree of fitness for everyday use was quite low. Such devices were either too big (the size of a standard computer is usually considered oversized) or too expensive.

LAN-Plus is now trying to establish a new product on the market which could possibly fit many users' dreams. How do you feel about a computer of the size of a CRT, made of a 15" TFT display and standard components to retain modularity?

That's what the 'INTEGRA' looks like. Pretty much like a television, don't you think?

The recipe is quite simple: Just take a standard 15" TFT display, a MicroATX motherboard plus standard SDRAM and a Pentium III CPU, an AGP graphics card (that's right - no on-board stuff!), a standard hard drive, DVD ROM and floppy drive and of course a power supply unit. Packed smartly into a nice case, the whole bunch of hardware is sold for $ 1,699. Of course we wanted to know what's behind the hype.