Hmmm, the Zino HD could be a good alternative to the Mac mini for a small under the TV HTPC. Although the luminous green colour does burn my eyes a bit. The basic £299 configuration is fairly well-specced too. Could also be a good alternative to the Atom PC's (net-tops?) which have recently come out. Good release Dell (imo).
Was seriously considering a Mac mini to replace the AppleTV but this really puts the cat amongst the pigeons. The price does climb to ~500 GBP with an X2, Blu-ray and decent graphics but IMHO this pisses all over the same price Mac mini. I'm giving it a few weeks to see how Apple respond!
I think the recent Mac Minis do seem too expensive. Apple should really try and hit the £399 mark with their basic model. Although I notice that the Dell Zino HD is £399 if you go for the fastest CPU option: the AMD Neo X2 6850 1.8GHz. Wonder how it compares to the basic Mac Mini's 2.26GHz Intel Core 2 Duo?
Looks pretty. Note that it's still quite a bit bigger than a Mac Mini, 20x20x9cm vs 17x17x5cm.
Some significant things: The default/cheap configuration comes with an Atom CPU and for the most part isn't upgradable. The more powerful and upgradable variant starts at 330 EUR and comes exclusively with AMD CPUs, which I think is pretty rare for Dell. I'm not sure if there are maybe some other differences; the Atom Zino certainly uses a lot less power and cooling. I don't think even the upgraded graphics are powerful enough for moderate gaming. I'm pretty sure the hard disk is 3.5"; the Mac Mini uses laptop 2.5" drives.
You can't buy one without an optical drive. You can't buy one with an SSD, though you probably wouldn't want to through Dell. You can't buy one without Windows.
I agree that the sound is astonishingly weak, but that's not a deal breaker since multi-channel audio is easy enough to add via USB.
I'm sorry but it what way does this represent better value than a Mac Mini? The Macs have faster processors decent graphics as standard (certainly better than the Dell Zino, even if it is only a 9400M) better wi-fi as standard and come in a more attractive package. The only Dinos that come close to the Mac Mini in specification are still considerably slower and almost equivalent in price. If you are willing to drop down in specification for media centre computer. you would be better off with an Asus or Acer nettop than any of the Dino range.
When will these manufacturers start packaging some freeview+ tuners into their "media centres" Apple doesn't because they don't want to threaten itunes. The other manufacturers have no such restraint.
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