While not unfamiliar with barebones PCs and small components designed to take your PC out of the study and into the lounge room, the MSI MEGA PC is the first out-of-the-box system we've reviewed that would snuggle right in amongst your hi-fi components. Providing, of course, that your existing components feature lots of LCDs, blinking lights and readouts. . .
Featuring a tiny housing built around an even tinier mobo, the Mega651 can combine TV, radio and CD with PC functionality. Depending on what options you install, it means you can add DVD and MP3 playback and gaming.
MSI sell this as a barebones unit which means you get the PC sans processor, hard drive, optical drive and RAM, but it does include video (integrated via the SiS651 chipset), integrated 10/100 Ethernet, six-channel audio and 56K modem. The mobo also features an AGP slot if you want to beef up the graphics, plus a single PCI slot, although if want to add MSI's optional TV tuner card ($109 extra), you'll lose that upgrade port.
The front panel of the PC will attract the most attention, with its 5 1/4in LCD display and its stereo-like knobs, lights and dials. Just under the LCD is a small faceplate for the bundled six-in-one card reader and further under that hidden by a hinged faceplate are two USB 2.0 ports, two FireWire ports (both six and four-pin), S/PDIF and dual 3.5mm audio in/out. The rear of the PC has two additional USB ports.
We bunged a 2.53MHz Pentium 4, 256MB of DDR and an 80GB HDD in the unit (pilfered from the PCA Testbench), then ran SYSmark2002 and 3DMark2001SE Pro to see what the tiny board was capable of.
Achieving 218 in SYSmark isn't a bad score at all, but its integrated SiS650 graphics score of 1,449 means you can only play low-impact games if you have to.
In the lounge is where the Mega651 shines: power buttons on the front of the unit toggle it between PC and hi-fi functions, so you needn't power on the PC to play CDs, MP3, CDs or access the AM/FM radio. The large LCD only lights up in hi-fi mode too, so no distractions when gaming.