HP is adamant that the digital home of the future (and now for that matter) has a midi-tower PC in it next to the TV. This in the face of everyone we’ve ever heard saying otherwise. Still, we ridded our minds of prejudice and pressed on. Our first main worry was the noise and for a second we were shocked by the opening roar of the power fan.

But this quickly died down to a silent, but audible hum. The case does little to contain the sound, however, as the side has mesh-like holes in it. While the Pioneer and THTPC machines lost points for noise at the back, the m7199a was consistently a little louder than everything else the whole way round.

But it’s a very well specified machine. The 3GHz Pentium D 830 and 1GB of RAM make it powerful and Media Center runs like a breeze. A 200GB hard disk is included but there’s no room for any more. There is however a large front bay which fits in a portable hard disk – about the same size as an external optical drive. - called the Personal Media Drive. This will set you back $399.

Another interesting addition is an iPod dock at the top. While MP3 aficionados may sneer, the 80 percent plus of MP3-player owners that own one will like it and the way that HP has integrated iTunes into the MCE 2005 interface. Also making an appearance here is HP’s ImageZone software. This is all part of an impressive package which also includes Microsoft’s Works 8, Money 2005, Encarta 2005 as well as Sonic MyDVD and Norton Internet Security 2005. There’s also a recovery partition on the hard disk and software for making recovery discs.

It’s all very well thought out for a PC, but not so as a media centre.

It’s also the only entrant to sport a combination Hauppauge dual TV tuner card. Unfortunately it only offers analog support - bleeding edge Media Centers really should be digital. But at least it’s also the only card this month to sport an FM tuner.

But even if you didn’t mind having the case in your living room, having two IR receivers hanging out of it plus a remote plus the RF keyboard, plus the separate mouse makes for a great deal of clutter. Still, we were impressed at the long-range of the RF signals which rivalled the official MCE keyboard. Also, having a proper, long-range mouse is very useful too.

If you want a combination PC and media centre in, say, a home office or bedroom, the m7199a would be excellent. It’s a good PC, but it under delivers as a dedicated media centre.