I actually considered getting one of these back when they were new.
Holy shit, I’ve repaired a couple of these. Somehow, both were personally owned by different professors, who each opted to have the repairs done in their respective buildings on the same university campus. These were only a couple months apart, maybe less.
I don’t even remember the parts I swapped, or if they were particularly easy or hard to work on inside. I seem to recall one of the Alienware gaming laptops with the removable GPUs I found surprisingly easy by comparison, but that doesn’t mean anything in an era where HP and Dell were both turning out SFF and not-so-SFF desktops that would have both the weirdest accomodations AND gotchas when it came to repairing them.
EDIT: Thinking it was the Optical Drive, in both of them.
He wasn’t kidding when he said the remote was the best part, I was digging the whole thing until then but it blew me away as much as it did him. Was one of the best retro computer vids I’ve seen in some time, I loved everything about it
Glad you enjoyed it so much! When he’s excited about something and has a story to tell, it really comes through.
Great video. Haven’t finished it yet, but did he ever explain why you’d want your media center to be luggable? I feel like if they’d ditched the screen and keyboard they would have something better than a modern streaming box except in 2006, but maybe they sold something like that too.
The keyboard was designed for using on the couch, so that makes sense to include. The battery doesn’t make sense, but the rest of it sorta does. It’s trying to be a uni-tasker device, and act as both your main desktop computer, as well as a couch-based media center, and even a music player to use from anywhere in the house thanks to the Bluetooth remote.
I guess it doesn’t specifically need to be luggable to do those tasks, but the integrated monitor and small size isn’t unwanted in a living room PC. But definitely not critical.
I’m trying to picture how the other room music is supposed to work. Are you cranking the volume on your TV speakers loud enough to hear in the other toom, or using the PC to control an extra set or far away speakers, or did people used to wire their houses with everywhere speakers controlled from a single receiver?
For your last question: some people still do. For the rest: Bluetooth remote, Bluetooth speakers. This was back when the Bluetooth emphasis was on range, versus now its on power savings. Building materials are still the biggest issue affecting the range and quality experience, but reaching the next room or two was usually no big deal when this thing was made.
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