How Robust is Media Center as an OS??

[Deemo]

I ask because I am looking to buy a new PC for my office and my options are as follows:

1. As a self admitted HP addict, I am looking at buying the 7170 Media Center and either leaving it as is with Media Center or loading Pro as boot up option, or

2. Saying to heck with it and ordering a customised PC from Dell

The reason I want the 7170 is for the dual core processor and dual monitor support (most important). All other HP boxes still have integrated video with no dual support.

My work PC's usually end up at home when I get tired of them so it would be nice to have the 7170 in the house in a year or so.

TIA

[Outlaw94]

I beleive that the media center os is just windows xp with the media center part added in with some extra functionality. I'm not 100% sure so you might want to look into it a little more. Maybe someone else can add something.

[sbrown23]

Windows XP Media Center Edition sits in between XP Home and XP Pro as far as features are concerned. The main piece that most people are concerned about from Pro that MCE lacks is the domain networking functionality. I doubt that most home users are running NT or Active Directory domains though. There are some other things that I believe MCE is missing like Encrypting File System, and some other enterprise stuff that doesn't have a whole lot of use in the home.

In terms of running it as your main OS? GO FOR IT. MCE 2005 has all the stability of XP SP2, with the benefit of the MCE interface on top of it, which is still useful whether or not you actually watch and record TV on that PC. Games, apps, and everything else should run just fine on XP MCE.