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I was wondering if anyone had one or would anyone suggest this Barebone.

I know shuttles are good but I would like to get a feel for the MSI since I am thinking about getting one.

Any opinion is a good one!!

Check out the latest MaximumPC where they rate the Shuttle, MSI and Soyo. Wow, they panned the MSI. Said that you couldn't use all the front panel features if you enabled stereo sound, and that the layout was cramped and hard to work on.

Goes off, and grabs the current issue...

from the October issue page 80 and 81: "The Mega is physically divided into two parts- a Hi-Fi interface, and the Hi-Fi power switch, and you'll be treated to a host of multimedia options: Am/FM Radio, CD's loaded with MP3 files, audio CD's, and DVD movies..." "The whole scheme is pretty damn cool. So it's therefore unfortunate that as soon as you turn on the Pc power button, you permanently leave Hi-Fi mode. Lets make this perfectly clear: PC mode supersedes Hi-Fi mode, so when you are in PC mode, you can't use the Hi-Fi mode interface..."
"Placing components in the confines of the poorly designed Mega interior is a hassle. IDE cables are chopped, bundled, labeled and pre-installed to their mobo headers, which eases drive installation significantly. Nonetheless, a cramped working space put kibosh on any thoughts of "uneventful" component installation. Processor and heatsink installation were both difficult. And once installed, the heatsink causes problems because it interferes with the installation of the AGP card."

It goes on and on, but this was the highlighted info that was very interesting to the reviewer. It goes on about how the cooling is a poor implimentation and how hot the case runs, and how it scored the lowest in the benchmark tests due to the SIS chipset.

Now, this is one reviewers opinion, but I believe that barring some major change that you cannot use the front LCD display for multimedia purposes when the unit has switched to PC mode cripples an otherwise great looking box.

-E

I agree, I would like a SFF with a LCD display in front, but I want the ability to use it like a CrystalFontz or MatrixOrbital display. You give me that functionality, I'll be there with money in hand