[mythtv-users] OT: Good deal on potentially awesome touchscreen MythTV box

[Matt Emmott]

I received a coupon from Dell this week for 20% off any refurbished desktop
at their outlet. While poking around, I came across the now-discontinued
Studio One 19 inch all-in-one PC. This was Dell's answer to the iMac and the
feature list is pretty impressive - nVidia 9200, Up to a Core 2 quad,
7200RPM drive, and a 19 inch multi-touch touchscreen with 1366 x 768 native
res.

I did some googling and it appears that the touchscreen is supported in
Ubuntu 10.04. I'm not expecting much from the multitouch but if I can tap my
way through Myth and Boxee with little-to-no need for a keyboard, I'm all
for it. Plus, with these specs the machine could be a nice compact combo
frontend and backend, although the default hard drive is a little on the
small side.

There are some caveats: The box is only available at Dell's Outlet store,
which is either scratch and dent or refurb. Because of this you're not going
to be able to customize the hardware, and you're at the whim of whatever
config is available at that exact moment - configurations come and go with
every refresh. That being said, here's what I bought: 2.6GHZ Pentium dual
core E5300, 3GB RAM, 320GB 7200RPM, DL DVD burner, Windows VIsta (can
upgrade to 7) and a 2 year warranty for $556 shipped after 20% coupon and
sales tax. Mine did not come with a wifi card; it looks easy enough to drop
one in and I have an extra mini PCIe card that was supplanted by a CrystalHD
in my iMac. I hope it fits. Speaking of that, since the boxes can handle a
core 2 quad I'm optimistically hoping that I can upgrade the CPU at a later
date.

Sorry that this is a bit off topic but I thought it was a good enough deal
to share. The coupon code for 20% off is *00ZTCHCWW1$1VG* and can be found
at
http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/fall_savings?c=us&cs=22&l=en&s=dfh&dgc=EM&cid=59662&lid=1509280

The Studio One refurb store is at
http://outlet.us.dell.com/ARBOnlineSales/Online/InventorySearch.aspx?brandId=2202&c=us&cs=22&fid=1001&l=en&s=dfh-
Like I said, the inventory changes constantly so you'll have to
refresh
often if you're looking for a specific configuration, and they don't all
have wifi. Mine has shipped and I should have it next Wednesday, I'll report
back in if anybody's interested.
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