The Media Is the Message
ALIENWARE'S NEW DHSA is a media-center PC designed expressly for your audiovisual stack -- or rather, it's made to replace it. With its built-in 5.1 surround-sound amp, DVD player and ability to record TV shows (in standard definition or HD), you could toss out your receiver, TiVo and disc players all at once. And while it does everything you expect a computer to do, it also handles composite, component and HDMI connectors to your TV. Because Alienware comes out of the high-end PC-gaming market, the word value isn't often associated with it. But with prices starting at $1,000 (alienware.com) for these puppies, that's apparently changing.