Those are some interesting uses for the X-Box and certainly it speaks to how creatively people have extended its uses and design. The MPC bundle we bought [very rare for us, because I build all my own systems and servers, normally (though we do not build tens of thousands, the small company I own/run does build some thousands)], was very well priced and capable - at 1280.00 soup to nuts, it was hard to pass up opposite a pressing need that the MPC seemed to fit, well. I was also very intrigued by the MPC and desired to explore how as a company, we might build AV Form-Factor based MPC's to add to our exisiting line and opposite specialty segments of the networks we design and manage for businesses.
There exists a strong interest in board/conference room and learning center uses of MPC's for a variety of uses. Similarly, of all the OS'es I think that the future of the MPC is very bright and appropriate.
As far as modding out the X-Box, while cool, we prefer to devote that kind of effort to different types of systems and networks. In its present form and at its price points, the X-Box is well priced, but too low-end to really push beyond its out-of-the-box configuration. I think the effort and money is better put into other areas in the home - e.g., upgrades to MPC to keep it fresh/current or in other devices. We took a couple of shuttle-like designs and worked up some good living-room/den approprite MPC's for testing and submission for certification and think that in small numbers, they can be viable - especially if tricked way up with video RAID for music and DVD storage and connected to large plasma or at least DLP capable HDTV's.
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