[quote=”Mikinho”]
I agree that you and just about any enthusiast can build the internal hardware but the chassis isn’t cheap to manufacturer. To create a [i]single[/i] (i.e. not in bulk) high quality faceplate for a rack mountable chassis would easily cost $600 alone.
[/quote]Wow. I didn’t realise that when I bought that $1200 Niveus HTPC that what I was really buying and investing in was the $600 HTPC case.
Seriously. I don’t care and I highly doubt anyone else really cares about a pretty $600 case when they’re just putting it in a closet/basement/out of sight. I’ve seen people drop serious money, I mean [i][b]serious money[/i][/b] on a home theater. They’re the kind of people that Niveus [i][b]was[/i][/b] targetting. All those people built some really nice HTPCs (or just straight up bought and retrofitted a good Dell or something) because that pretty, [i][b]expensive[/i][/b] case isn’t what they were trying to get out of their HTPC. It just wasn’t worth it.
Hell, I wasn’t even interested in their products until they started working on their really cool software. The first that caught my attention was the one that let you control your HTPC using a laptop!! But that only worked on “Niveus made systems” even though it was more like a companion app to Media Center.
And that’s kind of my point; instead of focusing on all the things that they should have been they focused on the extravagant and made that they’re niche. “Bang for you buck” means a lot more then just shopping at Newegg and throwing it all together. I think, ultimately, that’s a major issue that a lot of Media Center builders haven’t realised fully.
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