I’ve noticed that there are a lot of people talking about building nettops, ITX based desktops, and mATX HTPCs. These nettops and small desktops can actually be pretty expensive.
Why do people tend to completely ignore notebooks as a viable alternative to a nettop or ITX desktop HTPC? They’re slim in profile so they fit in TV stands, most have HDMI output and all now feature graphics that can accelerate HD video, have a built in DVD player, and you can find them for $500 which is the going rate for a small system.
They also have a lot of inherent advantages like a built in screen in case you don’t want to turn on your TV to listen to music, are portable if you wanted to bring your media computer on the go, and are a freaking laptop which is handy in it’s own right.
.
