3. The goal for this system

Before I get into the actual system review, I wanted to spend some time going over what it was that I wanted to achieve with this system. Ultimately, the gBOX would fit a role of the Home Cinema or Home Theater PC (HCPC or HTPC). If you want some more information on this topic, do check out the site www.avsforum.com for more information. For myself, I needed a small form factor PC that had an AGP slot or at least an onboard video out that would allow me to pipe video and audio to my home theater receiver. From there, I would be able to control my PC via my television set. The end result of all of this would be to allow me to play back video content on my television screen instead of a small CRT or flat panel unit. Ok.. what I ultimately wanted of course was a nice small DivX player for all of my DivX encoded media.

Thus, I was going to need a DVD-ROM drive to read my DVD-R discs that contained all the DivX media. I was also going to need a decent audio solution for this PC. And to top all of this off, I wanted a system that actually looked cool and at the same time be a small sized unit. With that said, enter the gBOX P4 CF-868.

4. The Package and it's contents

I ordered the gBOX P4 unit when it first came out on the american media website and anxiously awaited it's delivery. The entire packaging is quite nice - from the cardboard delivery box to the actual manufacturer's box. I was very impressed with how everything was packaged and with the way everything was laid out. Heck - even the nice colorful box was a treat!. Here are some of the pictures that I took:

The entire case is shipped in a styrofoam casing and the case itself is nicely wrapped in plastic wrap. The last picture above shows the handle by which you can lift the aluminum case out of the box. Taking the case out, you come to realize how beautiful this case truly is. For those who own the old gBOX for the Pentium III processor or the Shuttle SV 24 case, this P4 case is slightly larger. However, once you open up the case, you'll realize that the larger space comes with a nice treat - an AGP 4x slot! (not to mention a spare PCI slot to boot also!)

The gBOX package contains a Pentium 4 heatsink as well as IDE cables, a floppy cable, power cord, and screws to complete the picture. The manual itself is a bit lacking in description but luckily the system isn't too difficult to put together. At the very least, you'll need a CPU, Hard Drive, DVD/CD ROM drive, and some DDR memory.

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