I've been using the VCS for everything for a few months now as I don't have anything else. My Pidock 400 died. The fan still ramps to 100% under any load at all, but I usually have my cinema headphones on and can't hear it anyway. I leave the system on at all times so it's ready to go. I have a wireless keyboard and trackball which makes for an excellent TV experience from a recliner. I feel like an old man, but enjoy it.

I've recently hooked up my old USB CD burner to the VCS and have been backing up my favorite CDs, I ordered a Pioneer USB 3.0 4K Blu Ray burner and bought a copy of MakeMKV for backing up my growing media collection.

The system has handled video production admirably considering it's limited CPU power. I actually feel the Pi 400 handles 4K rendering faster than this thing. It's a set and forget affair for me, so I hardly mind.

Overall, this is an excellent home theater PC and looks great on the antique stone mantle of my Victorian apartment. There aren't many other systems that would fit in so well, aside from the System76 Thelio line, which is overkill for a HTPC.

Despite the OS being run from a very slow internal eMMC flash chip, the OS is responsive and usable. It's more responsive than a Pi 400, but I wouldn't recommend it as a daily driver for those who really need or want a properly fast PC.