Seagate has a 5yr warranty on all drives, as of last year. As for that system at eCost, it looks great for the price. I'd want to know what the hard drive is though as it could be out of warranty if it's a cheap model and it's a refurbed machine.

On the topic of MCE maybe I need to give it another look. When I checked into it a few months ago there wasn't a plugin to be had let alone half of what I listed ready to go stock. Do you have any links to sites with plugins and details for MCE?