Anyone have a HTPC ? If so what do you have/recommend.
This is top of the list atm: http://www.thermaltake.com/product/C.../vh2001bns.asp

Would cost about £250

Also considered this:
http://www.silverstonetek.com/produc...d02mt&area=usa

and this:

http://www.silverstonetek.com/produc...=ml02&area=usa

but both take only slimline drives. The ML02 only has space for 1 expansion aswell :/ which is a shame.

Vob's mentioned some kind of awesome case he has everytime HTPC's get mentioned. I cba to use the advanced search to find them.

__________________

__________________
http://lern2play.mine.nu/ !

I personally like the Zalman HD160XT HTPC. But its costly tho.
Or you could go for a Lian Li. Decent price, and looks nice.

__________________

whats HTPC?

__________________

www.google.com

__________________

Nothing came up Wharry, just a search engine ???

Sorry, thought I'd posted a link to the whole of the internets.

__________________

Oh noes, teh intarweb is br0ke!

__________________

Lern2link Wharrynoob. ;<

__________________
http://lern2play.mine.nu/ !

that zalman is nice but its pretty similar to the thermaltake only it has the extra card reader bit and more fans.....
Now the card reader might be useful but i doubt id use it that often, especially for a htpc. The Extra fans only means more noise as far as im concerned.

Plus its £100 more :/

and yeh i remembered someone said they had a nice htpc but for the life of me couldnt rememebr who or what.

bookmarked for when I need to build one

google is overrated really.

Ah ya ya media pc renamed. Been thinking about that for a while actually, just too lazy for PCs these days. Still would love one.

Is Windows Media Centre actually any good and is it still floating around? Thought it flopped horribly and died off.

__________________

dunno but i wouldnt use it anyway, most of the htpc cases with touch screens come with some software called imon, which is supposed to be good.

The Zalman 160xt is the one i have.

What it has over the thermaltake is better ventilation, which is important if you want to make the thing near silent (the case fans run at very low speed and are virtually inaudible) , and a higher build quality.

You can use aftermarket silent graphics card coolers, even on high end cards, and big low speed processor coolers in the Zalman case, and because it has things like HD exhaust fan , extra air intake above the processor and good airflow, things still dont get too hot.

It is very expensive, but I felt it was the best available when I built mine.

I also look on cases over the long term, I bought a coolermaster atc when they were one of the most expensive cases on the market, its on its fifth PC build and still as good as new. I consider that a bargain really.

well i wouldnt be using a graphics card in a htpc.
Would get a mobo with hdmi out probably using the new intel g35 chipset which is more than enough. Infact you can underclock the c2d cpus to about 1.6ghz and still get flawless hd playback (think 1.4 is the bare minimum) with the g35 chipset.

As for the ventilation, they seem to have pretty similar ventilation layouts, granted im not to sure about the twin 60mm fans thermaltake use for the exhaust. But then things can be done about that.

I doubt it will ever generate that much heat anyway.
Really id like to compare the two side by side but the chances of that happening are not likely.

Does the zalman use the imon software for its screen or is it its own ?

how much did you pay for your 160xt ? I do like the exhaust fan next to the hard drives tho.

I paid £430 or so for mine, I think they are about £50 cheaper now, the latest firmware version, the Xt plus, comes with Imon I beleive, the earlier ones had proprietary software.


Mine runs via the supplied remote and Vista Ultimates built in media center perfectly, even including auto wake up, record and back into sleep mode for the digital tv tuner.

Windows vista premium and higher versions contains the media center shite anyways, so yeah.

hmm tough decision to make then i have. I dont really think i can justify so much extra for what is practically the same case, albeit with a better fan layout and full aluminium body rather than just the front panel being alluminium.

Also most displeased with the fact for the plus version (with imon), the remote is a metallic pink colour...wtf!? hehe.