Posts tagged with HTPC Chassis

A Look at Some HTPC Chassis Solutions

One of the major changes in the HTPC market segment and certainly one of the most visible has involved the chassis solution.  In the early days of the HTPC market, chassis options were very limited and were most often just traditional PC chassis painted black and placed horizontally on the shelf.  The chassis still looked and felt like typical tower PC chassis and as the saying goes “You can put lip stick on a pig, but it is still a pig.”  Now, this is not to say that the today’s tower PC is ugly by any means. I think there are very attractive tower and traditional PC chassis designs; I just don’t think they make for very good HTPC chassis solutions.

Aesthetically speaking, these solutions never really fit the room decor and they certainly did not match the rest of the consumer electronics (CE) components in the same cabinet. To make matters worse, they were often too big and bulky to fit on any shelf and were typically very loud with all the high speed fans whirring away.  Do you really want to listen to the hum of the fans while trying to listen to the subtle dialog of a movie?  As you may guess, this could certainly hinder sales of an HTPC into the consumer market.

My, how times have changed…
Today, there is a great variety of chassis solutions to choose from with designs and prices that cross the spectrum. One thing they all have in common is that they were designed to look and feel more like AV (audio/video) or typical consumer components than traditional PC products. Furthermore, the chassis vendors have tried to take thermal conditions (think chassis airflow) and noise levels (think larger and/or quieter fans) into their design considerations. These vendors have spent a great deal of time conducting thermal studies to understand how best to manage airflow and heat dissipation. These studies have also included acoustic chambers to measure noise levels of the chassis designs. 

In some cases (no pun intended), the chassis vendors have integrated an infrared (IR) sensor and remote control.  This lets you take advantage of the 10-foot environment and operate the system from your couch.  In addition to the integrated IR sensor, some chassis have an integrated display (LED or VFD) similar to those found on a DVD player or AVR and, on the higher end units, a touch screen display to provide more info to the user.  This might include information about the media content (music or song title, DVD title or chapter, TV channel, etc) or system related info (available memory, network bandwidth, available storage, etc.) 

To further improve the usability, most chassis will offer some level of front panel input and output connections.  These may include USB ports, Firewire ports, Card Readers, Headphones/Mic jacks and more. 

This is all good news for the HTPC customer because they are getting products designed specifically to meet the needs of this market segment.  There are plenty of chassis to choose from allowing for differentiation and varying price points.

Below I am including pictures of some of the various chassis solutions. Each of these vendors offer a wider selection of chassis than is shown here, so be sure to visit their websites for more details on these and other products.

Note: These chassis are displayed in alphabetical order according to vendor and should not be viewed as a prioritized list. Likewise, this list is not all inclusive as there are more vendors and chassis than shown here.

Antec

Micro Fusion Remote 350

Fusion Remote 430

GMC 

AVC-S1

AVC-S7

The GMC chassis shown both have very CE looking design style with tactile feel for the buttons, integrated display, IR sensor and remote control.  The AVC-S7 on the right is a very low profile design and supports a slim line, slot load DVD player.  

Lian Li

C-39

C-36

nMedia PC 

H1000S

H5000S

nMedia PC offers various solutions that have  USB ports, Firewire port, an eSATA port and card reader up front with a drop down door along bottom edge.  These models shown (H1000 and H5000) are mid profile chassis that have room for an optional display (in the black stripe area on the right).

Silverstone

GD02 MT

GD02

Silverstone offers this unique chassis design (GD02) with and without a touch screen.  It is also not quite as deep giving it a little more room to fit shallower shelf depths.  They also offer various I/O options up front with a drop down door along with IR sensors and a remote control.

Thermaltake

DH101

DH102

Thermaltake offers their DH10x series with integrated touch screen or LED display and IR sensor along with remote control.  A brushed two tone finish gives it a very CE like appearance.  Being taller in design, it can take either an ATX or uATX board solution. 

Again, these chassis shown are just some of the options available with plenty more to choose from.  As you can see, today’s HTPC chassis are attractive and effective solutions that look and feel more like CE equipment.  There are a wide selection of chassis solutions to choose from, each with its own style.  Prices range from the entry level to the high end giving consumers more choice to find a solution that fits their budget and their decor.

Till next time, Happy Trails!

Jay Taylor is a Senior Developer Relations Engineer at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.