Antec Fusion Silent Ultra Quiet Media Centre HTPC

The Antec Fusion Home Theatre PC seamlessly blends Quiet Media Center, versatility and impeccable style to Media PC’s. The Antec Media Centre HTPC utilises an innovative three chamber thermal design and quiet Media Centre HTPC features like vibration-dampening silicone grommets; it is so quiet you won’t have to relegate your Media Centre HTPC to a closet to make out the softest passages in your favourite movies or music.

Click here learn more about Home Theatre PCs/Media Centre PCs and why you should a choose HTPC?

Please note: Configuration options for the Antec Fusion Media Centre HTPC are at the bottom of the page.


MEDIA CENTRE HTPC FEATURES

• Live TV – Watch, Pause and Record live TV.
• Music - Listen and store all your CDs and MP3s in one place.
• DVDs & Blue Ray – Play and record DVD/Blu-Ray
• Internet - Full internet access with all the goodies.
• Photos - Organize your pictures and create photo slide shows.
• Remote Control - Sit on the sofa and control with a remote.
• Radio - With an integrated FM radio tuner you listen to the radio.
• Backup and Share - Your work, photos, music, and home movies.
• Stylish & Customisable - Customise the look and style.


QUIET MEDIA CENTRE HTPC

We are the number one store when it comes to Silent Media Centre HTPC’s. Nobody makes quiet Media Center PC’s like Custom Computa - we use some of the quietest components available in the market.

We make the ultimate Media Centre HTPC’s - powerful, stylish and ultra quiet. Our Media Centre HTPC’s are not for everyone. Our customers are discerning when it comes to their living room Media Centre HTPC’s – they look for high quality Media Centers that are silent. The prices of our Media Centre HTPC’s reflect the silent components we use and the time and care gone into making them. To use an example the Xilence 600W XP600-FL Semi-Fanless Power Supply (on most of our HTPCs) we use cost £120 alone.

This is how we make the Antec Fusion Media Centre HTPC ultra quiet and powerful:

Soundproofing the Case - We use superior AcoustiPack Deluxe (v2) Acoustic Material Kit. AcoustiPack™ is an acoustic damping material kit which is acoustically effective for HTPC’s. It is essentially a pack of sticky-back foam used to line the panels of the HTPC case. We cut and shape the soundproofing material to every area of the HTPC case (possible).

Power Supply – The oft-forgotten power supply unit (PSU) is a major contributor to Media Center noise. Most have one or even two fans whirring constantly inside them. The more powerful the PSU, the more cooling it requires, and the more noise it generates. Applying sound-deadening material or removing the fans is a potential fire hazard, instead we buy PSUs that are specially designed to run quietly. We use the Xilence 600W XP600-FL Semi-Fanless Power Supply on most of our HTPC’s. This is one of quietest PSU available on the market and is excellent for Media Centre PC’s.

Processor and Fans – The biggest culprit of noise pollution is the fan that cools a HTPC’s central processing unit (CPU). Most HTPC’s ship with the standard small heatsink with a noisy fan designed by either Intel or AMD. These are designed to provide optimum cooling for the HTPC, but noise reduction isn't their forte. We take out the noise in the HTPC CPU by using a high end heatsink with ultra quiet fan. We use the Mini Ninja Heatpipe CPU Cooler on most of our HTPC’s/Media Centre PC’s. It is one of the most efficient heatsinks available for standard sized Media Centre PC cases.

HTPC Case Fans - We replace the 80mm fans that come standard with most Media Centre PC cases with quietest fans available in the market. We replace the two front fans and the two back fans with AcoustiFan DustPROOF 80mm fan, which comes with resistors to reduce the speed in the HTPC. We also turn the fans right down to 5v, which quietens them down further. We do this using a special adapter.

Hard Disks – There are no fans in hard drives or optical drives, but they do contain a load of moving parts that can make a racket. Whereas some drives are designed for high capacity, others, such as the WD WD1000FYPS 1000GB SATA-II GreenPower Hard Drive are designed for quietness.

To make the Hard Disk silent we use a minimum of two Hard Disks on each HTPC/Media Centre PC. We use a Samsumg 250GB 2.5” Hard Disks (made for laptops) as the primary - where the Media Center Operating System is loaded. We use Hard Disks made for laptops as the primary because they are always lot quieter than the normal 3.5” Hard Disks.

Sound Deadening Cases – We use a silencer to shrouds the HTPC disk except for the rear ports, which are still accessible. The enclosure acts as an enormous heatsink that channels heat away from the disk. They also come with a set of rubber mountings on either side, which absorb the vibrations of the disk drive. We place the 2.5” HD in a Scythe Quiet Drive 2.5 Internal HDD Silencer, which makes any 2.5" hard drive virtually silent. To give you plenty of storage space for your HTPC we use 3.5” 1000GB (1TB) GreenPower Hard Drive (3.5” HD allows a lot more capacity as the main storage). The Western Digital Green Power HD is currently the quietest hard drive on the market for its size and capacity.

We believe HTPC’s/Media Centre PC’s should have plenty of storage, so if you required 3,000 GB (3TB) for your HTPC, we would use one 2.5” 250 GB HD and three 3.5” 1,000 GB HD. In total you would get 3,250 GB Disk Space for your HTPC. The Operating System would be loaded onto the 2.5” bay. This would be the disk that would be spinning the most - every time information is retrieved from the Operating System. The 2.5” HD is silent, on top it sits within a HD silencer – which means that you should get next to no HD noise from your HTPC.

Graphics Card and Noise – The graphics card is a major contributor of HTPC noise, arguably more so than the CPU. This is because they usually ship with tiny fans that whir incessantly. We use MSI NX8500GT Graphics Card s in our HTPC’s - which is passively cooled and is based around Nvdia’s 8500GT GPU. The standard cooling fan has been replaced with a fanless heatsink, so it's completely silent. Heat is dissipated over a set of heatpipes instead of by a fan. The card concentrates on a feature of Nvidia’s G8x architecture – Pure Video technology. It has support for decrypting HD video and HDTV output, and HDMI for your HTPC.


SPECIFICATIONS

• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E4600 2.4GHz – options available
• Hard Disk Storage: 1,250 GB Hard Disk – options available
• Memory: 2GB Ram DDR2 800MHz – options available
• Optical Drive: Blue Ray & DVD RW Dual Layer – options available
• Operating System: Vista Home Premium –options available
• Graphics Card: options available
• TV Tuner: Satellite, Freeview, Cable options available
• HDMI, DVI and VGA
• DVD Backup Software: DVD-Cloner 5.0 (backup DVD collection)
• Remote Control: MCE Remote
• Integrated Display: VFD
• LAN: 10/100/1000
• Wireless: Yes, Internal (802.11b/g)
• Audio: 8 Channel Audio, S/PDIF Out Coaxial, HDMI Audio
• Video Out Options: HDMI, DVI and VGA
• USB 2.0: 6 (2 Front, 4 Back)
• Firewire: 1 Front, 1 Back
• Front Panel Audio: Headphone, MIC
• Keyboard/Mouse: options available
• PSU: Xilence 600W XP600-FL Semi-Fanless
• Dimensions: 14(H) x 44.5(W) x 41.4(L) cm (L*W*H)
• Warranty: 1 Year RTB

We have configured the HTPC/Media Centre PC for optimum power and quietness. You may change the standard specifications to suit your needs. You don’t really need a powerful Graphic Card for a Media Centre PC – it’s different for Games PC.

Please note, if you decide to upgrade from the default Graphics Card in the HTPC we will install a Quiet VGA Cooler for the Graphics Card to keep it silent. So, if you chose the ATi Radeon HD 3850 we would remove the standard fans/coller that comes with that Graphics Card and install a suitable Quiet Cooler like the Zalman VF1000-LED Quad Heatpipe VGA Cooler – which normally retails at £30.