Silverstone LC16M Silent Ultra Quiet Media Centre HTPC

With over 15 HTPC enclosures worth of experience and years of knowledge in case cooling and layout, SilverStone’s acclaimed engineering and design team have once again re-invented an existing standard. The attractively styled LC16M offers impressive features that are unprecedented for HTPC enclosures. They include cooling performance surpassing most tower cases for next generation processor technology and a storage capacity unseen in this class. By combining these new technical advances with traditional HTPC features such as VFD/IR multimedia kit and a clean, functional front fascia, the LC16M is sure to become the premier choice for your living room.

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

Please note: Configuration options at the bottom of the page.


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 HTPC

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

We make the ultimate HTPC’s - stylish and quiet. We know our HTPC’s are not for everyone. Our customers are discerning when it comes to their living room PC’s – they look for high quality Media Centers that are value for money. The prices of our 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 Moneual MonCaso 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. 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 PC 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. One of quietest PSU available on the market.

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

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. 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 take out or minimise Hard Disk noise we use a minimum of two Hard Disks on each Media Centre PC. We use a Samsum 250GB 2.5” Hard Disks (made for laptops) as the primary - where the Operating System is loaded. The laptop Hard Disks are always quieter than the normal 3.5” Hard Disks.

Sound Deadening Cases – A silencer shrouds the 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 we use 3.5” 1000GB (1TB) GreenPower Hard Drive (3.5” HD allows a lot more capacity as the main storage). Currently the quietest hard drive on the market.

We believe Media Centre PCs should have plenty of storage, so if you required 3000GB (3TB)of disk space we would give you or use one 2.5” 250GB HD and three 3.5” 1000GB HD. In total you would get 3250GB Dis Space. 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 ultra quiet, on top it sits within a HD silencer – which means that you should get next to no HD noise.

Graphics Card and Noise – The graphics card is a major contributor of PC 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 which is passively cooled and 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 support for decrypting HD video and HDTV output, and HDMI.


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
• Video Out Options: HDMI, DVI and VGA
• DVD Backup Software: DVD-Cloner 5.0 (backup DVD collection)
• Remote Control: MCE Remote
• 7” LCD Touch Screen Max Resolution : 800 x 600
• LAN: 10/100/1000
• Wireless: Yes, Internal (802.11b/g)
• Audio: 8 Channel Audio, S/PDIF Out Coaxial, HDMI Audio
• USB 2.0: 6 (2 Front, 4 Back)
• Firewire: 1 Front, 1 Back
• Media Card Reader, Volume Knob, Media Control Button
• Front Panel Audio: Headphone, MIC
• Keyboard/Mouse: options available
• PSU: Xilence 600W XP600-FL Semi-Fanless
• Dimensions: 17.0"(W) X 18.5"(D) X 6.75"(H)
• Warranty: 1 Year RTB

We have configured the 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 we will install a Quiet VGA Cooler for the Graphics Card to keep it quiet. 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.