This quite an amazing media centre PC. The first thing you will notice is with Zalman media centre PC is the 7" LCD touch screen on the front of the HTPC. Once set up, the media centre PCs LCD screen can display much more information than any VFD. The Media Centre LCD is able to display information such as Graphic Equaliser, Volume, CPU used, Network Speed, Time, Fan Speed etc.
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.
The 7 LCD monitor on the Media Centre PC really makes this product stand out from the crowd. As mentioned above the Media Centre PCs LCD monitor can be used as an indicator that shows various information and activities. It can also be used as a second monitor or even a sole monitor, for a completely self-contained Media Centre PC.
This Media Centre PC has been specially chosen based on the excellent brushed effect and the well placed user buttons. The concealed but easily accessible inputs such as audio, FireWire, USB and memory card slots have been well placed. The Zalman HD 160XT Media Centre PC is suitably matched to be placed next to other existing AV equipment or simply, on its own as it will meet for sheer design and high end AV equipment together ultimate multimedia experience. The Zalman HD 160XT Media Centre PC has intelligent internal cooling system adjusts and maintains cooling automatically without the added noise.
Zalman Media Centre PC comes with fantastic media centre software which is fully accessible through the 7 LCD touch screen. Though you may prefer other software, you can be rest assured MediaBay will see to multimedia management. Zalman designed the HD160XT Media Centre PC to be the ultimate Home Theatre PC. Here at Custom Computa we certainly think Zalman have hit the nail on the head!
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 HTPCs. Nobody makes quiet Media Center PCs like Custom Computa. We use the quietest components available in the market.
We make the ultimate HTPCs - stylish and quiet. We know our HTPCs are not for everyone. Our customers are discerning when it comes to their living room PCs they look for high quality Media Centers that are value for money. The prices of our HTPCs 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 Zalman 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 Nvdias 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 Nvidias 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 dont really need a powerful Graphic Card for a Media Centre PC its 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.
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This product was added to our catalog on Sunday 06 July, 2008.
