Ah! The crux of modern entertainment technology, the Home Theater PC (HTPC). While the concept has been floating around for some years with DIY and commercial kits widely available, HTPCs are only beginning to gain some ground as a serious entertainment alternative for the living room. In a nutshell, one can probably turn almost any PC into a HTPC with an appropriate media center or playback software. However, we wanted a thoroughbred. Our HTPC must be a fully featured media hub for all of today's entertainment needs and be powerful enough to see us through when high definition (HD) content hits the mainstream next year.
What we were looking for next was a small, stylish and sexy chassis that can fit inconspicuously in the living room. Most importantly, the HTPC should be silent and power efficient under operation so as not to interfere with your movie experience. When was the last time you switched-on your DVD player and it whirred to life in a cadence of cooling fans and gaudy neon lights? That's right – Never, so our HTPC shouldn't do that either.
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Shuttle SD11G5 SRP: US$419
We loved the Shuttle SD11G5 so much from our previous review that we've chosen it as our HTPC chassis of choice. This diminutive box is actually a barebone PC sporting Shuttle's successful G5 design and comes with a very spacious interior and excellent airflow, but looks weren't the main reason we chose the SD11G5. The SD11G5 has a fully-featured motherboard with onboard Gigabit LAN and FireWire connectivity. It is based on the Intel 915GM chipset powered by extremely efficient Pentium M processors, the ideal solution for a serious HTPC setup. |
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