Smart Home Blog

American company A-Tech Fabrication offers interesting cases for HTPC and NAS. The stylish aluminium cases include integrated HeatSync cooling system for CPU and video card. That system uses side panels as radiator. So, it doesn’t need coolers with fan. Also, cases are equiped by HDD Isolation System to eliminate noise from vibrations.

The price is not so cheap as we’d like :). For example, the price of the case on the picture is $749 + additional options.

P. S. I was really surprised when I found the suggested dimensions for the expansion cards to use with A-Tech Fabrication’s cases. Usually the proper hardware can be found by testing only.

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Recently I found information about new HTPC software - Boxee. The Boxee is a first “social” media center. it plays media from your computer and other devices in your home network, as well as connect you to various Internet sources that allow you to stream or download movies, tv shows, music and photos.
The Boxee was started in 2007 and is based on the XBMC open-source project. Currently two alpha versions of Boxee are available - for Ubuntu Linux and Mac OS X. The Windows version is planning later this year.
There are no sreenshots or details on the project’s site. I sent request for alpha testing but didn’t receive invitation yet. Will share my experience when get and install it on my PC.

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Nice and clear looking stand for media center designed by Reynold Rodriguez. It isn’t so easy to find a good furniture to put there all parts of home theater including wall mounted plasma or LCD.

[via Unplagged]

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Norwegian company Mesiro offers a compact and stylish Home Entertainment PC Merium. It mixes Scandinavian design and power of moder PC. Compact sizes 26×9x23 cm covers Intel Core 2 Duo T5500 (1.66GHz), 2GB DDR2 667 MHz, 250GB SATA HDD, Dual Layer DVD & CD Recorder, integrated Intel 950 graphic, 7.1 channel audio, Integrated Realtek Gigabit PCI LAN Chip and Intel WLAN-PCI – 802.11 a/b/g 54MB. For consumers available following outputs: DVI-I, HDMI & VGA via Converter, S-Video, S/PDIF, 6 x USB 2.0. As operation system Mesiro chose Vista Home Premium (which includes Media Center software). To control Merium media center the wireless multimedia keyboard and MCE remote control can be used.

The stylish Home Entertainment PC Merium is available for about $1000. It isn’t cheap but probably it’s defensible. For all fans of art Mesiro offers original covers. You can get high quality silk-print on polycarbonate by famous designers just for additional €69.

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German company HIGHDEF Technology Gmbh offers a very nice looking Vista MCE based home entertainment systems. It includes a TV reception with HDTV and a twin tuner, a hard drive and DVD recorder, DVD and CD player, archive for video, music and photos, and Internet and email, as well as video on demand. The Box One has probably the best case for media center I have ever seen. It’s an excellent mix of an austere style and functionality. The Box One fits to others A/V devices ideally.

To control the Box One media system the 7″ touch panel and the keypad can be used. The old school remote control is also an option. Based on my personal experience it’s the best way to control media center.

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