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ThermalTake Mozart With Media Lab
The case of the Home Theater PC
150 USD/EURInfo: website
Model: VC4001SNS Manufacturer Thermaltake Price:
Thermaltake is one of these companies that consistently surprises me in a positive way. Their products for some reason always appeal to me personally and whatever they send in for a review, it's just works, looks and feel great. Today's product is absolutely no different. In it's segment it's quite affordable, looking extraordinary and it's build quality is just splendid. Hello everyone and welcome to another Guru3D product review.
Today we are entering the mysterious world of the HTPC .. the Home Theater PC. A PC that has been built for the sole purpose of playing back music, movies and or media files, basically a multimedia center. And that is not an easy mission, as everybody has different goals, budgets and tasks for such a PC.
Now in the last year or two we have seen a decent success for Microsoft with the Media Center Edition software. In the stores you can find the most expensive models that easily top 2000 USD. And no matter how you look at it, inside every HTPC is fundamentally a PC. So why not build one yourself ? That's what we'll be doing today. Believe it or not .. we are building a budget HTPC. I have given myself a rather small budget and some goals that I want to accomplish with that HTPC. These are questions you need to ask yourself also when have the intention to build one. Go and write down: what it is your HTPC should be capable of ? What are you willing to spend on it ? And then match the components that can achieve your goals.
So in my case first off the HTPC must be fully compatible with all modern codecs. So I want it to playback DivX, XVID and WMV flawlessly, but I even want it to be able to playback HD material on an HD screen if needed.
Therefore we have to carefully select our hardware. Secondly, I want this HTPC to be silent. While watching a DVD I do not want to get annoyed by humming cooling fans. Thirdly .. this is an HTPC .. thus it should look nice. And that's most definitely where Thermaltake comes in. Fourth .. sound quality should be good. I want digital optical outputs for Multi-channels sound. Last but not least I have given myself a budget .. 750-1000 USD for a fully functional HTPC.
A small sidenote here: essentially this is a review about the Thermaltake Mozart. Look at the choices and building part of the HTPC as an additional bonus in this review.
Let's have a look at the next page, but not before I show you the end result:
