Tag: Hardware

Noctua has an excellent reputation for making quiet fans, so if you have a full height HTPC case, this might be the right HSF for you.   Noctua’s NH-U9B SE2 cooler is a special edition of the NH-U9B cooler for HTPCs or smaller cases. The NH-U9B SE2 now comes with two of Noctua’s NF-B9 92mm fans and adds support for […]

If you have the budget, adding a SSD to your HTPC is a solid way to improve performance and best of all they are completely silent and produce very little heat.   It is hard to believe that almost two years has passed since we first rounded-up some of the first solid state drive offerings for the PC. Since that […]

Silverstone has been making HTPC cases for the longest time, and they’re always a pretty solid option. They make some that are roomy enough to handle any specs you’d want to throw at it. And at $140 it’s not an unreasonable asking price either, although no volume knobs or VFD displays…if that sorta stuff interests you. Today we look at […]

Shocking….another extender device 🙂 But hey, it’s Friday.   HTPCs and media centres are growing in popularity as our houses become far more linked in terms of media. However, these systems can still be too expensive for some, or too big, too complicated; what’s a guy to do? One option it seems is to get yourself a network media player. […]

This is pretty neat stuff if they can get it working well enough. And with Kinect sure to sell a bunch of Xboxes, the opportunity to be in lots of living rooms is already there. The company is looking to change the way the consumer interacts with their media, and as such could eliminate the need for TV remotes, and […]

Shuttle really started the whole SFF (Small Form Factor) trend, but they kinda got quiet in the DIY crowd when it looked like they cared more about their own pre-built systems. Good to see them still evolve their line for us DIY-ers. The SG41J1 is an entry-level (Shuttle ‘J-series’) barebone unit, and if the integrated graphics have enough chops for […]

 I know, I know, this isn’t the CableCard version everyone is waiting for, but it’s still one of the best tuners out there. External, dual tuners, network accessible….figured it was worth the attention still!   he HDHomeRun is an Ethernet based TV tuner.  Nothing less and nothing more.  Being Ethernet based, it has one tremendous advantage over other types of […]

Eh, pretty much what I expected. This new mini is really just an upgrade to the old, with HDMI as a connector, nothing much more than that. Still makes for a sexy HTPC if you’re willing to take the time to get it there, but I can build something better for that much coin.     First, you should note […]

Gotta hand it to Ceton, trying to keep their customers who already pre-ordered happy with some teasers. Good unboxing video of what you pre-order people can expect when the time comes. Hopefully sooner than later! Kudos to GeekTonic for the heads up.  

I actually was speaking to an OEM buddy of mine yesterday about these. This particular OEM had spec’d in the WD Green Drives for some of their systems, and had also noticed a failure rate rather unusual. They confirmed with WD that the Green drives are NOT good with RAID due to the amount of vibrations that are caused by […]