zalman zm-hd160

Enclosures and acoustic damping to help quiet them.

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bryzzz
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zalman zm-hd160

Post by bryzzz » Sun Feb 12, 2006 7:46 am

pics... anybody know when this is set to be released... finally a HTPC case that can fit my zalman cnps 9500...

http://www.xyzcomputing.com/index.php?o ... mitstart=1

i think zalman is freakin slow when it comes to releasing products. They were supposed to release a gaming case like 2 yrs ago and it's still not out and STILL being showcased at the recent CES...

I gave up on antec... i want a neoHE but not w/ all the probs, p180 has door probs... p150... that's ok i guess... zalman here i come...[/url]

bryzzz
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Post by bryzzz » Mon Feb 13, 2006 8:03 pm

how many views does it take for ppl to reply around here? or are ppl just not interested in this case?

El Doug
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Post by El Doug » Mon Feb 13, 2006 10:18 pm

WHOA

the inside is IDENTICAL to the x11/x15e. In every respect. There must be some kind of collaberation, because this is no fluke.

As for this case, i think its rather ugly - the bezel is simply too crowded. Nice touch on the analog volume nob, but otherwise too cluttered

haxer11
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HTPC Case for 9500

Post by haxer11 » Mon Feb 13, 2006 11:43 pm

bryzzz -

I have been looking for a large HTPC case as well, as I want to run a Ninja in my HTPC if at all possible. Considering the Ninjas monsterous size, I have found but a few choices.

You should be able to fit the Zalman in the following case from Silverstone:

Silverstone LC17

alfin
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Post by alfin » Sat Feb 18, 2006 2:53 pm

Zalman has started to send out retail samples so I would guess it will be released sooner than later.

I have some pictures here; http://www.64bits.se/forum/viewtopic.php?t=53150 (don't know if it’s OK for me to link to my own site, if not a mod can remove the link).

I haven't gotten the time to test it properly yet (a couple of other products has to bee reviewed first) but for the moment it seems to be a great product. Both the remote and VFD is MS MCE-comaptible too.

If you have som questions I will try to answere them as soon as possible.

bryzzz
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Post by bryzzz » Wed Feb 22, 2006 3:54 pm

hi alfin. i'm wondering... how much do u think they will charge for this? also... one site i read gave ti a 4/10, another 4/5... i'm kinda worried by this discrepency.

how quiet are the stock zalman 80mms?

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Post by MikeC » Wed Feb 22, 2006 6:59 pm

The HD160 Home Theatre System case is on Zalman's website now, so one assumes it will be in the stores very soon.

derekva
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Post by derekva » Wed Feb 22, 2006 9:18 pm

bryzzz wrote:hi alfin. i'm wondering... how much do u think they will charge for this? also... one site i read gave ti a 4/10, another 4/5... i'm kinda worried by this discrepency.

how quiet are the stock zalman 80mms?
If they are charging in the neighborhood of $200.00, then you should just buy the OrigenAE x11 since as El Doug has mentioned, the insides are identical (although the front bezel and backplane are different and they've put that nice dust collector grille on the top of the Zalman).

Stock Zalman fans are noisy mofos, BTW. :D

-Derek

Weldingheart
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Post by Weldingheart » Wed Feb 22, 2006 11:33 pm

some reviews....
matbe => english tanslation
rbmods
DVHArdware :D (nice review and comments :twisted: )

kojak71
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Post by kojak71 » Thu Feb 23, 2006 12:40 am

Showing as due soon on UK's QuietPC website. The major advances over cases (such as Ahanix DVine case that I have)

This case has been designed to allow PSU that have a 120mm fan (e.g. Seasonic S12) to be turned around so that the fan faces the side inlet grille. In essence creating an air duct just for the PSU itself!

The vent on the top of the case can also be open or closed giving you a certain amount of flexibility. Although it's designed to introduce clean air to the CPU, there's no reason why you could use it to duct air from a system (e.g. Thermalight XP120 users who have fans in the pull orientation).

Slots under the secondary hard-drive cage, and the orientation of the drives are now vertical, thus ensuring that some air will get to all the hard-drives. Still no way of adding an inlet fan to force air over the drives. Grommets and obvious plus, as hard-drive suspension in HTPC cases has always been very tricky.

They've incorporated the MCE IR blaster into the case itself which will reduce the clutter somewhat which is a neat idea. As is the inclusion of a flash card reader under the front flap (as well as the USB/Firewire/Audio sockets).

Aethestics aside, I do think that there is one problem and that's the DVD-drive faceplate. It looks like it's another of those stick-on jobs. I've given up on this system on my Ahanix case, because it droops under it's own weight. This is a cheap solution considering the expense of the case. Speaking of cost, QuietPC are retailing it at £210. Some would argue that's a lot of money.

johncl
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An HTPC is supposed to be silent!

Post by johncl » Thu Feb 23, 2006 4:41 am

I think the main goal of a HTPC, that is usually situated in the living room of a house, is absolute silence! This zalman case and the specs on the site shows that their main focus is to make the system cool enough to run some hot CPU and tons of other gear that generate heat. Even their pictures show 3 disks!!! Noone in their right mind would put 3 3,5" disks in a HTPC system and still get kisses from their wife! :)

2 fans is also = more noise. I'd rather try to make the PSU the only fan in the whole system and choose components wisely to reduce the amount of heat generated in it. Or I would go for a totally difference case that try to move heat from inside the case to outside by other means - like the mCubed HFX which has two huge heatsinks on each side of the case. Specifically tailored for passive cooling.

Also, the volume knob is kinda cool, but there is no amp inside the case so you would also have a volume knob on your stereo. Not very useful in other words. That knob should rather have been a selector knob for choosing media, information that could be shown on the display.

The only thing I did like about this case was that it had a slot for an internal card reader in front, something I miss in the mCubed case.

sanse
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Re: An HTPC is supposed to be silent!

Post by sanse » Thu Feb 23, 2006 6:31 am

seems a very nice computer-case to me. looks good. psu has it's own cooling-canal. no worries there. when using the zalman cpu-cooler or a similar horizontal blowing setup cooling of the main components is probably well assured. for multimedia use.

they don't give hdd-temps; maybe because those devices will run a bit hot in that case? especially the one on top of the dvd-writer will have a hard time sitting there, i think. the other mount-point should be no problem for 'silent-geeks' like us. adding a fan somewhere seems possible.

would that vcf-module in front like to cooperate with a t-balancer? and what to do with that volume-knob in the front? where do you connect that?

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Post by Rusty075 » Thu Feb 23, 2006 6:52 am

Having seen it in person, I wasn't super impressed. It's basically the same as any of the other "aluminum slab front" HTPC cases out there from Silverstone, Ahanix, or half a dozen Korean makers. Some of the refinements for better cooling, like the side-mounted PSU should help, but they come at a cost: namely that this thing is huge. It's essentially a mid-tower case resting on it's side. I've got a DVine 5 that barely fits in an AV rack, and this thing is bigger in every dimension by at least a couple of inches.

Personally.....I'm more excited about the Antec HTPC cases. 120mm fans, suspended HDD's, and they're smaller. (and cheaper!)

sanse
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Post by sanse » Thu Feb 23, 2006 7:32 am

Rusty075 wrote:... It's essentially a mid-tower case resting on it's side...
that's just one of the things i like. :) it fits in with other audio components, but you can still built a decent and powerful computer in it.

jhhoffma
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Post by jhhoffma » Thu Feb 23, 2006 7:35 am

Hey Rusty075, I never would have expected to find an SPCR guru in my neighborhood!!! Cool. If you ever need to get rid of some review gear, be sure to send me a PM first. I'd be willing to help you by taking silent stuff off your hands. :twisted:

My only problem with the Antec Fusion is the mATX mobo requirement. That rules it out for me as I sure am not able to afford a whole new system based off mATX when the current one works just fine.

My only hope is that once the Antecs come out, retailers will lower the price of the Silverstone, Ahanix, and OrigenAE cases out there. $250 for a case that doesn't include a completely silent PSU is ridunkulous.

MikeC
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Post by MikeC » Thu Feb 23, 2006 7:46 am

sanse wrote:
Rusty075 wrote:... It's essentially a mid-tower case resting on it's side...
that's just one of the things i like. :) it fits in with other audio components, but you can still built a decent and powerful computer in it.
I think you might have missed Russ's point -- there are many other cases that are already like this, so what's different/better with the Zalman -- which is a relevant point.

BTW, why does one need a full ATX motherboard for a HTPC? For high end, you need a vidcard, a HD tuner card (presumably w/a dual tuner one is available), and maybe a sound card. That still leaves one PCI slot free on a micro-ATX board. And from what I gather, many m-ATX boards have onboard video good enough for HD playback.

sanse
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Post by sanse » Thu Feb 23, 2006 7:52 am

MikeC wrote:I think you might have missed Russ's point -- there are many other cases that are already like this, so what's different/better with the Zalman -- which is a relevant point.
and i think you now miss my point. ;-) i like the audio-style of the case, but you can still build a powerful general purpose computer in it. it has room for a full atx-board, 4 hdd's, 7 slots and a floppydrive. the only thing missing might be a second 5.25' bay.

the computer i built in that ac silentium t2 case (see gallery) for me is a audio-computer as well as a general purpose computer. it was attractive to me, cause it's a relatively small midtower. but it does stand right up. right next to the audio-receiver. this zalman case could slide in under the audio-receiver easily.

johncl
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Post by johncl » Thu Feb 23, 2006 8:09 am

MikeC wrote: BTW, why does one need a full ATX motherboard for a HTPC? For high end, you need a vidcard, a HD tuner card (presumably w/a dual tuner one is available), and maybe a sound card. That still leaves one PCI slot free on a micro-ATX board. And from what I gather, many m-ATX boards have onboard video good enough for HD playback.
True, and I guess you dont really need a sound card either because most motherboards have digital outputs also, so you can do all sound decoding in the amp instead (which I would assume has much better components for this anyway?).

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Post by MikeC » Thu Feb 23, 2006 8:14 am

johncl wrote:True, and I guess you dont really need a sound card either because most motherboards have digital outputs also, so you can do all sound decoding in the amp instead (which I would assume has much better components for this anyway?).
So you agree -- full ATX motherboard is not a requirement for good HTPC. It's one of the premises I brought to the new Antec HTPC case Russ saw at CES. I am told I will see a production sample in March.

sanse
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Post by sanse » Thu Feb 23, 2006 8:37 am

MikeC wrote:So you agree -- full ATX motherboard is not a requirement for good HTPC. It's one of the premises I brought to the new Antec HTPC case Russ saw at CES. I am told I will see a production sample in March.
pure for htpc use a micro-atx is good enough. and when eg using a 479-board with a pentium m makes things a lot easier on the thermal front.

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Post by MikeC » Thu Feb 23, 2006 9:07 am

sanse wrote:pure for htpc use a micro-atx is good enough. and when eg using a 479-board with a pentium m makes things a lot easier on the thermal front.
OK, here's a teaser: That Antec HTPC case was designed/profiled/tested with an Intel 670 (prescott 3.8GHz), which it kept from throttling in long term CPUBurn w/ a single Tricool 120 at low.

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Post by Erssa » Thu Feb 23, 2006 9:12 am

sanse wrote:
MikeC wrote:So you agree -- full ATX motherboard is not a requirement for good HTPC. It's one of the premises I brought to the new Antec HTPC case Russ saw at CES. I am told I will see a production sample in March.
pure for htpc use a micro-atx is good enough. and when eg using a 479-board with a pentium m makes things a lot easier on the thermal front.
I switched to m-atx last year. Imo they have are perfect for everyday computers. There are only couple of good reasons to pick atx mobo instead of m-atx . Usually they are overclocking, and serious gaming (dual graphics), otherwise they are pretty much on par with atx -mobos. Who uses 3 pci cards these days anyway, now that you can get stuff like 1gb lan or HD audio equal to audigy 2 integrated. Things will be even brighter in the future when pci-e 1x cards start to pop up...

I guess I'm starting to sound like Aris and his m-Itx... :P

Btw I like the Antec NSK3300 m-atx case more then the HTPC.

sanse
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Post by sanse » Thu Feb 23, 2006 9:20 am

MikeC wrote:
sanse wrote:pure for htpc use a micro-atx is good enough. and when eg using a 479-board with a pentium m makes things a lot easier on the thermal front.
OK, here's a teaser: That Antec HTPC case was designed/profiled/tested with an Intel 670 (prescott 3.8GHz), which it kept from throttling in long term CPUBurn w/ a single Tricool 120 at low.
antec, antec, ... ;-)

and with a high-end videocard? and are there micro-atx boards, that accomodate dual-core processors? and what if you want to exchange some info with a 10 year old computer through a floppy? can it read my digital images from my digital camera's sd-card? and how to make backups from a harddisc with a 80gb music collection on it? or the same for a huge collection of digital images? can it accomodate a mobile rack for making fast sata-backups of all those music/image files?

;-)

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Post by MikeC » Thu Feb 23, 2006 9:42 am

and with a high-end videocard? -- no problem
and are there micro-atx boards, that accomodate dual-core processors? -- plenty
and what if you want to exchange some info with a 10 year old computer through a floppy? -- not be an issue if you installed a floppy... tho they're limited use these days.
can it read my digital images from my digital camera's sd-card? -- as long as you have the mem readers, why not? I think the Fusion will come with some mem card readers anyway
and how to make backups from a harddisc with a 80gb music collection on it? or the same for a huge collection of digital images? -- again, why not?
can it accomodate a mobile rack for making fast sata-backups of all those music/image files? -- mobile racks are history, external drives have displaced them.

:wink:

sanse
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Post by sanse » Thu Feb 23, 2006 9:45 am

MikeC wrote:
sanse wrote:pure for htpc use a micro-atx is good enough. and when eg using a 479-board with a pentium m makes things a lot easier on the thermal front.
OK, here's a teaser: That Antec HTPC case was designed/profiled/tested with an Intel 670 (prescott 3.8GHz), which it kept from throttling in long term CPUBurn w/ a single Tricool 120 at low.
i'm looking at a picture of the antec htpc case now. i see the 3 thermal zones. do i understand it correctly if i say the 2 120mm tri-cools also draw air out of the hdd-department?

sanse
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Post by sanse » Thu Feb 23, 2006 9:50 am

MikeC wrote:and sanse put his replies in between:

and with a high-end videocard? -- no problem

>ok.

and are there micro-atx boards, that accomodate dual-core processors? -- plenty

>ok, didn't know that.

and what if you want to exchange some info with a 10 year old computer through a floppy? -- not be an issue if you installed a floppy... tho they're limited use these days.

>where to install a floppydrive in the antec htpc-case?

can it read my digital images from my digital camera's sd-card? -- as long as you have the mem readers, why not? I think the Fusion will come with some mem card readers anyway

>ok, but separately, dangling around making things untidy. :)

and how to make backups from a harddisc with a 80gb music collection on it? or the same for a huge collection of digital images? -- again, why not?

>try backing up such a data-collection over usb. and then over an internal sata-connection.

can it accomodate a mobile rack for making fast sata-backups of all those music/image files? -- mobile racks are history, external drives have displaced them.

>see my previous answer.
:)

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Post by Rusty075 » Thu Feb 23, 2006 10:21 am

With the except of having room for a full atx mobo, how does the zalman case make any of that any easier than a case like the Antec?

sanse
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Post by sanse » Thu Feb 23, 2006 10:33 am

Rusty075 wrote:With the except of having room for a full atx mobo, how does the zalman case make any of that any easier than a case like the Antec?
a floppydrive/cardreader-combo can be easily installed in the zalman-case. a mobile rack not. i mentioned above that it lacks a second 5.25' bay.

i don't think there will be a htpc-case released with room for a mobile rack. one of the silverstones has a second 5.25' bay, but you can't do anything other with it than put a cd/dvd-thing in it.

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Post by kojak71 » Thu Feb 23, 2006 11:17 am

MikeC wrote:BTW, why does one need a full ATX motherboard for a HTPC? For high end, you need a vidcard, a HD tuner card (presumably w/a dual tuner one is available), and maybe a sound card. That still leaves one PCI slot free on a micro-ATX board. And from what I gather, many m-ATX boards have onboard video good enough for HD playback.
Errmmm, I've got 4 PCI tuners in my MCE 2005 setup. As for HD playback, few IGP are MCE certified. Going forwards the inevitable release of dual PCIe tuners, graphics chipsets which support HDCP should make mATX a more viable option.

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Post by derekva » Thu Feb 23, 2006 12:01 pm

kojak71 wrote:
MikeC wrote:BTW, why does one need a full ATX motherboard for a HTPC? For high end, you need a vidcard, a HD tuner card (presumably w/a dual tuner one is available), and maybe a sound card. That still leaves one PCI slot free on a micro-ATX board. And from what I gather, many m-ATX boards have onboard video good enough for HD playback.
Errmmm, I've got 4 PCI tuners in my MCE 2005 setup. As for HD playback, few IGP are MCE certified. Going forwards the inevitable release of dual PCIe tuners, graphics chipsets which support HDCP should make mATX a more viable option.
The good news is that for Vista (which will include the next version of the Media Center code, there should be support for USB-based cablecard tuners, which should cut down the number of PCI cards needed.

Currently ATI and nVidia GPUs support HDCP, but you need the encryption silicon on the board in order to enable this option - the only HDCP-compliant video card out there is on a Sony PC. Of course, you can't buy any HDCP cards yet, which is why ATI is in hot water for false advertising...

-Derek

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