Over the last two years, the launch of every major desktop CPU family from both AMD and Intel has been accompanied by a dedicated HTPC-oriented article. This coverage has been complementary to Anand's extensive analysis from a general computing perspective. Haswell will be no different. The advancements made from Llano to Trinity and from Sandy Bridge to Ivy Bridge had rendered entry level platforms good enough for casual / mainstream HTPC users. Advanced users still require discrete GPUs for using some video renderers and obtaining accurate display refresh rates. Each vendor has their own quirks when it comes to driver features and stability. This has made it difficult to declare any one solution as the perfect HTPC platform. Intel has hyped up improved GPU performance...
Replacing my HTPC with a mini ITX System
Free time is hard to come by these days. Since the beginning of the year I've hit Vegas, Barcelona, Santa Clara, New York, Santa Clara (again), Austin, Seattle, Chicago...
56 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 5/24/2012
Streacom Updates Passive HTPC Chassis Lineup with FC9 and FC10
The advent of CPUs with low TDPs (but having enough power to handle HTPC duties) has resulted in passive HTPCs becoming more and more popular. Streacom (started in 2010...
15 by Ganesh T S on 5/23/2012
ASRock's High-End Vision 3D 252B HTPC Review
In late 2010, we reviewed the ASRock Vision 3D, and declared it to be the best pre-built SFF (small form factor) HTPC we had reviewed. ASRock duly updated the...
61 by Ganesh T S on 5/7/2012_carousel.jpg)
SilverStone Grandia GD07 Review: Centering and Serving Your Media
The last time we reviewed one of SilverStone's Grandia enclosures, it was the GD04, and it was a review that launched the first major revamp of how we test...
36 by Dustin Sklavos on 4/29/2012
Intel's Ivy Bridge: An HTPC Perspective
Towards the end of June 2011, we saw AMD trying to create a HTPC friendly solution in the Llano series. By pairing a GPU with the CPU in the...
70 by Ganesh T S on 4/23/2012
Zotac ZBOX Nano XS AD11 Plus: Redefining the Small Form Factor PC
Small Form Factor (SFF) PCs are becoming quite popular as processors become more and more power efficient. Over the last few years, we have had a slew of budget...
44 by Ganesh T S on 4/11/2012
Pulse-Eight Motorola NYXboard Hybrid Remote Review
Pulse-Eight is one of the companies tracing its roots to XBMC, and it is no wonder they have a host of interesting products in the HTPC space. We have...
23 by Ganesh T S on 4/5/2012
ASRock CoreHT Server Edition Review
Late last year, we took a look at the ASRock CoreHT 252B, a Sandy Bridge-based midrange HTPC. We liked the CoreHT quite a bit, noting that the small form...
44 by Vivek Gowri on 2/16/2012
AMD Radeon HD 7750 & Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition Review: Evading The Price/Performance Curve
With the launch of Tahiti behind them, AMD is now firing on all cylinders to get the rest of their Southern Islands lineup out the door. Typically we’d see...
154 by Ryan Smith & Ganesh T S on 2/15/2012
CyberLink PowerDVD 12: Complementing Your Mobile Lifestyle
Software Blu-ray / DVD players are bundled with almost all OEM PCs and a necessity for consumers who want to enjoy their commercial optical media in the most legal...
42 by Ganesh T S on 1/31/2012
Syabas Launches Popcorn Hour C-300
Syabas launched the second generation version of their BDA licensed unit, the Popcorn Hour C-300 today. The previous version was based on Sigma's SMP 8643, and the C-300 is based...
6 by Ganesh T S on 12/6/2011
Zotac Introduces Passively Cooled GTS 450 Zone Edition
Passively cooled high performance GPUs are quite popular with the HTPC community. NVIDIA GPUs are preferred by many HTPC users because of good software support (LAV CUVID, for example...
25 by Ganesh T S on 11/23/2011
ASRock CoreHT 252B Review
Approximately a year back, we reviewed the ASRock Core 100 HTPC which was a pioneer of sorts in the small form factor (SFF) HTPC space. Till that point, the...
56 by Ganesh T S on 9/2/2011
Roku 2 Brings Casual Gaming to TVs
Roku, founded in 2002, is one of the pioneers in the media streamer market. OTT (over-the-top) content from premium service providers like Netflix and Hulu has become more popular...
16 by Ganesh T S on 7/19/2011
AMD A8-3850 : An HTPC Perspective
Today is all about Lynx, the desktop version of the Llano platform from AMD. Anand is reviewing the A8-3850 from a generic PC perspective, and Ian is covering its...
107 by Ganesh T S on 6/30/2011
Discrete HTPC GPU Shootout
The popularity of Intel's HD Graphics amongst HTPC enthusiasts and the success of the AMD APUs seem to indicate that the days of the discrete HTPC GPU are numbered...
70 by Ganesh T S on 6/12/2011
Zotac ZBOX: Brazos Goes HTPC
The ultimate goal of any HTPC is to handle any media content you might desire, all while consuming very little power and generating no noise. Package all of that...
37 by Andrew Van Til on 6/9/2011
Hauppauge Colossus: HD PVR with HDMI Support
When Hauppauge introduced the original HD PVR in 2008 its component plus TOSLINK (optical S/PDIF) capture of 5.1 Dolby Digital and up to 1080i analog video was a revolutionary...
62 by Andrew Van Til on 4/14/2011
AMD's Radeon HD 6450: UVD3 Meets The HTPC
AMD’s Northern Islands family is composed of four GPUs, roughly divided into two categories. At the top is the 6900 series powered by Cayman, AMD’s first VLIW4 GPU. Below...
47 by Ryan Smith on 4/7/2011
Dell Zino HD 410 HTPC Review
Dell is one of the leading vendors in the PC market to have a play in the SFF HTPC (small form factor home theater PC) space. In 2009, they...
69 by Ganesh T S on 2/19/2011