Zalman HD160XT Home Theater PC Enclosure

Introduction:

  Home theaters were once a very expensive and an advanced technical concept that very few people were able to afford or configure in their own homes. The time and money it required to properly set up just wasn't feasible for most people. And most often it required several components varying in size which took up quite a bit of shelf space. And then there is the consideration of the power that all the components consume yearly. Nowadays, you can find store bought home theater systems at almost any large common department store ranging in prices from under a hundred dollars on up in the thousands. The cheaper systems have their pitfalls just as the larger more expensive quality systems. Cheaper systems suffer sound quality issues and lack component features, while the expensive systems tend to suddenly require much more space, assembly, and money.

With HTPC systems on the rise, more and more manufacturers are releasing HTPC components for the market. The number and choices of HTPC enclosures has been pretty limited. Up until the first of the year, your choices were limited to mid-towers, mini-towers, and only a handful of any kind of desktop enclosure. If you are serious about making your HTPC look and function properly, you wouldn't want to put your old gamer case next to your home theater components. Zalman has been good about leading the way with their own innovative ideas when it comes to system enclosures. The Zalman HD160XT Home Theater PC Enclosure is one of their many great envisioned ideas brought to form and style. If you're considering ideas for your HTPC, read on and see what Zalman has been up to.

• Full Specifications

Closer Look:

As you can see, the functions, features, specs, and options are numerous. The Zalman HD160XT is one very well designed chassis that has a lot more potential than just being an extremely classy Home Theater Enclosure. The best thing about the new Home Theater PCs today are how you can configure them to what you really would like the system to do and can choose the enclosure you want sitting on the component shelves.

Front

Multi-Cultural

Features

Wow!

Focusing on the HD160XT chassis, you can see that it is made from only the best brushed aluminum possible and has a thick frame. Continuing around the sides, you can see that the grooves that perfectly machined in to the side even across the fan holes. The vent holes are very clean and make a perfect transition from the outside to the inside of the chassis. The back of the enclosure is just as perfectly machined as the front and back of the case. Despite the thickness of the bezel and case, it is surprisingly light weight and easy to move. The bezel has an even more finely brushed finish and designed very well.

Front

Left

Right

Back

Where are the extra front bezel expansion ports you ask? With a slight pull to the lower left or right of the bezel, a very smooth aluminum door slowly drops open revealing more than just the typical features. Not only do you have the extra USB, 1394, and Audio Ports, there is an integrated memory card reader for all the current major memory sticks used today. If your expandable device of choice happens to have a compatible memory card, one could simply plug it in the proper front port and interface with the data on the memory card, whatever it might be.

Bezel Down

Audio, 1394, USB

Memory Reader

The Bundle

The 7" Touch Screen LCD is a guaranteed to not have any dead pixels and is perfectly powered for perfect interaction. There are 5 function buttons underneath the LCD screen performing On/Off, Menu, Select/Auto, Up, and Down. The lettering is clean and easy to read and very neatly printed for easy reading. Accompanying the LCD is the Remote Control which is fully compatible with an almost infinite amount of hardware configurations.

Remote

Play Back Control

Menu Control

Selection & Task

Removing a couple small screws from the left, right, back, and front top allows the lid to slide off. The inside is perfectly wide open without any frame pieces obstructing the access like there is in a Rackmount case. The inside very, very neatly laid out providing a large amount of air flow and component installation access. The only significant chassis components inside the case are the drive bays on the front left and right. These drives are semi-adjustable in that only one screw has to be removed from the top of the bay on the inside wall of the chassis. Once the one screw is removed, each drive bay simply slides back out from underneath the black rail glides attached to the bottom of the chassis.

Inside the Zalman HD160XT

In a chassis like the HD160XT, air flow isn't a problem for the components. The HD160XT has 2 x 80mm fans mounted to the back inside of the chassis, 1 x 80mm attached to the bottom just behind the 5.25 drive pays, and 1 x 80mm fan installed inside the hard drive bay against the chassis wall. All of these fans are situated in such a way that air flow immediately gets to the warmest components inside the system. There is an extra fan port in the back left chassis wall if you feel the need to install another 80mm of choice. And if this isn't enough cooling for you, the case lid has an adjustable and removable vent plate located right over the 5.25 bay and internal bottom 80mm fan to increase air flow.

Bottom 80mm

HDD Bay 80mm

Two Rear 80mm

Top CPU Vent