Tranquil PC ships 1.5-inch thick, fanless HTPC

[Jos]

PC manufacturer Tranquil has launched a new media center system that is only 1.5-inches tall and designed to fit right in with the rest of your living room's audio and video equipment. The MMC-12 is around the same size as a slimline DVD or Blu-Ray player, constructed from metal and finished in satin-textured matte black, and sports a very spartan design with only a power button and slot-loading optical drive in the front panel.

Its specs are nothing to write home about but they offer enough power for most media consumption tasks. The base configuration pairs a Core i3-2100T processor with 4GB of RAM running Windows 7 Home Premium, though you get a paltry 80GB for storage. The company recommends the media center PC is paired with its own network storage solution but users can also upgrade to a 1TB internal hard drive.

The back panel has ports for Ethernet, eSATA, USB 3.0, USB 2.0, HDMI, DVI, and mini optical SPDIF. Unfortunately, there's no internal TV tuner, which means you're stuck using external USB solutions if you want to play or record broadcast video for DVR functionality. Tranquil is pitching the MMC-12 as a good option for network streaming and IPTV using services like Netflix, Hulu Plus and others.

The unit has a maximum power consumption of only 19W and is passively cooled for silent operation. Don't expect its beautiful design to come in cheap, though. Pricing kicks off at £649 ($1,005) for the entry-level model, which includes a media remote, while the 1TB option with a 2.7GHz Core i5, 8GB of RAM and a Blu-ray drive goes for for £995 ($1,543) before VAT.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/46873-tranquil-pc-ships-15-inch-thick-fanless-htpc.html

 

[Guest]

That's too goddam much money. Aren't HTPC's supposed to be cheap? Isn't that the reason you buy one? So what you have here, is someone trying to shove a thousand dollar pc up your butt and thinking that they can actually do it just because it's thin enough? No deal. Not when you can build a 400 dollar computer that does the exact same thing and put it in a cabinet.

 

[treetops]

so its a super small expensive desktop computer?

 

[oldikes]

for that much i can get a badass LAPTOP with better specs. It would do just as well as an HTPC too.

 

[LNCPapa]

I think most of what you're paying for here is how sleek it is (aesthetics) and how well it would fit in with an existing entertainment center. My ideal custom build for one of these only came up to 693 pounds - a bit steep but not completely outside the realm of reality for something so elegant.

 

[nazartp]

ikesmasher, I'm with you. I toyed with the idea of building an HTPC just because I wanted to build one, but, honestly, my son's laptop for which we paid about $600 almost two years ago is more than enough. For the price they are asking - no thank you.

 

[tehbanz]

but guize thar is no fanzz!!!

Yeah, overpriced BS is what it is if i didn't use my original xbox for all my streaming purposes i'd be using a boxee box. I think the boxee box is more aesthetically pleasing with it's weird shape.

 

[MrAnderson]

It is a cool formfactor, but haeck yeah that is way too much considering the HD is 80 GB...really?!

I was expecting 499 USD max... for over a grand I agree, you can get a nice laptop and probably better stuff in it... and a laptop has its own screen too.

If there was spcial software customization I would be able to start to understad, but I have not noticed any talk about that. Being a PC that connects to my TV is not enough. I have that already and in a pretty small form factor for like 299... when I bought it... granted it is an Atom with 1 GB of ram, but it has 250GB HD... now you can get one for 199 if you look for a deal.

 

[madboyv1]

Other than the lack of an optical drive, the $800 version of the Mac Mini sounds like a much better option; a better price (which is rare for a mac) and better overall specs (even rarer) in an even smaller footprint (par for course).

 

[howzz1854]

LNCPapa said:
I think most of what you're paying for here is how sleek it is (aesthetics) and how well it would fit in with an existing entertainment center. My ideal custom build for one of these only came up to 693 pounds - a bit steep but not completely outside the realm of reality for something so elegant.

if aesthetics, and media streaming is all it has to offer.... there's a thing called apple TV which costs you $100.

this is what i would call an Epic FAIL product. not powerful enough to be a true media center pc, and overpriced for a streaming box.

 

[LNCPapa]

An Apple TV doesn't really fit in well with a full component system and the thing only does 720p.