ZOTAC International, a global innovator and leading manufacturer of graphics cards, mainboards and mini-PCs, today supercharges the ZBOX mini-PC with desktop Intel Core i5 and i3 processors for outstanding performance that can match and outpace larger full-size desktop PCs. The new 3rd Generation ZOTAC ZBOX with Intel Core Processors ushers in a new era of performance to the mini-PC form factor.

"Users demanded the same performance as larger desktop PCs from our ZBOX but the small size made it virtually impossible to deliver the same performance as desktop PCs. After many months of engineering and fine tuning, we came up with a solution that enables us to install desktop LGA1155 socket Intel Core i5 and i3 processors without sacrificing size, noise or power consumption that will make our end users very happy," says Carsten Berger, senior director, ZOTAC International.

Lian-Li Industrial Co., Ltd. today announces two new brushed aluminum Mini-ITX chassis: PC-Q27 and PC-Q28. These two compact cases feature Lian Li's new railing mount motherboard tray design, and allow for the Mini-ITX platform to be combined with traditional full-sized components.

In addition to the new motherboard tray, both of Lian Li's new Mini-ITX chassis have a new side panel removal design. After removing a single screw, the side panel easily slides off with minimal effort.

SilverStone unveiled the Milo ML05 mini-ITX case for HTPCs. Slightly smaller, and more polished than the ML03, the new case features a crafted ABS front-fascia, with SECC steel frame. Most of its ports and jacks are relocated to its sides, while leaving room for a slimline optical drive in the front. The case seats mini-ITX motherboards with room for half-height add-on cards. In addition to the slimline bay, it features four internal 2.5-inch drive bays. Measuring 350 x 99 x 204 mm (WxDxH), it packs a total volume of 7 liters.

Cooltek adds with the "Coolcube" a particularly compact aluminum HTPC cases to its product range. The minimalistic cube is completely made of 1.5 mm thick, black anodized aluminum. The Coolcube offers a classical, timeless design that blends in perfectly with any environment. The case is designed for Mini-ITX systems and can be equipped with a standard ATX power supply.

You can mount either a 3.5 inch and a 2.5 inch hard disk or two 2.5 inch HDD/SSD inside the case. Two PCI expansion slots are available for the installation of graphics cards with a maximum length of about 180 mm. If you use a standard ATX power supply, you can mount HTPC coolers with a maximum height of about 80 mm.

This little gem by Chinese company Jonsbo, which can be easily mistaken for a sub-woofer, is the V6S mini-ITX case. Measuring 250 x 240 x 210 mm (WxDxH), the case features a silver plastic perforated front, frame and panels made of aluminum, and a space-efficient arrangement of the PC's most important components. To begin with, its PSU bay is positioned forward (with a relay cable running rear), next to space for three 60 mm intake fans. The motherboard tray supports CPU coolers up to 60 mm tall, and graphics cards up to 200 mm long. Space for up to four 3.5-inch drives found on the sides of the frame. Its rear features a surprising amount of room for a 120 mm exhaust fan. The lack of 5.25" drive bays could dent its HTPC credentials, nevertheless, its front-panel features USB 3.0, USB 2.0/1.1, and HD audio ports. Pricing and availability information isn't revealed.Source: Expreview

We know that cooler choice has long been a headache for ITX and HTPC system builders. Stock CPU heatsinks and coolers are hot and noisy, while high quality coolers usually either don't fit the case or interferes with your GPU. So finding the perfect balance of size, thermal performance and noise on ITX and HTPC systems has never been easy, until now!

The Thermalright AXP-100 is here! This latest creation by Thermalright is only a mere 58 mm (2.28 inches) in height including the bundled TY-100 high performance PWM fan. This height provides almost full compatibility with HTPC and ITX cases on the market. Thermalright.com will also be displaying a full list of case compatibility on our product page.

HDPLEX unveiled the H5.TODD and H3.TODD fanless cases. The two are outfitted with Blu-ray ROM drives with a custom drive tray fascia that gels with their brushed aluminum finish. The H3.TODD is designed for mini-ITX motherboards, while the H5.TOOD can house micro-ATX. Neither are tall enough for expansion cards. The two cases come with external solid-state power bricks, and heat-pipe based CPU blocks that convey heat to the bodies, which double up as heatsinks. More details are awaited.Source: FanlessTech

NOX has recently made available the Media HD , a HTPC-ready PC case that measures 140 x 360 x 450 mm and offers support for ATX, micro ATX and mini ITX motherboards. This chassis weights 3.0 kg, has an aluminum front panel, one 5.25-inch and one 3.5-inch slots, two USB 2.0 ports, seven PCI slots, and two built-in 60 mm fans (both at the rear).

The Media HD can be found priced at €45.27 (~ $57.85).

ECS rolled out the HDC-I2/E-350D2, a mini-ITX motherboard running AMD E-350D APU, and AMD A45 FCH chipset. Designed for nettops and HTPCs (supports 1080p video playback), the HDC-I2/E-350D supports up to 8 GB of DDR3-1066 MHz memory, and features a legacy PCI slot. It draws power from a single 24-pin ATX connector. Because it uses the cheaper A45 FCH, it features just two SATA 3 Gb/s ports. Display connectivity includes DVI and HDMI. 6-channel HD audio and gigabit Ethernet make for the rest of it. ECS is including coupons to Cyberlink MediaExpresso 5.1 LE and MediaShow 5.1 LE. Expect it to go for under $100.

Noctua today presented its new NH-L9i and NH-L9a low profile CPU coolers for Intel and AMD. At a super-low profile of only 37mm, the NH-L9 coolers are ideal for extremely slim cases and with footprints tailored to the respective socket keep-out zones, they provide full compatibility with tall RAM modules and VGA cards on mini-ITX mainboards. Topped off with the new NF-A9x14 PWM premium fan, the NH-L9 coolers fuse everything users have come to expect from Noctua's larger coolers into a super-compact package for slim HTPC systems.

"The response on our first low profile cooler, the NH-L12, has been overwhelming", says Mag. Roland Mossig, Noctua CEO. "However, users asked for even smaller, lower height models that also provide better compatibility for extra slim, ITX based HTPCs. We're thrilled that we can now meet this demand with the new NH-L9 coolers."

Using ASUS' very own F2A85-V PRO and AMD's latest A-series APU, ASUS set a new record of 10297 marks in 3DMark Vantage Performance for APUs. ASUS is committed in providing only the best quality and performance motherboard for AMD new A-series APUs.

The ASUS F2A85-V PRO coupled with the AMD A10-5800K APU set a new record of 10297 marks in 3DMark Vantage Performance[1], cooled by liquid nitrogen and aided by 2 DIMMS of memory running stably at a speed of 2720MHz. Even under air cooling, it still achieved a commendable 8070 marks[2], further cementing ASUS FM2 motherboards capabilities in performing well under a wide variety of environments. The new overclocking record in benchmarks such as 3DMark Vantage indicate that ASUS FM2 Series motherboards deliver customers long-lasting stability, reliability and performance as part of the ASUS commitment to the highest quality possible.

Gigabyte unveiled the F2A75M-HD2 entry-level socket FM2 motherboard. Built in the compact micro-ATX form-factor, measuring 225 x 174 mm, the F2A75M-HD2 is driven by AMD A75 chipset, and is designed for HTPCs. The APU socket is powered by a simple 5-phase VRM. It is wired to two DDR3 DIMM slots supporting up to 32 GB of dual-channel DDR3-1866 MHz memory; and a PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slot. One each of PCI-Express 2.0 x1 and legacy PCI make for the rest of the expansion area.

The F2A75M-HD2 features four SATA 6 Gb/s ports supporting RAID 0/1/10, and four USB 3.0 ports (two on the rear panel, two by header). Display outputs include one each of DVI, HDMI, and D-Sub. The rest of the connectivity includes eight USB 2.0/1.1 ports (four on the rear panel, four by headers), 6-channel HD audio, serial (COM), and gigabit Ethernet. The board is driven by AMI Aptio UEFI, with Gigabyte dual-BIOS and 3D BIOS technologies. It is expected to be priced around $70.

The Club 3D GeForce GTX 650Ti delivers exceptional performance at 35% faster than the GeForce GTX 560Ti reference board and 40% faster than the standard GeForce GTX 650 at only 29% higher price, offering excellent value. Featuring a non-reference design, the 80mm fan keeps the GPU temperature low at 31⁰C under idle and operate stable at 53⁰C under load (3DMARK 11 under Extreme preset settings). The aerofoil turboblades and dust repelling bearings designed to operate under extreme load conditions, provide a consistent 31.3dBA under load or idle.

With the short 146mm PCB size, this graphic card is designed for smaller system chassis, making it ideal for users who do not want to replace their computer case and convenient for HTPC users and boosting up the performance by up to 35% compared to previous generation GeForce graphics card*. The GeForce GTX 650Ti embodies the maturity of the 28nm NVIDIA Kepler architecture and offers support for the the PCI Express 3.0 bus interface allowing for the highest data transfer speeds.

AMD Japan teamed up with ASUS to display a concept 100% fanless (silent) HTPC build to buyers at Tokyo's Akihabara electronics shopping district. The build uses Streacom FC5 chassis with a CPU base modified for socket FM2. The base conducts heat from the processor using four copper heat pipes to the aluminum chassis, which doubles up as a heatsink. The build utilizes AMD A10-5700 APU, ASUS F2A85-M Pro micro-ATX motherboard based on AMD A85X chipset, 8 GB of AMD-certified DDR3-1866 MHz memory, and Corsair Force GT SSD. The concept build shows buyers that AMD's "Trinity" APUs are ready, willing, and able to power silent HTPC builds.Sources: FanlessTech, ITMedia.co.jp

The 5.25" device bay has been a long standard in computer history. It started from the 90s legacy industrial PC cases all the way to today's Micro ATX cases. The 5.25" bay has been widely used for optical drives such as DVD and Blue-ray, or with even a single 3.5" hard drive with mobile rack. However, it is almost impossible to use a single 5.25" bay to create complex RAID storage until the MB996SP-6SB Full Metal 6 x 2.5" SATA Hard Drive & SSD Backplane.

Utilizing the standard 5.25" bay form factor, the compact design allows the enclosure to be used in various applications, catering to a wide audience. The MB996SP-6SB excels for use in advanced RAID applications such as building dual RAID 5 arrays or high performance 4 drives in RAID 0 plus RAID 1 array for back up, all in a single 5.25" device bay. The MB996SP-6SB is extremely useful for powerful small servers, gaming rigs, home servers or HTPC's due to its high capacity and space saving design. It is also perfect for users who needs non-RAID JBOD storage and save different contents in different drive locations. It supports wide-range of applications which is the true value of the MB996SP-6SB.

ECS announced the HDC-I2/C60, a mini-ITX industrial PC (IPC) motherboard based on the AMD C-60 APU. The C-60 is a dual-core APU clocked at 1.00 GHz, with integrated Radeon HD 6290 graphics (80 stream processors, 276 MHz core, 400 MHz turbo core). Apart from IPCs, the HDC-I2/C60 is designed for low-power desktops and HTPCs. The APU and FCH are cooled by a single fan-heatsink. The lone expansion slot is a legacy PCI. The APU is wired to two DDR3 DIMM slots, supporting up to 8 GB of single-channel DDR3-1333 MHz memory.

The ECS HDC-I2/C60 draws power from a 24-pin ATX connector, with no auxiliary connectors. Storage connectivity includes two SATA 6 Gb/s ports wired to the chipset. D-Sub and HDMI (with 7.1 channel audio) make up the display outputs. Gigabit Ethernet, 6-channel HD audio, and 10 USB 2.0 ports (six on the rear panel, four by headers) make up the rest of the connectivity. The HDC-I2/C60 is slated for late-August release.

Giada, a brand of Jehe Technology Inc., (JEHE) is pleased to announce the new A51 mini PC series with an AMD T56N processor. This book-sized PC is quiet and unobtrusive, but offers remarkable power, performance and style. The A51 series is powerful enough to use as your main home computer, and it's small size, low power consumption, and portability also make it the perfect choice for a second home PC.

This mini PC has all the features you need for the ultimate home entertainment, including 1080p Full High Definition graphics and vivid 5.1 surround sound. There's full Windows 7 support out-of-the-box, and 320 Gigabytes of hard drive space to store your favorite music and movies. Accessories include a wireless remote with remote boot-up for comfortable viewing and listening. The A51 series is the ideal Home Theater PC (HTPC) and media server.

GIGABYTE is working on a new mini-ITX form-factor motherboard for HTPCs and home servers. The H77N-WiFi, built for socket LGA1155 Core Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge processors, and based on Intel H77 Express chipset, features three network interfaces: two gigabit Ethernet, and an 802.11 b/g/n WLAN. Revving up its HTPC credentials, the board also features two HDMI display outputs, so you can plug your TV to one, and home theater receiver to the other (for multi-channel digital audio). Further, the 8-channel HD audio CODEC gives out an optical SPDIF (TOSLINK) output for 7.1 channel audio.

The GIGABYTE H77N-WiFi draws power from 24-pin ATX and 4-pin CPU power connectors. The LGA1155 socket is powered by a 4+1 phase VRM that appears to use common ferrite core chokes and LFPAK MOSFETs. The LGA1155 CPU is wired to two DDR3 DIMM slots, supporting up to 16 GB of dual-channel DDR3-1600 MHz memory; and a PCI-Express 3.0 x16. The Intel H77 PCH gives out two SATA 6 Gb/s and two SATA 3 Gb/s ports, with support for Smart Response technology (SSD caching). Apart from dual-HDMI, the board supports DVI-I.

Giada, a brand of Shenzhen Jiehe Technology Development, Co., Ltd, today announces the i53 Mini PC. With full HD 1080P video, high connectivity, support, and an attractive design, Giada's new book-sized i53 Mini PC is an ideal choice for home entertainment, web browsing, and document writing.

The i53 is based around Intel's Mobile HM76 Express chipset and Ivy Bridge technology platform. Even while offering great performance, this environmentally friendly PC only uses 35W.

Introducing the MB994IPO-3SB, a full metal dual bay 2.5" SATA/SAS hard drive / SSD mobile rack backplane designed with a Slim Optical Disk Drive (ODD) slot for use in a single 5.25" device bay. It's a perfect device designed for small form factor system or server such as: IPC, HTPC, NAS, Home Servers and All-In-One computers. Dual 4-pin power connectors are used to ensure secured and consistent power supply to both drives and ODD, whether they are low power consumption 2.5" SATA SSD's or power hungry 15000 RPM 2.5" SAS drives. Also included is a single 40mm cooling fan with on & off switch to assist the drives running at their optimal temperatures, in even the most intense applications.

Fractal Design unveiled its newest premium HTPC chassis, the Node 605. Large enough to hold ATX form-factor motherboards, the Node 605 bears a minimalist design, with brushed aluminum front-panel, and steel frame. The front-panel includes a slimline optical drive bay, a multi-format card reader, two USB 3.0 ports (standard header), Firewire, and HD audio front-panel jacks. All front-panel connections are concealed behind a lid that blends with the rest of the panel.

The Node 605 has four internal drive bays, which can hold 3.5-inch or 2.5-inch drives. The four bays are arranged in two cages, which can be detached to create additional room for long graphics cards (up to 29 cm). The case has provision for a total of five fans, three 120 mm, and two 80 mm. Two 120 mm Silent Series R2 fans are included, so are dust-filters and a 3-channel fan-controller. Fractal Design did not disclose pricing and availability information.

Noctua's booth at last week's Computex Taipei not only hosted world's first public demonstration of a PC fan with integrated Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) but also gave a stage to upcoming Noctua products such as the new A-series fans, third generation NF-S12 fan and 37mm low profile CPU coolers. In addition to these upcoming products, Noctua also gave an exclusive insight on some of its current development projects for its D-, U-, C- and L-series heatsinks.

Firstly, Noctua has displayed its completely new A-series fans that feature a novel aerodynamic design measure called Flow Acceleration Channels to reduce boundary layer separation as well as Noctua's AAO (Advanced Acoustic Optimisation) frames. The new A-series fans are scheduled for launch in September/October and will come in square 140mm, round 140mm, slim 92mm plus 60 and 40mm sizes.

Streacom's newest duo of silent all-aluminum cases for HTPCs, the micro-ATX FC9, and the ATX FC10, inch closer to their Computex 2012 launch. Their specifications were leaked by the company's Chinese website. Both cases ensure the machines running in them stay quiet, and remain completely fanless, because their bodies double up as heatsinks for sensitive components, such as the processor. Both cases are made of brushed silver and black (sandblast finish) color options.

Measuring 348 x 289 x 100 mm (WxDxH), the Streacom FC9 supports motherboards in the micro-ATX and mini-ITX form-factors. It features one 2.5-inch drive bay, and a 3.5-inch bay, which supports 2.5-inch drives. It also has a bay for a slimline slot-loading optical drive. A CPU base makes contact with the processor (LGA775, LGA1155, LGA1156 supported), which conveys heat to a side panel via four copper heat pipes. All six panels of the case are made of thick aluminum sheets, some of which are ridged to increase surface area for heat dissipation. The case features three low-profile expansion slots.

Cooler Master, an industry leading chassis, thermal solution, peripheral, and accessory manufacturer, announces a CPU cooler with huge performance packed into a seemingly miniature package. That new compact CPU cooler is the GeminII M4 – a GeminII series cooler.

Redefining cooling performance for space restricted environments, GeminII M4 is engineered to maximize cooling with its minimal CPU contact gaps and four extremely efficient direct contact heat pipes that provide excellent heat dissipation. Standing at a mere 59mm / 2.3in tall, it is uniquely suited to thrive in the small spaces afforded to CPU coolers in HTPCs and other slim systems. This small size is accomplished by developing a new smaller 120mm fan that is only 15mm thick as opposed to ones that are traditionally 25mm. This newly developed fan not only provides the benefit of a 10mm shorter height, it maintains high airflow - providing up to 58.4CFM when set on high speed.

Lian Li today announces their new brushed aluminum mini-ITX HTPC case, PC-Q09FN. The more roomy PC-Q09FN improves upon its predecessors, the PC-Q09 and PC-Q09F, with more hard drive storage capacity and improved cooling.

With the upgraded dimensions of 11.65” x 5.51” x 7.48” WxHxD (296mm x 140mm x 190mm), the PC-Q09FN gives DIY computers builders the space to install the essential hardware for home theater applications. Lian Li's PC-Q09FN supports a slim optical disk drive and a 3.5” HDD that can easily be taken in and out using the included thumb screws with rubber suspensions to reduce vibrations. A removable 2.5” hard drive cage allows up to three SSDs to be installed in this mini-ITX HTPC.