Zalman HD160+ Home Theatre PC Cases

Zalman’s HD160+ home cinema case will change the way you think about living room media centre PCs forever! It features a built-in LCD with remote control receiver, and as you would expect, boasts full compatibility with Zalman’s award-winning range of PC noise reduction cooling products.

Ideal for Windows Media Center

The HD160+ is a home theatre PC case packed full of features. Every case is supplied with a liquid crystal display (LCD) and a remote control. There is also a volume control knob on the front of the case if you want to turn things down manually.

The HD160+ integrated LCD screen provides all types of media information

The supplied remote control is MCE2005 and Vista compatible

Traditionally, the problem with home theatre-style cases is that it has been difficult to get a LCD and IR receiver mounted internally so that they both use the same window on the front of the case, eliminating ugly “add-on” external IR receivers. Zalman have spared no expense in the design of the HD160+, providing a solution to this problem through their use of a custom-made PCB which mounts both the LCD and IR receiver.

Cooling and noise

When building a Home Theatre PC, cooling of the installed components is a very important consideration, as well as how much noise they produce. Zalman have addressed both these issue with some very clever design work!

The first thing you will notice is that the roof of the case has a fan grille that is designed to introduce cool air into the system directly over the CPU, which will help keep the CPU temperature to a minimum.

Image showing airflow direction around CPU

Cooler air is brought into the case to aid cooling the graphics card

There are also two grilles on the side of the case. The grille adjacent to the PSU is in a very useful position because when used in conjunction with a power supply which has a 120mm fan, it allows cold air to be taken into the PSU instead of it using the warmer air inside the case. This helps to keep the temperature of the PSU down which is a good idea when you consider that most quiet PSUs work on the basis of a temperature-controlled fan. We highly recommend Zalman’s Heatpipe-cooled PSU (except the 850 and 1000W PSUs, these are too long) because it is a very strong unit which uses a 120mm fan.

Airflow direction for cooling the power supply

Hard drive cooling is also possible due to the vents adjacent the HDD cage

The case has been designed so it is possible to install very quiet components without compromising on performance. This means it is possible to adequately cool a high end Home Theatre PC while keeping noise to an absolute minimum. As shown in the image below, airflow generated by the CNPS9500 is directed towards the two rear 80mm fans which expel the warm air straight out of the case, resulting in a lower internal ambient temperature.

Other Features

Image showing the front panel Volume/Mute knob, manufactured from pure aluminium for excellent ascetics

Behind the flap hides useful ports and space for a 3½” device, like a multimedia card reader

The HD160+ is compatible with most 5¼” optical drive for maximum compatibility

Both the ODD and HDD drive cages slid, making them easy to access

When it comes to selecting a suitable optical drive it is important to choose one that fits! It has come to our attention that not all optical drives will fit inside the HD160-PLUS. The issue lies with the bezel that attached to the front of the CD tray. Zalman have indicated that LG optical drives work well as does the Samsung SATA DVD Writer we currently stock, therefore we highly recommend one of these drives. Optical drives to avoid currently only include Pioneer.