CyberPowerPC announces aluminium micro-ATX Zeus HTPCs

by Mark Tyson on 10 July 2013, 09:45

Tags: CyberpowerPC, PC

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CyberPowerPC has launched a new range of passively cooled home theatre PC (HTPC) systems. Six systems have been unveiled, three configurations using AMD 'Richland' APUs and three using 'Haswell' Intel processors. These systems are passively cooled and an optional silence edition video card "gives you screaming performance without a peep of noise." As such, CyberPowerPC claim these systems combine "the essence of a sleek and stylish home theatre system with the power and performance of a gaming PC".

CyberPowerPC describe the new Zeus HTPC system as "the quintessential multi-purpose system that easily functions as a DVR, video game console, home theater computer, and DVD/Blu-Ray player". The systems employ the latest processors of your choice from either AMD or Intel and with the optional silent Radeon HD 7750 graphics card installed CyberPowerPC says you can "jump into the latest PC gaming titles at full HD and beautifully rendered graphics in full detail". For more information regarding the 3D capabilities of a passively cooled AMD HD 7750 take a peek at the HEXUS review of the Sapphire HD 7750 Ultimate.

Silence is silvery

What is more the Zeus HTPC can provide all this entertainment power in absolute silence, even under maximum system load. The aluminium chassis is the heatsink for the entire system, "the chassis utilizes a passively cooled heatsink technology in conjunction with the razor fins for maximum heat dissipation," says CyberPowerPC. The PC system measures 435 x 390 x 70mm (L×W×H). It would have been nice to be able to choose a black version of the case in the configuration options but it seems to be silver only.

Configuration options

The prices for Zeus HTPC systems start at $699 for the cheapest AMD based system, the Zeus TV Pro A100, which uses an A8-6400 APU with 8GB DDR3, a Gigabyte A75 motherboard, 8xDVDRW and a  1TB SATA3 7200RPM HDD. The most expensive system is the Zeus TV Pro I300 which is based around an Intel Core i7-4770K Processor on a MSI Z87 Motherboard with 16GB of RAM, an AMD HD 7750 1GB video card, 2TB HDD, 8X DVD and a TV-Tuner. This top of the range Haswell system costs $1,415 in the US.

All the systems come with 802.11n Wi-Fi capability, a media centre remote and a Logitech K400 wireless keyboard with built-in touchpad. Also all the systems have a three year warranty. You can read more about the configurations available, customise and purchase direct from CyberPowerPC here. The UK CyberPowerPC site hasn't been updated with the new Zeus HTPC systems at the time of writing.

HEXUS Forums :: 7 Comments

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Posted by 3dcandy - Wed 10 Jul 2013 10:06
Looks great but is too much for many people :-(
Posted by hoggson - Wed 10 Jul 2013 10:47
Am I right in thinking the first one doesn't come with a TV Tuner after reading this?
Posted by cjs150 - Wed 10 Jul 2013 10:51
The case is a standard Wesena case

Should be Blu-ray not DVD. Not convinced about mechanical HD, although for extra cost they will give you a 2TB HD as storage drive with a 128Gb or 256 Gb SSD as main drive.

The keyboard is too big. Maplin do a couple of combi mouse/keyboards about the size of an PS3 controller which is perfect (although build quality not ideal - real room for improvement there).

For an HTPC there is little need for a separate GPU, both Intel HD4000 and AMD equivalent IGPs are perfectly satisfactory. Some might prefer a discrete sound card as an alternative (which is an extra for Cyberpower).

The only OS option from Cyberpower is W7. From experience W8 works better for a HTPC although you will need to buy Blu-ray playing software. Couple it with either XBMC or WMC (but with My Movies add on or similar) and it is a very effective HTPC. (I am sure you can do the same with Linux but I have not tried that). When trying to control the screen from 8 ft away on the sofa, the w8 interface actually makes a great deal of sense.

Price looks a bit high. I suspect you could buy the components and build your own for slightly less
Posted by krazy_olie - Wed 10 Jul 2013 14:11
With a half decent gpu you could make some good use of Big sreen steam.
Ideal for console style gaming on a pc.

playing further away, on a tv you can probably afford to turn down some of the eye candy for a decent experience.
Posted by Erlenmeyer - Wed 10 Jul 2013 21:07
I have been trying to build something like that, but the fanless cases likes that really restrict what you can use and bump the price right up, im probably going to go with something slightly bigger but way cheaper.

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