Streacom Updates Passive HTPC Chassis Lineup with FC9 and FC10
by Ganesh T S on May 23, 2012 10:34 PM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- HTPC
The advent of CPUs with low TDPs (but having enough power to handle HTPC duties) has resulted in passive HTPCs becoming more and more popular. Streacom (started in 2010) designs and manufactures a range of products including active and passive cooled chassis for HTPC and general usage, home theater amplifiers, servers, HTPC accessories and embedded entertainment solutions. In addition, they also offer OEM/ODM services. In fact, Aleutia uses products from Streacom in some of their lineups.
Streacom's current HTPC chassis lineup includes the following models:
- FC5 WS Fanless Chassis (June 2011)
- F1C Chassis (June 2011)
- FC8 Fanless Chassis (July 2011)
- F7C Chassis (August 2011)
- FC5 OD Fanless Chassis (September 2011)
The passive nature of most of the above models (coupled with the targeting of the HTPC market) resulted in the fact that ATX-sized motherboards couldn't be supported. Last week, Streacom announced two passive chassis models, the FC9 and FC10. Both the models are fully aluminium and available in silver or black color. Streacom's website also lists a set of compatible Streacom-branded power supplies (Nano160, Nano200, Nano200XT and StreaFlex 250), details of which are yet to be fully made public. Streacom has internally tested processors with TDP of up to 120W, but strongly suggests that end users limit themselves to 95W TDP processors for builds involving the FC9 and FC10.
FC9 Fanless Chassis
| Streacom FC9 Passive Chassis Specifications | ||
| Motherboard Form Factors | Mini-ITX and Micro-ATX | |
| Drive Bays | Optical | 1x 5.25" (slim-line, slot-loading optical drive required) |
| Internal | 2x 3.5", 1x 2.5" | |
| Cooling | Fully Passive Heat Pipe Direct Touch Solution | |
| Expansion Slots | 3x Low Profile | |
| I/O Ports | Motherboard Dependent | |
| Weight | 4.9 kg | |
| Dimensions | 348 x 289 x 100mm (W x D x H) | |
| Price | MSRP $279 / 249 Euros | |
FC10 Fanless Chassis
| Streacom FC10 Passive Chassis Specifications | ||
| Motherboard Form Factors | Mini-ITX, Micro-ATX and Full ATX | |
| Drive Bays | Optical | 1x 5.25" (slim-line, slot-loading optical drive required) |
| Internal | 2x 3.5", 3x 2.5" | |
| Cooling | Fully Passive Heat Pipe Direct Touch Solution | |
| Expansion Slots | 2 x Full Height Expansion Slots (riser card required) | |
| I/O Ports | Motherboard Dependent / 2 x USB 3.0 on the side | |
| Weight | 5.4 kg | |
| Dimensions | 435 x 319 x 100mm (W x D x H) | |
| Price | MSRP $349 / 299 Euros | |
Readers can look forward to more coverage of passive HTPC hardware components. Feel free to comment about what other components you would use for a fully passive HTPC build.
Source: Streacom
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ganeshts - Thursday, May 24, 2012 - link
Streacom just mailed in with further clarifications.All the PSUs on the site listed as compatible are non-power brick models. They apparently mount on the chassis. We will know how exactly this works at Computex.
The 'underutilized' heat dissipation fins are apparently meant for GPU cooling. Nice touch there, I didn't think of that aspect. Again, we have to see how the execution goes.
jwilliams4200 - Thursday, May 24, 2012 - link
Hmmm, have they changed the design from the picture? Because in the back of the unit, I don't see any cutout for a rectangular 3-prong power cord. But there is a small, round hole that looks suspiciously like a feedthru for an external power brick coaxial power jack.jwilliams4200 - Thursday, May 24, 2012 - link
On second glance, the small circular hole looks to be in the center of a faint rectangle that might be the right size for a 3-prong power receptacle. It will be interesting to see a picture with an internal power supply installed.Nexing - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - link
It is a PC case with a fanless heatsink for the CPU integrated that actually weights over 5 kilos.If it would had also included a fanless PSU (which usually weight over 3 kilos), it would have been the dreamed fanless portable PC many of us has been dreaming on.
At 5 kgs and needing extra 3 kgs it is still far from being a "portable" solution for mobile needs.
The good thing is that manufacturers seem to realize what us buyers are asking for.
Why microATX or miniITX teamed wit fanless??? Only because looks minimal and noise won{t bother... households. This is mainly intended to consumer markets. And -eventually- will appeal to professionals (sound and video studios) the few that actually which don't require extra powerful CPUs (over 120w),
And so misses the wide professional markets that TODAY are needing a noiseless (fanless) powerful (micro-ATX and since recently able mini-ITX) but mobile solution, hopefully being rack-able.
This mobile PCs could be fit with a well chosen 95w CPU. I am thinking on the new 2 cores, 4 threads Ivy bridge's with high standard and Turbo boost frequencies, since most of the on-the-go professional Audio/video software suites tend to process large audio or video files using as much as 2 cores.
crisliv - Wednesday, June 13, 2012 - link
Well, seen in this picture, it seems indeed that the PSU is integrated and exposing a simple power cord plug (I hope the link will be ok otherwise copy paste):https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=3014411966...