Arctic MC001-BD Entertainment Center
Jan 8th, 2012 | By SimonThere haven’t been very many products in the market that has truly fired me up and got me as excited as the MC001-BD. Many companies have tried to make HTPC that are compact and quiet but I usually find that I can do better for less. The MC001-BD is probably the first where I wouldn’t be able to do that. With over ten years experience in system cooling they were able to engineer an Entertainment Center that was both compact and passively cooled. They refined the ECS TIGT to something you just can’t find in the aftermarket. Motherboards are generally square resulting in a very boxy unattractive and bulky case, the TIGT-IS is rectangular giving Arctic the profile they needed to fit everything in. The primarily components are fixed but with the barebone MC001 lets you pick out what optical drive you want, how much memory you need and what type of hard drive you prefer. While the MC001-BD is available for $599 without the TV tuner, buying the barebone and added your own 500gb hard drive, 2x2GB memory, 4x Blu-Ray optical drive and Windows 7 operating system puts the price tag over six bills. It’s an easy decision that unless you have spare parts around or don’t plan on running Windows the Out-of-Box route is the way to go.
Now that I’ve been beating the pricing bit around long enough when it comes down to performance the MC001-BD is impressive. The Intel D525 CPU combined with an ATI HD5430 GPU gives you enough power to run your tasks that you need. Some programs and games will definitely be slow but for all media playing purposes the MC001-BD is an excellent system for your home theater. Did I mention it is completely passively cooled? The MC001-BD get’s my pick for your next home theater.
- Advantages
- No fans!
- Slim and compact design
- 2x USB 3.0, 5x USB 2.0, Integrated WiFi & SD Card Reader built-in
- Barebone or Out-of-Box systems option available
- Intel Atom D525 and ATI HD5430 provide exception HTPC performance
- Disadvantages
- High gloss finish gets dirty easily
- Gamers will need more power
I’d like to thank Arctic for making this review possible.