Introduction:

With the new innovations and improvements made to integrated and stand alone graphics cards, the Home Theater PC market is busier than ever. The biggest changes have come in the last couple years with the release of GPUs capable of providing High Definition video content whether it be regular HD or Bluray content. While there were already video cards offering separate processors capable of this content, it's just been in the last year that we finally saw integrated GPUs on motherboards that improved the Micro-ATX market.

In any case, these new GPUs make it completely possible to save a lot of money if you want a HTPC capable of all of the HD content available as well as turning your large Plasma or LCD HDTV in to an impressive game and movie screen. The most expensive item facing the builder of such HTPCs is the type of Bluray drive to add to the system. Incidently, Bluray ROM drives can be found for as little as $120 while BR burners can reach $200 and up depending on the features.

There is also the cost of the BR media. BR writable discs are easily much more expensive than regular DVD RW media sometimes costing $25 for just two discs. Granted, they hold about 25GB of data each. But, in terms of BR data, they fill up pretty quick. Naturally, those wanting the ultimate BR solution are going to pay the price. If you consider how many BR movies are available now, you'd be burning movies for days and days.

Budget users might consider another alternative. An HD capable HTPC that can store all of your movies and house the cheaper BR ROM drive. One could spend more on the hard drives used to store the movies within the HTPC rather than worrying about writing BR content to discs. Many of the latest Micro-ATX and ATX motherboards support several SATA II drives making it possible to store Terabytes of movies.

The only thing left to think about is what kind of enclosure would be worthy of housing the new HTPC. Allow me to suggest one company that may have truly set the standard and received CES 2008 Awards for their best products: Moneual. We've had the pleasure of sampling and reviewing one of their most impressive HTPC enclosures, the Moncaso 932 Platinum, more than a year ago. It offered one great HTPC experience.

The only thing they could do to top it was get together with engineers and perfect the same base chassis especially in regards to the Moncaso software. Thus, I have the honor of presenting the Moncaso 972 Home Theater Enclosure offering many of the same features, plus refinements and updates as well as some price changes that should entice you.

Features & Specifications:

Style Is Now an Option

A state-of-the-art media center is entitled to an equally state-of-the-art Home Theater PC case. MonCaso HTPC cases come in an elegant full-aluminum chassis that exudes quality and style that complements, not clashes, with your living room aesthetic. With expandable storage space and full compatibility with all Windows Operating Systems, MonCaso HTPC cases are peerless in functionality, as well as in design.

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