Zalman HD135 HTPC Enclosure

How does it perform?

Once hooked up to a monitor, a TV and surround sound system it was time to put the media centre through a thorough testing. Bearing in mind we are not testing the system, but the shell we are putting it in, we simply ran something to occupy both GPU and CPU to their peak: 3DMark06 and Prime95 running in tandem did the trick nicely.

We also thought a little hard drive workout might generate some more heat for the fans to work with, so we set a huge 35GB folder of music and video to transfer from the 120GB ATA to the 120GB RAID array.

This is a test we have run in the past for the HD160 review, so a comparison between them could be made.

The HD135 managed with the included Zalman options to stay quiet, the AFC option on the VFD set manually to 50% (inaudible) for the duration of the test. It's worth bearing in mind though, that anything above 50% was quite noticeable, so if you have particularly hot hardware you might have to look at adding a couple of fans elsewhere in the case and running them at a slower speed.

After the stress test we tested the HD135 in a home environment for about a week. It replaced a CD Player for music, a DVD Player for movies and Satellite receiver for the Freeview television channels. It was hooked up optically to a Yamaha DSP-A1 amplifier, a set of Mission Cinema 7 surround speakers and the image was displayed on a 32" High definition LCD display.

The objective was to see if it could remain unnoticed whilst carrying out its multimedia duties. Being a bit of a purist I must point out that the sound and image will only be as good as the hardware you put it through and the source you play it from. When building a system inside the HD135 remember that quality comes at a cost, be it monetary for good hardware, or storage space for lossless audio and video formats.

As per the HD160 test, the smaller model was flawless in execution, and the worries I had about the grommet-less sliding racks causing vibration were unfounded. The front power LED is not excessively bright either, an improvement against the HD160 that is much brighter and which also had a hard drive activity light which was uselessly flickering during playback. As for aesthetics, the system was positively welcomed by all who spent time admiring it.

Conclusions:

The HD135 is an incredible little case, with very little to fault about it. Zalman has once again lead the way in both design and functionality, leaving very little to be desired. The HD160, its older and bigger cousin, seems to have been the learning platform, as many improvements have been made to create the HD135. Saying this, it is worth considering that the HD135 is much pickier of the hardware you can put inside it, even if it is compatible with full size ATX. An unusually tall graphics card for example, with it's own quiet cooling solution is likely to foul the lid. So match it carefully with hardware, preferably the tested and proven Zalman items recommended for it, and you can go little wrong.

Value:

If you add the cost (at time of publication) of the ZM460-APS PSU £85, the CNPS8000 CPU cooler £33 and the VF900-CU GPU cooler £29 to the cost of the HD135 at £239 you are looking at a tremendous £368. On top of that of course you will have to add the cost of your hardware and software.

I hate to be drawn into a USA vs UK price comparison but in this case (bad pun not intended) the US retail price of $300 (£160) compared to the UK one of £240 ($467) is woefully too far apart for my liking. This might be partly due to the very strong UK Pound, but even at the usual 1.8 Dollar/Pound exchange rate, the difference is far too high.

Pros:

• Low profile but accepts normal size cards;
  
• Stylish;
  
• Quiet;
  
• Well Finished;
  
• Good software package.

Cons:

• Expensive;
  
• Can be restricting on hardware choice.

Final Thoughts...

We are torn tremendously when we see a product like this - we are left wondering if the included features justify such a high price tag. However, if you want a good quality, flawless performing, excellent looking HTPC case - and price is not much of a consideration - then you could probably find nothing that comes as close as the HD135. The only thing to stop the HD135 taking away an award with it like the HD160 is the price tag, especially considering how much it is available for in the USA. In fact, if we were reviewing at the US price it would undoubtedly be given the bit-tech award for excellence. Shame really.