Thermaltake's DH 102 HTPC chassis rocks 7-inch touchscreen

We know, not everyone sits within touching distance of their HTPC, but tossing a seven-inch touch panel into such a chassis provides excellent bragging rights if nothing else. Thermaltake's DH 102 HTPC enclosure manages to include just that, along with a piano black mirror coating and aluminum front panel, wireless remote, front-mounted jog dial, USB 2.0 / FireWire ports, built-in Media LAB interface, and space for a number of internal hard drives. Unfortunately, pricing details have yet to be released, but if it ends up a bit too pricey for you, there's always the DH 101 that forgoes the snazzy (albeit potentially unnecessary) touchscreen and replaces it with a smaller LCD (or none at all).

[Via DarkVision Hardware]

[thethirdmoose @ Sep 30th 2007 5:00PM]

So... what are YOU compensating for
(I'll give you a hint - its something you can touch)

[Shane @ Sep 30th 2007 5:17PM]

It's probably about the same size as that touchscreen...

[UrsuSH @ Sep 30th 2007 5:23PM]

that lcd will just be distracting - even a two line scroll is

[dj-kenpo @ Sep 30th 2007 5:50PM]

touch screen remotes seem to be the way to go instead. if the way you're going is away from the 30+ inch screen at all...

[azayzel @ Sep 30th 2007 6:45PM]

These things have been around for a while. Not sure where they are getting the huge mark-up in cost, you could've bought am awesome HTPC case with a 4" screen last year for ~$200-250. Too bad once they became popular they either became unattainable or way over-priced. Granted this screen is 7", I highly doubt it should demand such a price, especially for such a useless feature. I'll relegate this to an impulse buy that will find itself sitting unused a week after you buy it; in other words, it looks cool but just becomes a distration. Why would you need a 7" screen when your PC is connected to a 60" monitor?

[Ian @ Sep 30th 2007 6:18PM]

Useless bling. All those buttons on the front, like those on the Zalman HD160, will rely on flaky software from some company that provides zero support.

All you need on the front of an HTPC case is an optical drive bay, power and rest. Maybe USB for driver updates. The rest is useless flash.

[Ian @ Sep 30th 2007 6:21PM]

Looking at the Thermaltake web site for this thing it appears as if they blew the design interally. 60mms fans? In an HTPC rig. Yeah, I want a blow dryer in my rack.

The HD160 whi still having a useless front display is a far superior design.

[darkstar @ Sep 30th 2007 6:34PM]

where can i find those slick LCD remote for Vista??? i saw them on engadget months ago but cant find them in any stores!

[goldcd @ Sep 30th 2007 6:55PM]

Or have a look at the Zalman case that's been out for aages.
http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/htpccases/hd160xt

[Kareem @ Sep 30th 2007 9:15PM]

Yeah, regardless of its usefulness, it'd be cool to have one of these.

[Joe @ Sep 30th 2007 9:21PM]

Actually, this case is one of the first to use the new iMon Touch and while I'm usually against the on the case touchscreens, it seems like a lot of work has gone into making this actually useful as opposed to just another cloned display. See the youtube videos iMon has posted:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OypkFGoZPuQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBOcdm0mB9c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYnfG8CjhUc

[dj-kenpo @ Sep 30th 2007 11:00PM]

ya cool, but what, you're going to get up and crouch in front of your tv to scroll through media?
that's comfortable...

[Joe @ Sep 30th 2007 9:22PM]

Also, the screen does turn the backlight off while movies are playing.

[noot @ Oct 1st 2007 10:50AM]

Wow, complete ripoff of the Silverstone LC18

[noot @ Oct 1st 2007 10:50AM]

Wow, complete ripoff of the Silverstone LC18

[Corey Close @ Oct 1st 2007 1:07PM]

These cases aren't nearly as useful in computers put near the tv as they are in media center servers put somewhere else in your house. You can avoid even hooking up a monitor to it if you need to do any work on it.