Tranquil PC iXL takes you up to 2.93GHz sans fans, has equally lofty price

We told you Intel's 32nm Clarkdales were power efficient, right? Well, Tranquil PC's slapped one of those chips, a 2.93GHz Core i3-530 to be precise, into its all-new iXL Power PC and now boasts a total system juice consumption of a measly 30W at idle. That means this HTPC can get away with living the quiet, fanless life, while HDMI, a trio of eSATA ports, a multicard reader, and a Blu-ray option flesh out a comprehensive package. Naively, we thought we'd throw the Blu-ray drive in with a 500GB hard disk to see what this might cost us, and were stricken with grief at the sight of a £742 ($1,100) price tag. Should four-digit entry fees not scare you off, you'll want to know that the iXL is shipping now. For everyone else, hit the source link for a bunch of glamor photos.

[elibi Posted Jun 21st 2010 7:16AM]

Can anyone please tell me if the new Apple Mini support 220-240 Volts? I am not in the US and I want to order one from Amazon.

[elibi Posted Jun 21st 2010 7:17AM]

Oh never mind I have just checked apple.com and yes!

Line voltage: 100-240V AC

[Ducman69 Posted Jun 21st 2010 7:30AM]

@elibi But... but... owwww owwwwwwwwwwwwww. *bangs head on table*

[GN1 Posted Jun 21st 2010 12:09PM]

@Ducman69

take it easy of that wall man some ppl just dont see anything past a half bitten apple. Frankly i wouldnt mind having either :p but if i have to pick at no cost to me, it's the i3 in a heartbeat. SFF builds are great, and apple did it in a stylish size. i could see a few more improvements from the tranquil case as well. wouldn't mind an OLED panel as standard. the power button placement is in no-man's land IMO, and the front ports should be behind a trap door panel for occasional usage. these are just nip picks.. maybe first impression meant more in SFF than we all think..

[elibi Posted Jun 21st 2010 7:31AM]

Well, I have just bought the i3 version, basic + bluray drive. I hope I can erase their ugly logo!

[prowlmedia Posted Jun 21st 2010 7:54AM]

@elibi I agree. The logo is damn ugly. I have their Squ-5h WHS and it's awesome but of kit. At least that is in a cupboard.

But I will be buying 3 mac mini's to hang off that for my new house.

I stupidly let windows update recently and it Killed my media centre setup. all the custom buttons - gone. most of the file playing ability - gone! Salvaged after some rollbacks and reinstalls.

The only slight problem... having to rip blueray/DVD's to the WHS first.

[Dummy00001 Posted Jun 21st 2010 7:59AM]

@elibi, black duct tape. Solved. I use it a lot to shut the annoying LEDs, manufacturers are so kin nowadays to stick in every possible hole.

[risknc Posted Jun 21st 2010 7:57AM]

Meh...
http://www.fit-pc.com/web/fit-pc2/fit-pc2i-specifications/
way better (smaller profile, HDMI, SSD (optional), cheaper, 8W to run, no fans, though I'll hand it to Tranquil on the 2.93GHz Processor)
we use these to run our robots ATM (i.e. CHARLI, DARWINs, Mini Hubo, ect.) (though we were tempted by Gumstix for a while there)

[plenaghan88 Posted Jun 21st 2010 8:00AM]

Hmm... maybe pair this up with that lenovo multimedia keyboard from earlier today and you've got a killer HTPC

[petehix Posted Jun 21st 2010 8:14AM]

I'm thinking that the DinoPC Mini Carnivore is better value for money
http://www.dinopc.com/shop/pc/Mini-Carnivore-HTPC-93p876.htm
Core i3-530, 4GB DDR3 RAM, ATI Radeon HD 5570, 320GB hard drive, and 2xUSB 3.0 (4xUSB 2.0 is also included). All for £549, and you can customise it a bit for a better processor and more (or less) hard drive space too.

[arkweld Posted Jun 21st 2010 8:14AM]

The fact they hide the graphic spec so well should be an indicator of how poor it is. I had to click through to the PDF spec sheet to find out.

For that price it shouldn't rely on Intel integrated. No wonder they can throw in an i5 and blu-ray.

[DesertBlizzard Posted Jun 21st 2010 9:21AM]

I'll just keep using my PS3 for this sort of thing.

[magadget Posted Jun 21st 2010 9:27AM]

The fanboiis on here are cringing heavily while reading that their favorite Windows 7 running plastic box (reminiscence of the Evo casing minus the springing screen) costs more than the mac mini.

[tmarks11 Posted Jun 21st 2010 9:47AM]

@magadget plastic box? where? The Tranquil has an aluminum enclosure, which has a heat sink integrated into one side of it for cooling. Actually a classy approach.

[Ducman69 Posted Jun 21st 2010 10:24AM]

@magadget Brushed aluminum. And its nearly $300 cheaper despite having a much better processor, fanless chassis, card riser for internal dual tuner, BluRay, and more.

Dropping the BluRay option saves £149 more, for a total of around $400 cheaper.

OWNED! :D

[magallanes Posted Jun 21st 2010 10:10AM]

is it that a coaxial connector?

[palehorse Posted Jun 21st 2010 11:28AM]

@magallanes
Yes. It's on an internal TV tuner card.

[ajwoodhouse Posted Jun 21st 2010 10:32AM]

this makes the mac mini look even more...crap

[MastahRiz Posted Jun 21st 2010 10:45AM]

Damn that's expensive, even without the blu-ray reader.

What I hate is that it's the only thing I can find capable of fully doing what I want. The Dell Zino practically has a heart attack trying to play a blu-ray rip.

[MastahRiz Posted Jun 21st 2010 10:49AM]

On second thought-- seeing as how you can buy the bare-bone system, it is actually worth a look. Not to mention a coupon code "ixL-earlybird" for 50 pounds less.

[KenNashua Posted Jun 21st 2010 10:54AM]

What I'd be interested in knowing is given all the necessary background-ware such as virus scanning, backups, etc. how often today's computers will run at idle and only consume those 30W of power. Anyone know of real-world studies on this?

[palehorse Posted Jun 21st 2010 11:31AM]

This system looks great, but I'm still waiting for the ASRock 3D Vision rig instead.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/25/asrock-vision-3d-htpc-sports-intel-core-processor-and-usb-3-but/

Still waiting on price and exact release date though... :(

[weinerschnitzelboy Posted Jun 21st 2010 11:55AM]

I wouldn't mind if it has a fan in the first place. As long as the fan runs about 2000-3000 rpm, you won't even hear it.