Velocity Micro Intros HTPC, Gaming Rig ''Hybrid''
What do you get when you cram together a gaming rig and an HTPC? Take a guess.
Virginia-based Velocity Micro launched on Tuesday a hybrid PC that combines the best of a home theater rig and a PC gaming desktop. Starting at $1,899 USD, it's designed to "dominate" the living room offering 1080p gaming, media streaming, Cable Card functionality with DVR, Blue-ray playback and loads more.
Called the Raptor MultiPlex, it's built in a solid aluminum case and packed with premium grade components that are acoustically tuned and hand assembled just south of Washington D.C. Components include Core i5 and Core i7 "Ivy Bridge" processors, Nvidia GeForce GTX600 series graphics, Intel 520 Series SSD boot drives and more.
"Since our early days, Velocity Micro’s focus has been largely in two categories – powerful enthusiast desktops and stunning home theater PCs," said Randy Copeland, President and CEO of Velocity Micro. "With the Raptor MultiPlex, we’ve essentially brought those two categories together to create something really awe-inspiring. It was a natural progression for us and we think our customers are going to love it."
According to the key spec list, the hybrid rig features an Asus P8Z77-V Pro Motherboard with Thunderbolt, 16 GB of DDR3-2133 memory, digital TV tuners capable of up to 4 concurrent recordings, up to three 2 TB hard drives configured in RAID 5, high definition 9.1 Channel audio with S/PDIF out, a front panel VFD display with remote, an 850 watt Corsair power supply (Nvidia SLI certified) and Windows 8 Pro.
On the CPU front, the rig offers the 3.40 GHz Intel Core i5-3570K quad-core CPU with 6 MB of cache. For $140 more, customers can choose the 3.50 GHz Intel Core i7-3770K quad-core processor with 8 MB of cache. GPU offerings range from the 2 GB eVGA Nvidia GTX 660 GDDR5 card to the 2 GB eVGA Nvidia GTX 680 GDDR5 card (+$390). Cooling is provided by an Artic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro heatsink with an ultra-quiet fan and heat pipes.
"The Raptor MultiPlex is so much more than just a Home Theater PC," the company said. "This system is designed to be the most powerful living room PC on the market, capable of 1080p gaming, media streaming, Cable Card functionality with DVR, Blu ray playback, and so much more. Converge all of your home theater devices, gaming console, and gaming PC into this single remarkable, immensely powerful unit."
To customize the Raptor MultiPlex hybrid PC, head here.

Sometimes it just seems like system building companies are way out of touch with their products and customers.
For it to be HTPC it needs to be the size of an xbox / dvd player / cable box.
Again, I hate to be *that* guy, cause no one likes the downer, but if this is marketed towards gamers- PC gamers no less- how do they not think we'll just see this as a collection of parts? I see $1000 worth of parts and OS inside what I assume is a (too big for htpc uses) $300 case at most, and... I guess $600 worth of cable management?
Also, as a strange aside, any else notice how the prices don't really mesh within their own website? Same model TV tuners are different prices depending on the drop down menu, one says $180, one says $175, and it's not like the order of configuration matters.
why not a ps3?
*dont mind me i dont get it.
HTPCs, by most part, don't need ultra-top coolers, because they consume so little power and produce so little heat, that even stock coolers would be a satisfactory for most.
Heck a high-end laptop that would be an equivalent to this if not better could be cheaper as well.
Yep.
lolwut? the 330 is a cut down 520! The 320 was from the older generation. 335 is the newer version of the 330 based on smaller, denser NAND.
Ehh, my bad, I wasn't thinking there. Still, 520s are way too expensive for nearly no realistic consumer advantages over the 330s. I don't trust the 335s and Samsung 840s enough to recommend them.
A power supply doesn't draw its rated amount of power unless the hardware components require it to. This system couldn't get that PSU to pull anywhere near 850W even in the maximum configuration.