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Tranquil slips 1.5in PC into hi-fi rack

By Barry Collins

Posted on 3 Jan 2012 at 09:05

Tranquil has unveiled a new media centre PC that is only 1.5in thick and designed to slip into a hi-fi stack.

The MMC-12 is passively cooled and emits "zero noise", even with a regular hard disk fitted, the company claims. And you may well need an additional hard disk, given that the base unit only ships with 80GB of storage. Indeed, Tranquil recommends the media centre is paired with its own network storage solution.

The media centre itself is hewn from a "single piece of aerospace grade aluminium", and includes a slot-loading DVD writer. The base configuration pairs a Core i3-2100T processor with 4GB of RAM, although Tranquil offers pre-installed upgrades to a Core i5 processor, Blu-ray drive and an additional 2.5in hard disk.

The device has two USB 3 and two USB 2 ports, an HDMI socket and a gigabit Ethernet port.

The unit has a maximum power consumption of only 19W, and Tranquil claims the working temperature of the passively cooled MMC-12 is only 46 degrees centigrade.

The base configuration costs £649 inc VAT and includes a three-year, return-to-base warranty.

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User comments

Lack of tuner

The lack of a pair of built in HD tuners is a real put off for me. The last thing I want is to use 3 USB ones and all the cabling thats required. Plus with no 802.11n Most will also noo a USB wifi card too.

It doesnt say anything about a build in MC Remote either (unless I'm missing it?)

These make it very much a deal breaker for me. Shame i'm on the hunt for an upgrade too.

By JStairmand on 3 Jan 2012

Wasted Opportunity

I'm with JStairmand on this - the lack of any tuners means this is a missed opportunity.

It's a shame as something is needed to breathe life into the Media Centre platform before Microsoft decide to drop it completely - and as a full time user of it since 2006, I would be extremely upset to lose it.

By Fraz_pro on 3 Jan 2012

+1

How can it be a Media centre without TV tuners? The link on Tranquil's website sends you off to Google prices of Hauppage USB tuner sticks. How naff is that? They can't even source them for you?

And if there really is no remote, someone at Tranquil needs their head examined. Aircraft grade aluminium my arse - function comes before form.

By Noghar on 3 Jan 2012

No TV tuners or remote? Like selling a car without engine or gearbox

By GlidemanUK on 3 Jan 2012

Sticks and stones

I am forced to agree that relying on USB tuners is a risky proposition. Apart from any other issue, I find quite a few USB Freeview tuners won't drive a screen at anything like HD resolution - they are if anything, optimised for tiddly Netbooks. Very low-fi.

By Steve_Cassidy on 3 Jan 2012

Sorry, what?

i£ CPU, 80GB HDD, DVD writer & 4GB RAM - for a 'mere' £649

If this was a desktop PC, would anyone stop laughing long enough to realise the salesman was serious?

Oh, but look how thin it is...

By greemble on 3 Jan 2012

Yay

"Tranquil slips 1.5in PC into hi-fi rack"

Although it does look nice and tempting I'd rather just make a Hi-Fi rack 'thingy' and slide in a laptop for a lot less cash. Maybe :)

By rhythm on 3 Jan 2012

I looked at media centre PCs

and decided to just get an 11.6" AMD netbook with an HDMI port. Then I stumbled across Raspberry Pi. For £22 I'll just gaffa tape that to the back of the TV!

By Mark_Thompson on 4 Jan 2012

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