Closer Look: Arctic MC001-BD

The Arctic MC001-BD is a custom-designed HTPC device that features Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Media Center and offers Blu-ray Disc playback. It's best to think of the Arctic MC001-BD as a fully-functional computer system, with the added bonus of Media Center functionality. Presently the Arctic MC001-BD is only avialabloe factory direct from Arctic for $600.

The Arctic MC001-BD Entertainment Center is very sleek and has an attractive design. The unit is half shiny black plastic and the other half is silver aluminum. It measures 65mm x 275mm x 161mm with the stand.

As you can see in the picture above the Arctic MC001-BD has vents along the top and on the upper portion of the black side to assist with the passive cooling.

There are vent slots in the upper portion of the silver side, as well as at the bottom, also to assist with the passive cooling (more on this in the next section). Arctic advises that you keep the unit on its stand to maintain optimum cooling.

As the above picture depicts, although it is difficult to see with the shiny black, the front of the MC001-BD has a 4x Blu-Ray drive on the lower right portion and SD card reader at the lower left with a microphone and headset port directly above it. There are two USB 3.0 ports directly above the headset port. The power button and activity LED are then above the two USB ports and the IR receiver is above the Blu-Ray drive.

The rear of the MC001-BD contains the wireless connectivity on the very bottom, next to the power connector. Above that are the five USB 2.0 ports, Ethernet RJ45, HDMI and VGA connectivity, Optical S/PDIF port and the 3.5mm audio I/O jack. All of which is surrounded by still more vents for cooling as you can see above.

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